However, the story would be incomplete without addressing its well-known temperament. The 4645 was slow. A typical black-and-white text page took about 8 to 10 seconds to emerge. A full-page color graphic could take over 40 seconds. In an era of laser-jet speed, this required patience.
Looking back, the 4645 was a translator. It took the expensive, frustrating reality of inkjet printing and translated it into something affordable and functional. It wasn't the fastest, and it wasn't the prettiest, but for thousands of families and home businesses, it was the first printer that didn't feel like a scam. It just felt like a tool—a slow, sturdy, ink-sipping workhorse that asked for little more than a fresh set of $15 cartridges every six months. hp deskjet ink advantage 4645
In the mid-2010s, the home printer market was crowded with two kinds of devices: the dirt-cheap printers that bled you dry on cartridges, and the expensive office machines that felt like overkill for a family. Into that gap stepped a curious, boxy device with a distinctive charcoal-and-white shell: the HP Deskjet Ink Advantage 4645. It wasn’t trying to win a beauty contest. It was trying to win the war on cost-per-page. The "Ink Advantage" Promise The story of the 4645 begins with its name. "Ink Advantage" wasn't just a marketing tagline; it was a fundamental design philosophy. Traditional printers often ship with “starter” cartridges that run out after 150 pages. The 4645, however, was engineered to use high-yield cartridges (typically the HP 680 series) that could churn out nearly double the pages for only a slightly higher upfront cost. However, the story would be incomplete without addressing
More frustrating was its relationship with Wi-Fi. Setting up the 4645 on a home network was a rite of passage. Users often described the process—navigating menus to run a wireless setup wizard, typing in a WPA key using only arrow buttons—as “character building.” Once connected, it was stable, but the initial handshake could test one’s resolve. The HP Deskjet Ink Advantage 4645 was eventually discontinued, replaced by sleeker, app-driven models with touchscreens and mobile printing. But its legacy endures in HP’s current “Neverstop” and “Ink Tank” systems. A full-page color graphic could take over 40 seconds
And in the history of home printing, that is a happy ending.