- Print plain paper documents that resist water and fading using pigment inks.
- Increase your productivity with automatic two-sided printing.
- Create professional-quality color prints
- Lower cost per page
- Individual Color Cartridge
This goes well beyond even those features. It has automatic two-sided printing and the Premium model includes a second paper tray. I had a paper jam, possibly due to having an almost empty paper tray, and the OfficeJet provided visual prompts for clearing the jam on its screen, just like the expensive machines at work. It is truly office quality.
What is also impressive is the low power requirements for this printer. Using a wattmeter, I measured the operating (9W for downloading a printer app, 28W for printing), idle (6.8W), and power saving (3.6W) modes. Compare this with a Canon MF5770 laser AIO operating (500W peak, which I measured twice because I could not believe it was that high), idle (20.6W), and energy saving (14.0W) modes. The OfficeJet also started and completed printing much sooner than the MF5770, which took minutes to warm up.
The Canon has done its job reasonably well. I particularly like the scan to PDF feature and used it often. My wife used the networking capability for printing. This OfficeJet takes that to another level. My only setup issue was trying to get the USB and Ethernet connections working. I should have gone straight to WiFi. Unlike the MF5770, this printer can perform all its functions through a WiFi connection. The wireless setup was as simple as possible: just specify the (hidden) network and enter the key. It did the rest.
I was unaware about ePrint and printer apps. Once I learned about them, I became excited and tried them out. They work well on the OfficeJet. With ePrint, I can send prints from anywhere (well, that is on my approved contact list) using my printer''s email address. The printer apps are even better. I printed some games and activities for my children, made some notebook and music paper, and was trying to find even more apps! The only bad part is some apps are not yet available for this model. HP has an ePrint and printer app forum and I am hoping more printer apps are forthcoming.
[16.SEP.11] Added:
This printer is still going strong with no issues. I recently needed to print passport pictures and my Epson R2400 was acting up. Short on time, I tried the 8500A with cheap photo paper. The results were actually quite good--good enough to be accepted and on our passports.
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I received this printer from Amazon on 12/16/2010 and the box was a little beat up on one side but nothing in the box was damaged. The initial setup was easy and the printer looks great but it went down hill after that. It makes many noises when powering up, just FYI! The ePrint function would not work and finally I had to get tech support involved to try and resolve the issue. After about 45 minutes of checking this and that, it was finally determined by the tech (which was in India, come on HP give some Americans jobs!) that the problem was with HP''s ePrint server. I was told to try again in 24 hours and see if the server was back up. I finally got that working after 8 days but I had another issue, and this is the one that was the worst. If I had to live without ePrint, so be it. But I can''t live with lines in my printouts. I had horizontal lines in every page I tried to print or if I made copies. I did the clean printheads, align printheads, calibrate linefeed, over and over again. I would print the Quality Report and it would still show lines. I removed the ink cartridges and printheads, power off with button held in and power cord unplugged from printer, checked HP''s website for diagnosing the problem and they recommended replacing the printheads after doing all that I had done. Okay, this is a NEW printer and I have to replace the printheads already? Are you kidding me? I am not going to spend another $100 plus to replace the printheads. So, today I finally call HP support because enough was enough and again I get a guy in India. Nice guy and I explained everything that I had done already to this point and he had me try a few other things but it didn''t work. It was determined that the printer has a hardware issue. So, HP is going to send me a REFURBISHED printer at no cost to me provided I get the current one sent back within three days and HP must receive it within 15 days or I get charged for a NEW one??? I guess I could of sent this back to Amazon but then I would have been charged shipping charges and it is an opened product and most of the ink is already used. I don''t know what the charges would of been but so be it and I need a printer. If the refurbished one doesn''t work, then they will have to send me another one until I get one that works without problems...so, maybe I will end up with a new one after all.Anyway, the printer is fast, makes fast copies, and the scanner is fast. I don''t use the fax, so I don''t know how well that works. I like the touch screen but I do wish that HP had put an arm for support on the scanner/copy lid because it doesn''t have one. You have to be careful with that! Making copies with front and back is pretty quick, quicker than I thought it would be. It''s not a bad printer but HP needs to get the bugs worked out. For those of you who have had no problems with your printer, be thankful. For me, this is a learning experience and this is also my first HP printer. I have always hated their printers and thought they were junk because of places where I worked they had HP printers and they were always breaking down. I have either had Canon or Epson printers but neither company had a printer that had these capabilities. The ePrint is a very nice feature. It''s nice to be at work and be able to print something to this printer while I am still at work.
Would I recommend this printer? Yes, but with hesitation. If Canon, or even Epson, had a printer that had these capabilities, I would have most certainly bought on of those, especially the Canon. I have had three Canon printers and one Epson and I only had to have one Canon repaired and it was still under warranty. I guess the more functions the printer has the more that can go wrong.
I will try to update this when I get the refurbished printer because I would like to let you know the continuing story. So, until next time....
Update...
I got my NEW printer, not REFURBISED, on 1/6/2011 and it works as it is suppose to work. This printer is much quieter, no lines in the printouts. The ink consumption is low and printouts look good. Now I can give it 4 stars but the reason I don''t give it 5 stars is because the scanner/copier lid does not have a support arm. If you are doing lots of photos, then this is not the printer you want. I do recommend it for printing webpages, documents, spreadsheets and any other general type printing. The best thing about it is it''s wireless and the ePrint on this printer worked the first time. Setup is easy and now I have a printer that works!
I sent the bad printer back on 1/8/2011 and HP received it today. Thanks HP for the service and Amazon for the low price!
Read Best Reviews of HP Officejet Pro 8500A Premium Wireless e-All-in-One (CM758A#B1H) Here
I have only had this printer a few days, and all I can say is "WOW!" First a bit about purchasing from Amazon.com: It''s over $100 cheaper than at local office supply stores here (I saved $160 including tax), Amazon''s service and delivery are A-1, and the printer arrived in great condition.Now about the printer: I''ve never had such a nice printer. In draft mode, it prints about 35 ppm, and the pages are very legible. Color copies are beautiful. For a home based business or even a small business, you can print your marketing materials on this and they will look professionally done. The touch screen is great, the set-up was basically plug and play. The fact that it takes two-sided copies for faxing, copying and scanning saves so much time.
One thing that''s lacking: I wish it came with a complete instruction manual, instead of just the fax manual, though.
I love this printer! You should buy one -from Amazon.com!
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I operate a small office and the HP 8500 all-in-one printer is the fourth HP printer which I have owned, along with a couple of Epson printers and a couple of Canon printers. By volume, we use about 1/4 of a ream of paper per week. In a broad description, the Epson printers are superior in print quality, but require the owner''s manual to be at hand to determine what the problem is when one of the indicator lights starts flashing.I have been an HP fan but this printer has changed all that.
Please believe the other negatives mentioned in the reviews. They will all add up to a serous dissatisfaction with this printer.
The challenges with this printer are:
* It will frequently stop in the middle of a print job to check itself. This can take from 60 seconds to a few minutes. This occurs about twice per day. If you are printing a large document, say 50 pages or more, plan on this delay happening at least once and perhaps twice during the print job. When it is printing it is fast, but the overall throughput is greatly reduced by these delays.
* It will error out (all the lights start flashing) and you must power off the printer to reboot. This occurs about once per week and can even happen in the middle of a print job.
* It cleans the print heads far too frequently and can run out of ink (excess consumption) in the middle of the process.
* Like most of today''s printers, it will not use all of the ink in the cartridge before it stops printing until you replace the cartridge.
* When connected wirelessly to a computer it will frequently take itself off-line. It will then refuse to print until several documents have been sent to the printer queue and it decides it is time to reconnect.
* HP''s auto-load software will "crapify" your computer. It is not content with simply being a printer/scanner peripheral, it wants to become part of the operating system. It installs several programs (Windows) which run in the background and slow down the entire system. About 2 times per week, one of the HP Pinter Monitoring programs errors out and must be closed out. Interestingly, this seems to have no effect on the operation of the printer who knows why it is there.
This machine, when it is not doing it''s own thing, is fast and produces good (not great) document quality and poor photo quality. The scanner is excellent, but about 5% of the time the scanner software will error out in the middle of a scan and require the software to be re-launched.
Hopefully HP will correct these programming issues in future models, but the value and performance of the 8500 series is greatly reduced because of them.
>Make certain, as other reviews have correctly noted, that if you want ''all'' the bells and whistles of the HP 8500A, get the ''Premium'' edition, not the Standard or the Plus edition. Other reviews cover the differences better than I want to spend the time in doing so.
>Take a friend with you. The box this thing comes in is HUGE. And awkward. It''s not terribly heavy (though it easily goes 35-40 pounds in the box) but the box is a testament to big, awkward and the carry handles are ''offset'' so there really isn''t an easy way to carry this thing home unless you have space in the car and a basketball players arm spread.
>While not occupying really more of a footprint than any other AIO printer, this one with the second paper tray is very tall. So give yourself plenty of room on where you plan to place it.
>Shame, shame and another shame on HP for giving you only a simple ''Get Started diagram'' (which isn''t too bad but covers ONLY how to get started ONLY). And a fax book. They note that the manuals and such are installed during installation but come on; how hard can it be to include a printed manual for the darned thing?
>You''ll first unpack all of the shipping stuff and there is a TON of it. Foam packing, tape, paper, more tape, and tons of that static cling stuff. The pile after you are done will amaze you. And you''ll keep on finding more even after it''s assembled. I''m staggered by how much protective stuff is on this printer but say that in a good way...better to be safe than damaged. But it shows up EVERYWHERE. Allow 15 minutes just to find the shipping protection!
>The initial calibration is mind numbingly long...20 minutes. And you cannot make it shorter either.
>You''ll basically do the following (in order): Arrive home, unpack everything, take off all shipping protection, install the rear paper guide, install the bottom second feeder, install the print heads and then the ink tanks. Then power it up and WAIT for calibration.
>While it''s calibrating, you hook up a USB cable to the printer and install the MAC software. Straight-forward and no issues there (thank you HP for Mac support!). The Mac OS/X software will install before the printer finishes calibrating but only by about 5 minutes.
>You''ll be asked when everything is done calibrating and software installed if you want to run it wirelessly. Very easy here again, it will recognize your wireless network and encryption type. All you do is enter a password.
>Another SHAME for HP because at this point you''re done with the installation. But will you have the Internet-enabled APPS working? Nope. Will you have the ability to e-print your iPhone''s emails yet? Nope. At this point, I guess HP is figuring you''re finished with the installation but you''re not. You''ll need to do the following (at least this is what worked like a charm for me):
1--Make certain everything is finished. At this point, you WILL have the printer speaking to your Mac network, wirelessly (and wired if you chose that) via Bonjour. Eject the HP software installation disk.
2--Turn OFF the printer. Turn it back ON. At this point, mine went and connected to my wireless network and found an UPDATE and asked me if I wanted to apply it. I chose YES. After I did this, I had new icons on the printer panel, including those needed to install the APPS and other stuff necessary to e-print.
3--Go to your Mac and click the HP Utility icon which should have been installed on your dock. From it you can do all the e-print setup, HP Marketsplash stuff (very rudimentary but some like it) and other setup stuff you couldn''t do when the printer was just being installed.
E-print from my iPhone was my entire reason for buying this printer. I just needed a quick way to print emails from my phone and this thing works like a charm. All it does is forward your email to the printer''s internal email but it works fantastic.
I gave the printer, overall, three stars because it''s really a four star product with a two star (at BEST) setup routine. Windows users may get better mileage on the install but I just outlined EXACTLY what I had to do on a Mac to get it running. It''s stable, fairly quick, slightly noisy, BIG but it does work. The APPS are snoozers, far less than you can do on an iPhone, but the two sided copying and scanning plus the ability to email and print from the iPhone make it worthwhile, at least in my opinion.
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