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10 stars
Fast, Painless Set-up. HP reputation.
by dougbert1964 on December 15, 2011
Pros: HP quality. Very good color. Excellent set-up routine. ePrint from anywhere utility. Excellent network connectivity. Good feature/price ratio. Print speed is very, very fast.
Cons: Instruction set is minimal. Intuitive for those with prior IT background, but lacking for a casual user. However, simply turning printer ON and using touchscreen interface makes up for it. ePrint must be configured from the included DVD.
Summary: This printer replaced an old B+W Laser. I unpacked, read the minimal instructions, configured and connected this printer to my wired home network in ~30 mintues. I did not ...
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Summary: This printer replaced an old B+W Laser. I unpacked, read the minimal instructions, configured and connected this printer to my wired home network in ~30 mintues. I did not configure faxing, which would add time. The imbedded webserver picked up an IP address and downloaded the latest updates and installed with no interaction on my part. By far, the easiest network printer set-up I have encountered in years. The included DVD contained the the WIN7 driver I needed, but I had to visit hp.com for a Mac X Lion driver... but no issues encountered with either install... typical for HP in my experience. All necessary configuration for printing and scanning installed from the DVD. HP includes some optional non-required bloatware (typical for HP in my experience), which can be deselected from the install. This HP printer is one of a few that includes the ePrint option (must be configured from the DVD set-up routine) which allows printing from any device. Simply follow the easy set-up for ePrint and assign the printer an email address. Send your print jobs to the email address and viola, print out is waiting for you! Very slick! This appears to be a well-constructed, well-thoughtout printer. I am looking forward to years of service from it.
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2 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.
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10 stars
Quick and painless setup!!!
by ady2k2000 on March 18, 2012
Pros: Easy setup, setting ePrint feature straight from the printer and customize the ePrint account at the hp website all without using the DVD software, fast printing and excellent network connectivity.
Cons: Manual sheet feeder for once in a while odd shape and size paper.
1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
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2 stars
Could not copy from second tray; bad duplex feed issue.
by bdsolomon on May 27, 2012
Pros: Price, specs looked good on paper (no pun intended).
Cons: In the store:
* Could not get it to copy/feed from second tray.
* Tried duplex copy, it half fed a second sheet.
Summary: I'm really surprised to not see any mention of the second tray. MAYBE all the reviews are about the Plus, not the Premium. Other than the extra ink (and ...
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Summary: I'm really surprised to not see any mention of the second tray. MAYBE all the reviews are about the Plus, not the Premium. Other than the extra ink (and paper), the second tray is really the difference between the two -- you'd think it would be an important factor.
I really wanted to get this as an extra printer, but I read bad things about the second tray. Also I have an original 8500 Premium and it doesn't always feed from the second tray. So I went to Staples to test and maybe buy it.
I set the copy tray to be #2, put some paper in the second tray and left the first tray empty -- it told me that it was out of paper. (NOT ONLY did I select the second tray, I think I also set it to use both trays as needed. Not sure, it's been a while.)
A Staples employee came over to help. He put paper in the first tray... I said that wouldn't prove anything, that I wanted to see printing from tray 2. I still don't understand why he did that. In any case, I then tried to print duplex. That did it. There was paper in both trays, I fed... I think two originals in the ADF copying 1==>2 sided. The front printed OK, then when it printed on the back I heard it feeding in a new page. Well, not quite. It got half of the second page on the back of the original sheet, and half on a new sheet. I said "thank you, good-bye".
Maybe I need to wait for the HP8600A. When I got my 8500 Premium I had a serious blank paper feed issue -- it came in at an angle and the edges would tear. Got that at Staples. HP said it was an issue with some units, would've sent a replacement (didn't realize at the time it would've been a refurb), but Staples said they'd replace it. The replacement worked. When I bought an HP8500A Premium for my sister (another Staples), the person acknowledged that issue with 8500 and said it was fixed in 8500A. MAYBE they'll fix the paper feed issues with 8600 with an 8600A.
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2 stars
Won't feed photo paper.
by ChrisHolme on May 24, 2012
Pros: Quiet, easy to use.
Cons: Won't do what is is supposed to.
Summary: I tried 3 different brand photo papers including HP and NONE of them will feed. I search the forums and found that this is a common problem. It isn't ...
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Summary: I tried 3 different brand photo papers including HP and NONE of them will feed. I search the forums and found that this is a common problem. It isn't a firmware issue or a software issue. It seems like the back of the photo paper is too smooth for the rollers.
I have had it for 3 days and will likely take it back unless HP has a fix soon.
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6 stars
Love/Hate Relationship.Great hardware/pathetic software
by rfeiner on April 19, 2012
Pros: Fast. Excellent print quality even at normal/draft settings. Great value with individual high capacity XL cartridges. Double trays work great as long as you remember to set tray 2 as default for paper/tray 1 for envelopes. Print from ipad!
Cons: If you run exclusively XP, forget this printer. Well documented problem with dropping wired network connection after several hours. Can't print mirror image. Quirky print driver interface.
Summary: If I could, I would give hardware 7 stars and software a minus 3. Outstanding hardware capability and value offset by frustrating software implementation.
There is a lot to like ...
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Summary: If I could, I would give hardware 7 stars and software a minus 3. Outstanding hardware capability and value offset by frustrating software implementation.
There is a lot to like about this printer. In my graphics business, I run it on a network shared by three computers. For the money, its hard to believe there are this many features. Nice color accuracy, excellent print quality, much better than our Kodak and Brother multifunction devices. Much better ink economy with XL cartridges. Even the setup cartridges lasted a long time. Average scan quality and nice to have legal size scanner. Decent copier but sometimes scanner has trouble compensating for light gradients which appear washed out and off-color. Nice touchscreen, but I mostly print and scan so I don't dig into the menus all that much.
Paper Handling- I read other reviews citing problems with tray 2 setup and printing. These must have been fixed with firmware upgrade because I have had good luck printing envelopes, labels, and photo paper from tray 1 and plain paper from tray 2. Doc feeder works well. Despite all of the other features HP built-in, lack of a bypass tray seems like an oversight on a printer geared for office production.
Print driver/firmware - Can't vouch for fax as we use scan/email, a nicely integrated feature as long as you are not using XP; you have to disable as a workaround to avoid dropping from network. HP refuses to address this well documented issue - shame on HP. You get the idea that whoever designed the software has never USED software. One example; you have to go to the shopping section to enter the maintenence menu! Another example, the 'workaround' for the communication problem is to disable scan to PC and change an ink alert setting. However, you cannot save the ink alert setting, it returns to default setting at each restart. A third example - there is no way to print mirror images. Even the most basic compeitive printers offer that feature. Just read the support blogs and you realize that HP sources their support overseas and the communication barrier apparently extends to software design.
Apple air print works great. Up and running in a few minutes. HP e-print is another interesting feature although I have not tried it yet. I can see the value of remote printing, but I hope it's not as poorly implemented as the rest of their software.
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5 stars
a good choice, if you just do documents
by greemman on March 22, 2012
Pros: The auto feed for copying documents does work well, and doc printing is very good.
Cons: Switching paper trays did not seem to work. Photos smudged on glossy papers; you need the new HP Advanced photo papers. Double sided printing takes a very knowledgeable HP tech to help configure
Summary: I could never get the printer to switch from using one paper tray to the other. Opening a tray 1 also requires fidgeting the paper under the paper holder above ...
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Summary: I could never get the printer to switch from using one paper tray to the other. Opening a tray 1 also requires fidgeting the paper under the paper holder above it.
Photo printing is only fair unless you use the new "Advanced" papers from HP--on premium glossy they smudge. This is not stated anywhere; an informed HP tech told me (reportedly based on the use of new inks). Even then photos are a little dull and lacking detail. Okay, it is not a Photosmart, but why not build the new Officejet 8600 for better photo results too?
COPYING one sided docs to two sided docs works fine and with neat auto feed. The biggest problem is getting the double sided PRINTING to work, with MAC OS 10.6.8. and MS Word 2011. After three techs, a supervisor told me. You have to open Text Edit, use the File to select Print and Preset it by writing in MS Word and then select Two-sided. Then open Word and you should see the option for two-sided PRINTING. There are no instructions for this, and three techs were unable to help. The memo may go out.
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0 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
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