Jul 162013
HP Officejet Pro 8500 All-in-one Printer
- Maximum Print Speed 35 ppm Black/34 ppm Color, Laser Quality Up to 15 ppm Black/Up to 11 ppm Color
- Built-in Ethernet Networking Printing
- 2 Line Text LCD Display
- 250-Sheet Paper Tray, 35-Sheet Automatic Document Feeder, Automatic Two-Sided Printing
- 64 MB Memory, 384 MHz Processor Speed, and Scan Resolution Up to 2400 x 4800 dpi
The HP Officejet Pro 8500 All-in-One offers impressive results at up to 50% lower color cost per page and using less energy than with laser printers. You’ll be able to print, copy, scan, and fax, plus cut your paper usage in half by printing on both sides of the page.
List Price: $ 307.00
Price: $ 424.00
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Comments on HP Officejet 8500a,
I have been looking for a networked color laser printer suitable for home and small office use for some time. Then I received an ad for this printer. I was convinced to try it because of the new ink technology, the relatively low cost of replacement ink cartridges and the duplex printing capability. So far I’ve been completely satisfied. It’s easily fast enough for my use. Print quality is high. It seems to have good color accuracy; I’ve printed a couple of photos on high quality photo paper and been quite pleased. It was a breeze to install (we are a Mac household). The scan and copy functions are easy to use. Duplex printing is slow but adequate for the times it is used. I’ve yet to have to replace a cartridge so I can’t speak to the cost per page of printing.
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|HP Ink Rip-Off, Unbelievably Bad Tech Support, Communication Issues, Some Design Improvements over Predecessors,
Note that ink for this printer will set you back One Hundred and fourteen dollars!!!
Before purchasing the Officejet 8500, be aware that there appears to be compatibility issues with the current drivers (as of 5/5/2009) and Windows XP. Basically, the user gets the following error: “The printer has not yet responded, but the Microsoft Office program may be able to proceed without printer information”. I have spent hours on the phone with their India-based tech support and with their chat technical support. Sadly, HP provides the worst technical support that I have ever experienced. The telephone reps barely speak English and the chat reps serve multiple customers at the same time, leading to long delays between their responses. Moreover, I have been cut off during chat sessions five times, which leads me to believe it is intentional as this always seems to happen when I attempt to corner them on difficult questions. Before getting cut off today (5/5/2009) the chat technical support rep acknowledged that there are known incompatibilities between the drivers and Windows XP. Presumably, this means the software was written for Vista.
Also be aware of the astronomical ink cartridge prices that will set you back half the cost of a new printer.
This is the third HP multifunction printer I have purchased. Historically, I have purchased top-of-the-line models from the HP Officejet line for my home office. Generally, I have been rather pleased and impressed with their ability to work for years with few paper jams, either in the printer or document feeder. My primary complaints with HP and these printers are twofold: 1) the ink prices are exorbitant (i.e. pay as you go) and 2) HP has atrocious tech support. The Officejet 8500 appears to have all-around better construction than the other HP Officejet multifunction printers I have owned. Yet it hasn’t been without problems.
Looking back at my other purchases, it is striking how much prices have come down. Yet HP continues to gouge its customers on ink with the four cartridges costing $[...]+ tax. The first Officejet (d155xi) worked almost flawlessly for three years. I finally decided to sell it when moving. The second Officejet (7310xi) worked extremely well until one day it would not power on. Apparently, something had gone wrong with its main processor. The printer was on a surge protector the entire time, so I have no idea why this happened. I do turn the surge protector off every day before going to work to save electricity as this severs vampire loads from the electrical system. Perhaps the on/off cycles were not good for the printer. After determining the 7310xi was beyond repair, I purchased an Officejet 8500 from HP direct. The printer appears to be well made, but it has problems with communicating with my notebook in addition to having issues with photo printing that have been not fully resolved.
The timeline of my Officejet purchases:
2002 – March Officejet d155xi (HP Direct) 800 + tax/shipping
2006 – March Officejet 7310xi (Sam’s Club) 368 + tax
2009 – April Officejet 8500 (HP Direct) 269 + tax/shipping -fifty buck trade-in rebate for 7310xi
The 8500 does not come with a USB cable, which was not an issue [at first] since I have so many surplus cables. Apparently, the 16ft cable I used with the 7310xi was not compatible, possibly because it may have been a USB 1.0 version, which I can’t determine. So I tried one of the dozen or so shorter USB cables I have, some of which were in fact USB 2.0. While I got the printer to work, I repeatedly get errors such as “The printer has not yet responded, but the Microsoft Office program may be able to proceed without printer information”. So, I purchased a new 16ft. Belkin USB 2.0. Unfortunately, I still get the same errors and freezing of the computer. I have not resolved the problem and don’t look forward to calling HP’s tech support. Their Indian support reps have the worst English I have ever had to deal with in a tech support setting. I do appreciate their new chat tech-support option, which allows the customer to select his skill level such as “novice” or “expert”. Yet, the chat sessions abruptly severed communication with me multiple times with a red warning message, “we are having technical problems, please call tech support”. What a ridiculous headache!
PRINTER DESIGN AND BUILD QUALITY
Despite HP’s less than acceptable tech support, HP’s engineers deserve credit for improving the design and build quality of their multifunction printers. Even though the previous printers never had a problem with broken paper trays or document feeders, these plastic pieces seemed extremely flimsy. The 8500 seems to be better constructed in that thicker, rigid plastic was used. Additionally, the parts that require interaction by the user, such as the receptacles for the ink cartridges, are much more accessible.
SPEED…
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|AweSome Printer,
In our small office we print over 5000 sheets a month and share the printer over a USB switch with 4 of us. We use it also for scanning and sending out customer documents. Speed for faxing and scanning was important as we often scan and fax 20 to 40 pgs.
The price per page was excellent due to the oversized ink cartridges printing 2 or 3 times the number of pages as we had previously obtained with other HP ink jets. For every day printing we have further cut printing costs by 75% by using refilled cartiridges from ebay. Overall the best color printer we have purchased in the last 4 years.
Only drawback that we have found is that for pdf scanning, a direct usb connection to a PC is required. Bottom line: Its got speed and the initial price is higher, but with much lower ink costs, payback is in a couple of months.
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