TechProbe

So, this was my final week assessing the Hewlett-Packard Officejet Pro 8600.

This printer has been a good all-round product. Right from the set-up, which was very easy, the printer has performed well. A printer that does not require constant attention is a good printer.

The 8600 is also a very feature-rich printer. With printing, scanning and copying, the functions are well thought out, and as simple as possible to use.

The "scan to network folder or PC" is a breeze. "Scan to memory stick" is simple, and printing from a memory stick is really easy. You can also select multiple pictures to print, as well as being able to decide how many to print per page. And, all this can be done from the printer's touch display. In fact, to print things, you don't really need a computer, at all.

The 8600's sheet feeder works well for scanning. When scanning individual items, these can still be collated as one file, which is a good feature.

The ePrint functionality is also very useful when wanting to print direct from a mobile phone. This function was very easy to set up, both on the printer and on the phone. The remote printing works very well, ie, sending an item to print via email. The only thing, we wonder, is why you would want to do this. The other puzzling feature is the ability to print dinner recipes and news items from the internet, directly from the printer's display, without having to use a computer.

This is an ideal multi-function printer for the small or medium enterprise. It easily rivals the functionality of some of the larger multi-function devices, bringing the same power to a small business, at a lower cost, which is a good thing. Now there is no reason not to produce quality documents. The one thing, we would say, is to use good-quality paper for promotional material. Perhaps 100gsm paper, especially if printing anything that has a lot of block colours, as the amount of ink required could wrinkle thinner paper.

Using a mix of phones, PCs and different operating systems, there has not been any instances of not being able to print. The provision of Linux drivers gets a big tick from us.

Overall, we at Proaxiom would rate the Officejet Pro 8600 a nine out of 10. We have marked it down by one point because of:

• Lack of a hinge damper on the lid

• No place to manually feed paper

• Lack of a bit of a handle for lifting the lid.

On the plus side, the 8600:

• Is quiet

• Produces high-quality print

• Is speedy, including first page print time

• Is easy to set up

• Is easy to use

• Has numerous options for printing and scanning

• Is energy efficient.

We were expecting a quality product, as it was from HP; and we were right.

A highly recommended multi-function printer.

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In my overall experience with the HP Officejet Pro 8600, I found it to be a score of nine out 10. I found it to be very useful in my business. The printer was large, which in my opinion was not all a bad thing, but I did need room to put it somewhere. I found it to be very economical in ink, paper and saving money on electricity. I did, however, like the large capacity of the paper tray, and there was also the clever ideas of the HP printer having the touchscreen animation for a help guide if needed, as well as other functions, such as HP Digital Filing for multiple users over a network, where you could touch a button on the printer control panel and either scan documents directly to a computer folder on your network or share them through an email attachment or a fax document. I could then save them on a folder, which I could then store or share through email and fax anywhere while I was working away from my office.

HP ePrint

I liked the feature of HP ePrint that allowed me to print at any time to any location from a mobile phone, and that I could have my own email address. And it had the capability of the SD memory cards, which was very handy to have.

Printer Apps

The Printer Apps function was clever, but I did not feel that I would need to use it that much, unless there was something specific that I was looking for or needed, but it was still handy to have.

Faxes

I used this facility quite a lot in my business, and I found that I could send my faxes in black and white or colour. I liked that I could send a fax manually from the phone, which then enabled me to talk before I could send the fax; and I could send the fax either from the automatic document feeder or from the scanner glass; and, if the fax I was receiving was too large, it would automatically reduce the size for me; and I could have all of my faxes in memory, in case I required or lost a document; and I could keep track of my fax by a report, which to me was great to have in our office.

Print quality

This was great, as long as I used the correct paper for the photo, and that it was not too thick, but just the right size to go through the printer without getting stuck. I compared my other printer to the HP, and I would have to say that the quality of colour was better with the HP comparison with my other printers.

Scanning

This feature, I used quite a lot, and having to be able to scan and to choose how I wanted to send my document — by email, memory device or computer — was a big plus for me. Everything that I did, I could not find anything hard, and it was very quick and simple.

As a business, and having the opportunity to use the HP Officejet Pro 8600 for four weeks, I would recommend it to anyone who is in business and requires the facilities that it has. It is a great printer to have, and is great for any business, small or large.

Great idea, HP; keep up the good work!

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I've now had this printer for four weeks, and have been very happy with all it can do — and am still to use all of its functions to their full capability. As with most small businesses, you tend to use less gadgets just to get the job done, and that has been the same for me. Getting used to the gadgets and how to use them will just take time.

Having said that, I've taken to "faxing to email" and the ePrint facilities with great gusto, and the problems I experienced earlier seem to have dissolved (I've put it down to teething problems on my part). These two functions I am using more and more, and have now come to rely on them. Earlier, I mentioned that I couldn't see a viable use for either; boy, was I wrong.

All aspects of this printer are easy to set up and use, although I'm still coming to terms with the apps, some of which I find interesting, and others a non-entity, although my kids still find this an acceptable pastime.

Photo printing was great. Almost like the real thing. Increasing the dpi and printing on appropriate paper made them very acceptable and easily duplicatable if a number of copies were required. I don't know what the price per photo is, but at least you don't have to go to the shop and get them printed there. Whether or not they fade with time is yet to be determined, although you can then print another one too easily.

One of the differences between the 8500 and the 8600 is the position of the ink cartridges. In the 8500, you opened a dedicated door and changed the cartridges as needed (solid feel and little chance of breakage); in this printer, you open the main printer door and the cartridges are revealed within the body of the printer, much like the cheaper inkjets I've used in the past. It's a much flimsier operation, and something that could break if handled without due care, although I don't seem to be using as much ink as before, so maybe it's not a big deal.

The touchscreen is not as responsive as I would have thought, and it needs to be touched a number of times before the function you want registers. This I found to be a little irritating, until I got used to it and learned just where you need to place your finger in order for it to register. Sometimes a little more pressure applied helps, also. The information available on the touchscreen is wonderful in comparison to other printers I've used before. Eg, your ink levels inquiry is available as a general info screen or as an individual cartridge screen, which you can scroll through.

The scroll function is quite good, and the problems I had earlier trying to find stuff was a minor glitch, which, when you think about it, is only reasonable when playing with a new product. Most of the functions that you need are on the front screen(s) and those that need further research are usually in the first place you look behind those.

The booklet feature is fantastic. It's double sided and resizes to place four pages onto one A4 sheet, making it an A5 booklet. It collates correctly, so that the pages print, so that when you pick it up from the printer, you fold or cut it down the centre, throw a staple through it and voila: you have a book correctly paged. Because I tend to download a lot of paraphernalia as reference material for my clients' products, I found this an invaluable asset, and I believe I used a third less paper than normal just through this application alone. Three mouse clicks and it's done. A big thumbs up from me.

Overall, I've found this printer to meet all of my needs, and it exceeded my expectations on more than one occasion. This is the second HP printer I've used, both of which were excellent. The HP Ofiicejet Pro 8600 seems to use quite a bit less ink than previous versions, and the extra features on this printer have made it invaluable both personally and professionally.

If you're considering a new printer, you will be hard pressed to find a better one for the price.

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This printer did more than meet our needs in my little office. However, it might be good to look at what needs this printer does meet in the wider world.

Networkable

It's networkable, meaning there's no need to have it connected to a computer and share the printer through said computer, which would have to stay on all the time.

ePrint capable

Having an email address that is "owned" by the printer is very useful, especially for those who are out and about a lot and need to print off important documents for later collection.

Print apps

In my humble opinion, they're not the most useful of functions, but I guess there are those out there who still do not prefer to read the news from a screen. If you have young kids, or a need to do Sudoku, this might be for you!

Cool fax capabilities

The faxing of documents is a dying application, but a great many people still use faxes. While we unplugged our fax due to junk mail faxes, the feature of having faxes emailed instead of instantly printed is probably a small but important feature that would tip the scales for me if I was not sure about this printer.

Ink jet

Yes, printing lush, colour-rich documents on normal paper is always going to be a problem, but using different papers (photo paper, archival mat, etc) in an ink jet means that you have the capability of producing some decent desktop publishing items.

Double-sided printing

This is the biggest feature for the small office. Being able to print double sided is not only a great paper saver, it is also a time saver (saves you having to manually flip the paper, let alone work out which way to turn it!).

Other features

• It's USB, memory stick and SD card capable, for when you want to print something "right now" (but which printer doesn't have that nowadays?)
• It has a very cool touchscreen; I had no problems using it, as it was very responsive
• The sheet feeder was a very handy thing for double-sided copying.

OK, that covers the features of this printer, but how about just living with it?

Ooki desu yo!

So big it had to be spoken by a sumo. It takes up one half of my medium-sized desk. But when you think about it, even a smallish printer for $99 is going to have a fair footprint, and some of my A3 printers are quite long, though there is no getting around that it is a beefy item.

If you consider buying this printer, make sure you make room for it.

Always on

Yes, it is always on. Yes, it is in standby — which is better, but a network-capable printer is going to need to always be on (especially to use the cool features). If that is a problem for you, then it is something to keep in mind.

Security

There has been a little kerfuffle about printer security, but I have to say that if set up correctly, you won't really have any issues. The printer's account can be set up to receive emails from only designated email accounts, if you are worried about receiving spam prints. As far as I can tell, the printer is secure, network wise. I cannot see any wireless broadcasting from it, unlike other printers around town. Not sure about you, but I would never put my printer on a public network.

In my humble opinion...

I do like this printer a lot! Print wise, photos are good (make sure you put your photo paper "print side" facing down in the tray!), paper handling is good and print speed for black and white is relatively fast. But I do love the following:

• Fax to email
• Emailing the printer to print
• The fact that it is wireless.

Considering the retail price of $499 (and I am sure you can find it cheaper), I believe that it is worth the investment, when compared to the features and the support products that go along with it. So, two thumbs up from me!

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Well, after four weeks of using the HP Officejet Pro 8600, here is my conclusion: high-quality parts, wireless connection, clear menu display and it's amazing at conserving ink. I would say it does close to three times more printing than my last printer. Easy to use step by step instructions, for setting up the printer. If you're at all familiar with an HP product, it's a breeze. If it's your first HP printer, then just take your time through each step. Menu navigation is excellent; just remember to use the swipe movement on the touch pad. The scan-to-email function without your computer is simply fantastic! The paper tray upgrade option is great if you are someone who goes through lots of paper. I have to say, I did find it a bit hard to find a place that had the tray in stock.

The cons of this printer are the drivers; they were not that easy to install. It took me two attempts to have them install correctly on my PC. Mac, on the other hand, installed it automatically, when it discovered the printer (yay for Apple). The cartridges are expensive, but the usage is minimal.

Conclusion

Wireless connectivity is still, for me, the biggest selling point. After the initial set-up, the HP Officejet becomes your own printing hub. I have sales people come in with their computers, showing me their latest products. For them to just be able to print without installing any drivers is great. There is nothing out there like this printer at the moment; as of right now, I would highly recommend the HP Officejet Pro 8600.

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This week, the Hewitt-Packard (HP) Officejet Pro 8600 printer has been sitting in its space, keeping quiet and just doing its job. So now, it's time to see how well and what quality it produces when printing some promotional material for a business.

Reports

Well, this was a straightforward task for the printer. It was quick and quiet.

Promotional materials

OK, the first thing to start off with was a business card. What I couldn't find was up to what thickness card/paper the HP 8600 would take. I had some 180gsm cards around, so I thought I would give it a go. Presto — business cards. I also printed our company wallpaper on 80gsm and 180gsm paper/card. What I noticed here was that due to the high volume of black ink, the 80gsm paper became quite wrinkled, whereas on the 180gsm, the print quality was fantastic. The print quality in both cases was very good, but heavier paper improved the evenness of the black.

I also downloaded some templates from HP, to see how they would print. These were just printed onto standard 80gsm paper, and, as I hope you can see in the photos, they have come out very well.

Remote printing

When we first set up the printer, it was automatically configured for remote printing, and of course we gave it a shot. It worked like a charm. The idea is that you can do something out in the field, say, take a photo, and then send it directly to the printer via email; why, I am not quite sure, but you can. The email address is a little obscure. More on that in a moment. So, basically, take a photo, send via email to xxxxxxx@hpeprint.com and out pops the printed photo. Easy. On day one, after trying it, we disabled the feature.

This week, we thought we should try it again. So, on my way into the office, I took a photo and sent it via email from my phone to the xxxxxx@hpeprint.com address. When I arrived at the office, I turned on the web services on the printer, and expected my photo to print out, but it didn't. Why? Quite simple, really; if you turn off web services, then the email address is not longer valid. Every time you re-enable the web services on the printer, you get a new email address, where you need to email the photos to. It basically just creates a temporary email address.

If you register, you can set any email address you like at the hpeprint.com domain, as long as it's available, of course.

What I found was that even after registering, if you disable web services on the printer and re-enable them, you have to go through the whole registration process again, or just use the obscure email address that was generated after turning on web services. I thought that after you had registered, the emails may just queue up on your self-defined email address, waiting for the printer to reconnect.

I also had a play with the apps on the printer. There is a content-on-demand service you can use. For example, there is a seven-days menu that you can print out directly from the printer. You can also schedule that a menu be printed every week automatically. There is also new content, kids' content and a host of other services. All of this is controlled at the printer. An interesting addition to a printer, I guess.

So that was week three.

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I found that using the HP website templates was very useful; I could use this for my business. It made it a lot easier and faster to produce and choose the different styles and formats on how I could produce different documents, such as business cards, letterheads, envelopes, brochures and flyers. I was, in fact, quite excited to use this, as this was something I found to be interesting and enjoyed. I got something that looked professional, as well as something that was already designed for me, and all the hard work of fiddling around was already done. All I needed to do was add my text and images. I had the option of changing and altering the information I had, as well. I also decided to use the website www. istock.com, which has photo images and video files that you can use for your design. I was able to use this for my flyer, which was great, and quite a useful tool. I could just type in the search button an image, for example "video", and there would come up all of the photo images of "video". This was great; I could choose the type of image I wanted, and added to my flyer very easily. Of course, you do have to sign up, and there are cost credits involved, but at least you get the images you require.

It was time for me to design something, so I decided to do a draft flyer, which I could drop to local businesses. Here is the design I did in about 15 minutes; it was so easy to use. (Please see my video.)

I am quite surprised with the amount of paper I have been using — and in that time, the ink still has a quite good amount left. I was able to get a Printer Status report of this, which was handy to have, and I cannot get this from the other printers that I have. The only thing I got from the other printers was the status of my ink, but this report covered everything.

In the documents, I was able to produce from my HP printer a price and packaging brochure to email to my clients. And that was as easy as using the HP website.

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Every time I go to use this machine, I find out more of what it can do.

This week, I've downloaded some files from websites and printed them (as you would normally) using the double-sided option — and then noticed that there is a booklet option. I tried that; what a great idea. No need to collate specifically or muck around — out came a booklet using standard A4 paper at a click of the mouse.

This is something that can be used more often, particularly if downloading significant-sized documents that need to be printed.

Experimenting with colours and formats is no trouble for this printer, either.

As you can see above, I tried quite a few different colour combinations, and, for the most part, they came out as specified on the computer screen, although the colours are slightly different when printed; the same result if you go to a professional printer and ask them to do it.

I did notice that if you use a lot of colour when doing double-sided printing, the print time is insufficient to allow significant drying of the first page, and the whole sheet comes out a bit wet and floppy (crinkly) until it completely dries, when it can be straightened out to present a fairly competent flyer. The straightening out is a bit annoying, though, and as such I tended to use less colour to avoid this part of the process.

The whole remote-printing thing is a bit hit and miss. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Some attachments refuse to print, whilst others (in the same format) print without problems. Going to the HP website has some answers that sometimes work. The one that astonished me was "to ask the sender to use more up-to-date software". I can't see a positive in this, when the sender could misinterpret this as being a bit of a put-down for not having up-to-date software. This would be a little bit iffy when dealing with a potential client.

Scanning direct to email is a great time-saving option, as I can take a lot of documents on the road with me (via my phone), so that the client can see clear fixes to problems they may be experiencing, and I can then forward these on to them and they can print them out in their office if need be. I've used this option quite a few times, and it seems to work well.

As a bit of a test, I tried to ePrint the emailed document, and it wouldn't print the attachment on a number of occasions. Go figure.

I'll work on this, and see if it is me or the printer or outside factors.

My kids continue to get use out of the apps, and I'm starting to research this option further with some success. It definitely needs more work on my part. One good thing about this is that there is an area to suggest apps to HP, and they could create one to suit your needs; obviously, that would depend on their criteria.

Overall, this week proved a little mixed with the results in various areas. I'm happy with the unit as a scanner, fax and printer, and have had mixed results using some of the other features. It's definitely a work in progress.

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This week has been good! I have printed many photos and I am quite happy with them! Printing with professional papers is always a good thing with inkjets. Printing in black, photocopying and scanning have been all very good and productive.

Being an Hewitt Packard (HP) printer, I am finding that the printer itself, while good and solid, is not the only thing you get when buying this printer.

HP is not only providing support for its PrintApps, as well as its ePrint system; it also has a whole website of templates for you to explore and use for your business' printing needs. As a graphic designer, I would rather have certain things printed offset, but I, too, know what it is like to need something now!

Desktop publishing

On the HP site, there is an SMB section with plenty of Microsoft (MS) Word templates for you to use. I don't doubt that these templates are well built, and relatively easy to modify, but it is the printability of these on normal paper that interests me! Also, not having MS Word on my computer was a bit of a hassle, so I have downloaded a trial version to test out.

My report takes the form of a proposal for a website project, and I am using a template called the HealthStylish Proposal Kit.

Editing in MS Word was pretty easy, as it is pretty easy to use. Printing the report, however, was not too good. I had a bit of a problem with the ink wrinkling my paper. Also, images show up through the other side of the paper. I have a feeling that a colour laser would do much better than using these templates — or I need thicker paper!

I decided to give this one more go and ensured that the settings were for plain paper, instead of default, and unfortunately it was not much better ...It is hard for me to say, but doing anything with decent ink coverage is going to wrinkle. Light colours will be less so, but medium to heavy coverage is going to be a problem without experimentation.

While I have one more week with this printer, I will be trying out some more things in the way of desktop publishing.

Remote printing

One of the most awesome features is being able to email documents to the printer. Using the printer's email address has been a great way to get things printed while I am out and about! There is not much to tell. It just works. It will print as a part of your normal schedule for printing, if you have set it up that way. It is an awesome time saver that I can imagine taking for granted and saying, "Why doesn't your printer have an email address?" to my compatriots!

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Get up, eat, catch a bus, go to work, grab a coffee, eat, work, sleep. The day's over! Slightly resemble your hectic lifestyle? For me, this was my whirlwind week ahead of me. Efficiency was important, to get everything done. Monday's is my payday, so I got onto the Mac, loaded up Excel, added all the relevant information. Print. All smooth so far. Now for my weekly report; clients who showed up, clients that didn't, debits to collect, etc. Printing these took under two minutes for around 30 pages, which is pretty fast.

With winter coming up, this becomes the slower part of the year for my business. Now was the time to get some strategies into gear to combat that! I designed a business card letterbox drop. HP has a great site (http://www.hp.com/hho/cs/smb/au/en/) for all of your business templates, business cards, pretty much all the creative material you would need to promote yourself, and are best of all free (though some do require payment). And they all work great in conjunction with the Officejet Pro 8600 Plus, though you will also need Microsoft Office installed. All their layouts are easy to edit to your liking. From start to finish, I was done in 30 minutes.

Little bit of tweaking.

Remotely using the HP Officejet Pro 8600 Plus has been a pleasure from day one. Over three weeks of using it wirelessly, printing emails from my phone, exercise cards for clients from the Mac and the odd news report on the apps option, and the games and activities for the kids have saved me numerous times by keeping kids occupied while their parents exercise. Glad to say no hiccups to report — OK, there was one time, but that was my mistake; I accidentally unplugged the printer from the powerpoint! Why is it that's always the last thing you think could be the problem? Excluding the human error, Officejet Pro 8600 can tackle anything I throw at it.

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