Last Week with the HP OfficeJet Pro 8600
May 14th, 2012
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.