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Jewish World Review Feb 10, 2012 / 17 Shevat, 5772 'Pro' printer from HP for a professional (home) office By Mark Kellner
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
Hewlett Packard continues to refine and even perfect the small-office/home office/cubicle printer, especially when it comes to the inkjet side of things. Unlike color laser printers, which are very nice but also have a fairly high cost for consumables, inkjets are often half as expensive in per-page printing costs, with little discernable difference in output quality.
One of the firm's most recent inkjet offerings, the HP OfficeJet Pro 8600 Plus has the features a small office user might savor, along with a stylish appearance, wireless connectivity and - most important - stunning output, and on both sides of a page, if desired. It can also send and receive faxes, and act as a copier or scanner.
With a list price just one cent under $300, the unit is currently available online from HP, and some resellers, for $70 less until the end of March. At $229.99, the 8600 Plus represents a good value, I believe, if you need all of its capabilities.
For many, if not most, users, the most important thing is output: how does the printed page look? The answer here: stunning: text is sharp, colors are vibrant, and, yes, it's fast, going from a press of the "print" command in a word processing program to a finished page in 20 seconds. And, that's with a wireless connection to the printer, no less.
Indeed, the printing is so fast that the momentary sounds of the print heads moving into place and the paper moving through the printer as ink is applied are just that - momentary. You do hear the sounds, they are somewhat noticeable, but the speed means you won't hear them for very long. To me, that makes what noise is produced a worthwhile tradeoff for the relative savings and features you get versus a similar laser, such as HP's LaserJet Pro 100 MFP 175nw, reviewed here six months ago. Though that laser printer's list price of $349 was attractive, the cost of supplies for that laser was a different story.
Compare: the Officejet Pro 8600 has all of the features of the LaserJet Pro 100, but for more than $100 less right now. Per-page monochrome printing costs about 1.6 cents per page for the Officejet, versus 3.5 cents for the LaserJet. In your first year of use, you'll probably spend a lot less for ink with the Officejet than you would on toner for the LaserJet, again, with no discernable loss in quality.
Setting up the printer is a relatively straightforward affair: remove the packing materials, insert the ink cartridges, add paper and connect to a computer. Connections can be made via a USB cable, an Ethernet or a wireless network.
HP claims wireless installation can be done without resorting to any cables; a spokesman said he's seen it done. In my test, it took a direct connection from an Apple, Inc., iMac via a USB cable for initial setup; once completed, wireless printing was a breeze.
Even more impressive, to this reviewer at least, was the two-sided printing feature, something also known as duplex printing. Snap the duplex module in the back of the printer, set your word processor or other program to print on both sides of the page, and it's automatic. No more trying to figure out how to reposition a batch of already printed pages to handle the "other" side, just set up the job, and click on "print." Call me a nerd, but I like this feature a lot.
With the included feeder and installed HP software, I could set up a scan using the printer's touch-sensitive control panel; on the Mac it also functioned with Apple's Preview software. But, as with the LaserJet Pro 100, scanning via Adobe Acrobat Pro wasn't an option. As Meat Loaf once said, "Two out of three ain't bad."
Overall, the HP Officejet Pro 8600 Plus is a tremendous machine that will repay owners with reliable service, great printing, and a range of scanning and copying features. You can't ask for much more, and at the current price of $229.99, you won't easily find a better value.
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JWR contributor Mark Kellner has reported on technology for industry newspapers and magazines since 1983, and has been the computer columnist for The Washington Times since 1991.Comment by clicking here. © 2012, News World Communications, Inc. Reprinted with permission of The Washington Times. Visit the paper at http://www.washingtontimes.com |
Arnold Ahlert | |||||||||||
