Great for the Home Office: The HP Officejet Pro 8500 Wireless All-in-One Printer

I have a friend who has a business that he operates out of his home. He needed to update his printer and asked me to help him find an all in one printer that would give him quality printing, copying, scanning and faxing. (Yes, there are actually people who still use faxes!)

I found him the HP Officejet Pro 8500 for $299.98 at Staples. Staples is a good place to find technology products.

I helped him set the HP Officejet Pro 8500 up in his home office. Set up was pretty painless. We were able to get the printer cartridges installed. You lift up the top of the machine, and on the left side is the print cartridge access door. You place the four cartridges in, and close the top.

I particularly like that the HP Officejet Pro 8500 uses separate color cartridges. I explained to my friend that separate cartridges give you better color, and bolder blacks.

Once we installed the software, we got the HP Officejet Pro 8500 set up for his wireless network. We were able to get his wife's computer to recognize the printer, so that they could both use it.

One of the great things about the HP Officejet Pro 8500 is the duplex tray that allows you to print on both sides of a single sheet. Not only that but the HP Officejet Pro 8500 also has a second paper tray so you can load up to 500 sheets of paper. This keeps you from running out of paper in the middle of a print job.

The HP Officejet Pro 8500 print speed is rated at 35 pages per minute for black printing, 34 for color. Thus far I have yet to see a printer that actually lives up to its speed claims. I will have to check with my friend to see if it prints that fast.

One thing, the HP Officejet Pro 8500 tends to have a bit of vibration while printing, so it needs to be on something secure.

The HP Officejet Pro 8500 also has inputs for photo memory cards so you can print our pictures right from the card.

Scanning on the HP Officejet Pro 8500 is accomplished with a minimum of noise, and doesn't shake as much while printing.

You can store up to 125 pages of incoming faxes, so if the HP Officejet Pro 8500 is in the middle of a print job when faxes come in, you can print out the fax later.

Overall the HP Officejet Pro 8500 has turned out to be a good match for my fiends business. I may just have to get one for myself.