HP Officejet Pro 8500 Premier Wireless All-in-One Printer

I've been looking at this printer since they first came out and an HP rep did a demo for me at the company I worked at. I've never been able to justify the high price though up until now. I found this printer on Amazon at just the right time. It was on sale, plus HP was offering a [...], PLUS they gave me another[...]if I'd trade in an old printer. On top of it all, I got the premier version with the extra paper cassette. So, I got an absolute STEAL on this printer!This printer is absolutely amazing. It will print, scan, copy, and fax. I can actually fax directly from the unit without having to touch the PC. It has a document feeder which is fairly zippy, and an auto-duplex unit! This has saved as a whole bunch of time in having to flip pages to print on two sides! It also saves paper, of course. I am a photographer and have also really liked having the build in media card reader in the unit. No matter what card type you insert into the slots, it nicely shows up as a Z: drive on your Windows computer, so it's very easily accessible without having to jump through hoops.I love the touch screen functionality instead of having to push all these silly buttons. The controls are nicely laid-out and very intuitive. The ability to drop an item on the scan bad and press a button to auto scan to a network folder has been invaluable. The ability to print wireless throughout my home network was one of the main reasons we purchased the unit. My wife hasn't been able to print across the network to our old Dell Multifunction P.O.S. from her Vista machine. It wasn't until later on we found out that Vista wasn't compatible with that particular printer. This 8500 seems to be compatible with just about everything out there!My other main decision on getting this unit is that half the computers in our home are Windows (XP, and Vista) and half are Ubuntu Linux. I wanted something that would work with both. I fully expected to have some trouble getting all the features to work in Linux as it's not a "mainstream" operating system. I was quite shocked....and this is the only caveat I could find.....It took me almost 4 hours to get this printer to work under Windows XP. After working at it and talking to two different HP techs in chat support we determined there was a small problem with HP installation software that came packaged with the printer that caused it to just lock up the whole computer. There are some manual steps you can go through to get the driver installed and working on your XP machine WITHOUT having to install the HP software.On the other hand, I simply had to install the HPLIP printing driver for Linux and I was able to use ALL the functions of my 8500 in less than 10 minutes! I could duplex print, scan, copy, and fax! It was so easy under Linux I couldn't believe it!We purchased this back in July of '09. The printer came not only with a regular life black cartridge (not the measly little starter carts, but a FULL regular black cart), but it also came with TWO sets of regular life color carts!! We print daily on a regular basis and I tend to print a lot of photo proofs for clients. I am just NOW getting a message from the printer that we may want to think about replacing the black cartridge as it's getting low. It's not out....just LOW. The color cartridges are only about half way down as well! The efficiency in ink usage on this thing is amazing! The next time I'm going to get the XL cartridges and see how much longer it lasts!There is only one, MINOR negative to this unit I could find. For an inkjet, it's a little bit noisier than I would have expected when you are sitting next to it. Plus the thing kicks like a buffalo. I have the unit sitting on top of a three drawer file cabinet and while the carriage is going back and forth while it's printing, the whole cabinet vibrates and shakes. After you use the unit for awhile though, you tend not to notice.Overall, this is the best printer I've ever owned and would highly recommend it to everyone!

Here's a list of wonderful things to love about this HP 8500 printer:1. 4.3" touch screen display- Nice feature, every print function can be performed directly from the printer (unlike many)2. Two paper trays- Great for different sizes in each or less need to refill as frequently, 500 page ream fills both trays3. Very reasonable ink refills- I'm used to outrageous prices for ink catridges, most refills for the 8500 you can buy here at amazon for ~$10 each, the printer even comes with 7 print cartridges4. Many card slots for cameras, pictures, etc.5. Automatic Document Feeder (ADF)- Very nice one, I think it holds up to 50 pages for use6. Duplexer - two sided printing7. Network connections- Ethernet 802.3. wireless 802.11, USB, everything you'd ever need8. Great network printer for function across entire network9. Easy scan, copy, print, and fax with the touch of a buttonI can't say how pleased I've been with this printer in the past week I've had it. HP has really stepped up its' game. I've had many HP printers in the past, but this one puts all the older models to shame. You can't buy a better printer all-in-one for under $200 than this one.

After reading several reviews we ordered this printer. I must say it surpassed our expectations...it was noisier than expected and shook more than we expected! Both had been listed in other reviews as cautions.We wanted a more durable printer after going through numerous "throwaway"printers. I find this unit to be well built and has a high capacity. I like that we can send files wirelessly to print.The color image is lesser quality than I expected. I assume there are things I can do to improve that or perhaps we just have bad cartridges. I must admit I missed the "shake several times" note on the print cartidge. Once it was in I was fearful of removing it and shaking an open cartidge. Read carefully all of the setup notes!Black and White seems to have good contrast and prints quickly.