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April 8, 2009

HP Officejet Pro 8500 All-In-One review

Product Code: CB022A#BEV

The HP Officejet Pro 8500 is the latest inkjet to try and topple the laser printer from its sturdy perches. And, in some respects, it actually succeeds.

Inkjets aren't known for their low running costs, but the HP Officejet Pro 8500's highest-capacity cartridges are bursting with ink. In fact, it destroys every other inkjet we've seen on running costs. And with black cartridges capable of turning out as many as 2,200 pages, it's on a par with lasers as well.

And the HP Officejet Pro 8500 is almost as economical on colour, making it a cheap model to run, even after taking into account the added replacement cost of heavy-duty printheads.

Inkjets always struggle to beat laser printers on speed and text quality, but the HP Officejet Pro 8500 fares better than most. At its fastest, pages arrived at 15.8 pages per minute. Few colour lasers are significantly faster then this.

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And while the HP Officejet Pro 8500's text is quite serviceable in fast mode (almost at the level of many a cheap inkjet at highest quality), it's certainly nowhere near to laser-level.

Standard mode sees a marked improvement in quality, although the rate then drops to 12.2ppm. And really, for important documents, you'll need to be aiming for the Best mode, at which point speed falls to just 3.7ppm. Even here, the text is slightly fuzzy when examined closely. On the upside, characters are very dark.

The HP Officejet Pro 8500 is kitted out with an automatic duplexer for printing to both sides of the page. This isn't terribly fast, though, with normal mode plummeting from 12.2ppm to 3.5ppm.

In colour mode, the HP's palette is bright and easy on the eye, although even in the Standard mode (where prints appear at 5.6ppm), there's evidence of banding. This disappears completely only at the highest quality mode, at which point speed falls to a pedestrian 1.8ppm.

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As a general office device the HP Officejet Pro 8500 works well. It's fully featured, and its robust (if large) chassis should withstand knocks. And, while we experienced no problems with installation, we understand from the HP's support area that not all customers have found it a trouble-free experience.

We also heard complaints about loud running noises and, while this is hardly a quiet printer, we didn't find it much louder when printing than a typical inkjet or laser. When not in action, the HP Officejet Pro 8500 is mostly completely silent.

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An extra £50 buys a version of the HP Officejet Pro 8500 that adds wireless facilities to ethernet and USB 2.0. Other enhancements include a memory boost from 64MB to 128MB, while the 35-sheet auto-document feeder is upgraded to 50-sheets - useful should you want to tap into the HP's strong scanning and faxing facilities. One final addition to the Wi-Fi version is a touchscreen, although we found the standard version's two-line LCD to work effectively.

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Independent customer reviews from

HP Officejet Pro 8500 scored:
9.3 out of 10 100% real reviews

The 2 most helpful reviews based on 3 reviews:

15 Oct 2009 Jim, Chesterfield

10

Good Points

I have always experienced exceptional quality from HP printers though this is the second all in one I have purchased, I'm extremely impressed in the quality of the photo prints and also document printing. in my overall view of the product I would recommend the T8500 to anyone who is looking to have quality printing good performance and finally cost saving regarding the accessories namely the cartridges and toners.

Bad Points

To improve the experience to any user of the T8500 I would like to see HP give an easy to read user guide this I personally feel would improve the overall usage functions this particulare all in one printer can actually do.

17 Oct 2009 Peter, Gosport

10

Good Points

easy and quick setup, colours very good and printing fast, excellent office equipment

Bad Points

none

See more HP Officejet Pro 8500 reviews on Reevoo.com

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HP Officejet Pro 8500

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