HP Officejet Pro 8500

green, and far better than expected

In early June, I was asked to take part in a trial by marketing and PR company Edelman of the HP OfficeJet Pro 8500. As my home office based HP d145 was getting a bit old, I was positive, but had wanted a LaserJet. Still, it was a green trial, so I happily agreed.

Having agreed to the trial, I read a few online reports. In summary, they didn’t make it look much better than the d145, but after looking at them again they were benchmarking it against a similarly proced laser as that’s where HP pitch the product. I hence didn’t have my expectations set very high.

After TNT mucked up the delivery address – you have to write EVERYTHING on their label, even details a few millimetres from it are ignored – the package arrived on a Friday PM. I say package, as like most modern boxes it was big and relatively light for its size. I unplugged the d145, and plugged in the 8500 – and then like most HP installations waited 30mins while the software installed. Much as though I am an HP fan, using the same tricks as Microsoft to install your picture software as default should be an option over a 2tick “Full” or “Custom” installation. After I found the installation manual and reset the password for my BTHome hub, it was easy – two button clicks in 15seconds on the printer alone – to connect the HP3500 to my home wireless network

Bonus features

The first surprise came that evening. Sat in the kitchen, I downloaded a 20page PDF which I wanted to print. The old procedure would have been to place it on a memory stick, walk downstairs to the now colder office, and print from the main computer. But having installed the HP software on the Apple MacBook (why does everything take 1/3rd the time on an Apple, and be twice as easy as MS powered machine?), I simply clicked a button and it was waiting for me on the printer when I got downstairs.

I printed out a few CV’s the next day, and have to say the quality was far better than the d145. OK, its not laser quality, so I could see where the various online write-ups were coming from, but its not dribbling inkjet either. Comparing it to the d145, it is certainly closer to a laser – about 85% of the way there.

Paper savings

The nice addition with the HP OfficeJet Pro 8500 was the fact it did double-sided printing over the d145, which in nearly four weeks of usage means my paper consumption is down by 2/3rds. Why not a half you might be asking? Well, here’s how good the quality of the print is. With draft CV’s, I still print them out A4 but double sided. Anything else the printer has a setting called booklet, which means it prints two pages per side – so 4pages per A4 sheet over my old 1page per A4 sheet.

The other nice surprise was the electricity consumption. I have a monitor in the home office for electrical consumption, and much as though the 8500 has a similar size power unit to the d145, it has a lower rating. As the d145 was always in idle mode when the electricity was on to it, the 8500′s idle mode means that it shuts down. It wakes up when you push a print job to it, but my in office monitor suggest my electrical consumption is down by around 20%.

Green savings

I have used the scanner a couple of times, and would say it is very easy to operate, and the fax twice. But what has impressed me most so far is the quality of print allowing easy access to large paper savings. Paper is a huge cost in my business, and reducing my costs in that area alone by 2/3rds means that the 8500 would pay for itself in less than 6months in paper savings alone. I am going to add an additional paper feed tray, meaning that I don’t need to switch manually between 80gsm and 100gsm laid papers, which could mean additional savings when setting the default to 80gsm.

I am very happy with the HP OfficeJet Pro 8500, and have to say am so pleased with it I am going to keep it. No, it is not quite laser quality, but when you consider it will do everything from glossy pictures to rushed black and white, it is far more adaptable. If you then add in the savings that its quality brings to allow me to print much out now in booklet format, I think its the most competent one size fits all green printer presently out on the market. Add in HP’s robust build quality and excellent support – always a high consideration for anyone working from home and needing reliability – and I would thoroughly recommend it.

If you have any questions, please – just ask. Good Luck!

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