Standalone printers are slowly starting to loose their charm. The only reason why you’d want to buy one nowadays is if you’re an extremely basic user looking for an extremely affordable printer or if you’re interested in buying a printer that offers great photographic quality.




Most of the time the saying jack of all trades but master of none is true. And it’s also true that standalone printers produce better quality photo prints most of the time. But if you simply want a good quality printer and would love it if you got some extra features like scanning and copying in the same device than a multifunction printer is a device for you. Fortunately all-in-ones have also become more affordable nowadays.

One of the best HP Officejet all-in-one printers on the market is the Officejet Pro 8500. This printer is perfect in almost every aspect for a small office or home office. While most offices prefer color laser printers for their printing needs because of lower printing costs and faster printing speeds, we’ll soon prove that the Officejet Pro is serious competition for a laser. The Officejet Pro 8500 can print, scan, fax and copy at impressive speeds. It comes with a pleasant design that’s adequate for an office environment.

More compact than any color laser printer, it manages to pack all the features mentioned before in a shell that can easily fit on almost any desk. Measuring 19 x 18 x 13 inches you’ll be surprised to know that HP also managed to fit a duplexer, WiFi and a 50 sheet automatic document feeder. The center console is well designed and offers a 3.45 inch color LCD screen as well as the necessary control buttons.

Buttons include a full telephone keypad, quick access fax and copy buttons, and an e-mail button for one-touch scan delivery. Also on the front side you’ll find a card reader that supports Memory Sitck, SD, xD and Compact Flash cards, and the PictBridge port that can be used with any compatible digital camera.

Paper capacity is initially limited to the 250 sheet input drawer but can be extended with another 250 sheet tray that fits right underneath the printer, for offices who require higher printing volumes. The 50-sheet automatic document feeder on the top of the printer will work great for scanning and copying without having to do it one page at a time. This obviously leads to more productivity and less time wasted. The duty cycle of the printer is of 15,000 pages per month which is adequate for the printing needs of most small offices.

Printing speeds of the Pro 8500 are great. Text in regular quality prints at 12 pages per minute. The only thing a user can complain about is the speed of photo printing which proves to be average at about 1 page in a minute and a half. For draft, HP claims printing speeds of 35 pages per minute for black and 34 for color. The quality of prints for these HP officejet all-in-one printers be it black text, color graphics or photos is impressive. From this point of view this HP printer is definitely well worth the money.

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