HP OfficeJet Pro 8600 Wireless All-in-One Photo Printer with Mobile Printing (CN577A)

This is a review for the HP Officejet Pro 8600 Premium, model is N911N, I am writing a review because this printer seems to get lots of negative reviews. When people say things like "Do not buy HP" they don't suggest a better printer, the few that do suggest better printers result in reviews on the alternative printer having worse reviews or it costs a fortune for consumables.I am going to say that no printer is perfect especially at this price point. I have had HP and Lexmark printers from LaserJet to InkJet and can tell you one thing from experience. The cheaper the price of the printer, the more it will cost in consumables.A good laser printer will cost over $500, that's the way it is, you get what you pay for.A good inkjet printer will cost over $300, if you buy an inkjet printer that is less then that or even less then $100 expect it to be a huge drain in your wallet and don't expect it to last long.I am using this printer on a network which also has wireless capabilities.I have configured the printer with a static IP address so I can get to it from any computer (this is my preference)I have turned OFF the wireless function because I don't want to have another device interfering with all the other wireless devices I have; it makes for a better user experience if you can plug the printer into your network wired.I also do NOT use USB connectivity, I can scan and print and fax just fine from any computer so there is no need to have a cable that will restrict the distance I can keep this printer from any computer.I do not use or the memory slots on the printer; I personally think HP can cut costs or come up with a better feature that more people would use then add memory card readers on their printers; maybe a faster scanner, or a larger paper tray or a faster printer engine. I'm sure the feature is great for the very few people that want to print a photo or something from an SD card or USB stick but most people that print photos use the computer to crop, size, adjust image before sending to a printer. Same goes with documents.I only buy authentic HP ink, I do not mess around with aftermarket; it only takes one time to mess up your printer to lose all the savings you've paid for the ink.Comparing the cost of consumables to other printers seems to make this printer a more economical printer to use.The Canons seem to claim better yields on their black XL cartridge but the color ones are half or less yield then the Officejet.The printer cartridges page yield are rated at:950XL- 2300 pages951XL Cyan - 1500 pages951XL Magenta - 1500 pages951XL Yellow - 1500 pagesI have printed 3800 pages so far and it seems about right for usage. I have a child in the house that loves to print stories and picture from the internet. I have seen plenty of pages come out of the printer with an all black background or all color background. This means that one page is now the equivalent of having printed 50-150 pages in black or color. The color ratings above are for standard writing or text if I am not mistaken.Pros:Price per sheet for printing is probably the cheapest of any printer out there, it can go head to head with laser printers.Fast printing -printing speed is fast and pretty much laser quality for text.Print Quality - I have compared it to laser printer and don't see a difference. I normally leave it in draft mode so save ink and it still prints excellent quality.I love the auto-duplexing of the printer. It's great being able to print double sided without having to re-feed the paper and it saves on paper.I also love the duplexing when you are scanning or faxing, again, it's great to be able to fax or scan a double-sided sheet or sheets of paper without having to flip the paper over.Ability to have two separate trays is great. You do need to pay attention to your software settings before printing to make sure you print from the tray you want to print from. I have set the default settings on all my computers to print from the lower tray (Tray 2) so I don't mistakenly use tray 1.I also keep tray 1 empty most of the times because I rarely print using the same type of paper; sometimes I print envelopes, sometimes labels of different sizes.Scan quality is excellent, you can scan to PDF or picture image, I believe their software will give you the option to make a PDF readable without converting it.Copying is nice and fast, but of course it can't replace Kinkos or a true copy machine.Cons:Takes up considerable space due to the duplexer.The printer is a little loud if it's next to you, but it's much quieter then my HP color Laserjet that it replaced.The scanning could be faster, So I only use this scanner if I need to print off the class and I don't feel like using the Fujitsu Scansnap Carrier sheet. I bought a Fujitsu Scansnap IX500 http://amzn.com/B00AYUI490 which I LOVE.Overall I would recommend and still recommend the printer to any friend or colleague that is asking for a home office all-in-one printer.

Wow. Extremely disappointed. HP has seriously gone astray.My HP-2820 multifunction I bought back in '05 or so finally gave up the ghost, so I needed to get a new printer that would do basically the same thing. The 2820 is a 4 color laser printer, scanner, copier (no fax, which I don't need), and it was built like a tank, made excellent prints, printed fast, nice sturdy plastic parts, metal frame, brilliant internal mechanicals, very intelligent design, just a fantastic machine. I loved it and hated to see it go. Naturally, I was going to buy another HP as it's replacement. There was really no question about that.The first thing you notice when you unbox this 8600 is just how really flimsy and cheap it is. Crappy is a good word I think. Setup was simple, and the touchscreen is ok, but when stepping through the wizard to install the cartridges, the animation showing how to do this is stopped and covered over with a warning about the door being open when you open the door where the cartidges go - brilliant to follow along and put in the cartridges. Just annoying and dumb. It has like 5 buttons for the wireless setup, but the wired setup is buried in an advanced section. Just not intuitive. The whole thing is just Glitzy Stupidity. Feels like they spent more time on the icons than the printer and that interns wrote all the software...Finally done and it prints a test page which ejects out of the printer and drops to the floor. WTF! That's right. The standard output tray is TOO SMALL to accept the output! The output tray has an additional (unbelievably flimsy) pullout, like an auxilliary input tray might have, that MUST be pulled put or the prints fall out of the printer. The thing sticks out from the edge of my printer cart the printer is on, and is just begging to be bumped into and broken off - which I know will happen with just the slightest nudge. OR I have to get up, go pull out the output tray, go back and print, then get the prints and close the tray. NO! I DON'T THINK SO!!! 'A55i9' if you catch my phonetic-won't-get-censored drift. I'm very tempted to return this thing. For $600 (my 2820 was about $730 when I got it) this POS is not 1/100th the machine of my older HP. Oh, and did I mention the demo output looked like crap too? It was just awful. It had striations through the shaded areas, jaggy edges on things, just crap. Exactly what you'd expect from a printer that feels like thins one.The scanner lid has no counter-balancing to let it come down slow and safe. This will just slam down on the glass if you're not careful, and I can imagine it breaking the glass if that happened. Even a $10 Home Depot toilet seat has this feature! Grrr. I seriously cannot say enough bad things about this thing.I'm amazed and really shocked at how much HP sucks now after buying this. They are no longer the storied and venerable masters of printing that they once were, that's for sure. Not even close. I REALLY lost a lot of (pronounced ALL) respect for them, and they should be totally ashamed and embarrassed for ever producing and putting the HP name on this junk.My recommendation, (and I am positive I'm going to return it as I finish this review) is DO NOT GET THIS JUNK!!! And, if you have any of their stock, start dumping it immediately because no company that makes crap like this can survive.My other recommendation is for Amazon: Allow me to select NO stars.

We of course had to do a LOT of rearranging to get this size of a printer in our office, but it was accomplished. Be aware this is a BIG printer -- but with two trays in front and a duplex part in back, that's to be expected.I love being able to scan wirelessly! The sheet feed has worked perfectly, the black toner is crisp as you'd expect, the colors are clear and vibrant! I had planned to buy another product from a competitor, but when I read the reviews, most people were saying they wished they'd bought this -- and too bad on them. I bought this instead and am incredibly happy, not wishing I'd listened to the other reviewers who said they wish they'd bought this instead.HIGHLY recommended. We do have a lot of printing/scanning to do as we are helping an attorney with an appeal. As anyone who knows what this entails, this was why we needed the scanner. There are a lot of "apps" that supposedly come with it, but one I can say I've already used is shoebox. Really, I can't find anything bad about this machine. OH! There were extra color cartridges included -- not just the cartridges that would come normally, but EXTRAs! No extra black. HP ink is also very expensive (I bought extra black and a full set of color for $119, which about killed me, but there's nothing worse than needing to print in color and you're out of ink!) but hopefully the cartridges will last as long as other HP cartridges do (I also have an HP laser, bought it used 3 years ago, and STILL haven't replaced the toner cartridge that came with it! although I do have a replacement should/when I need one).