If you’re looking for a capable workhorse for your home office, this duplex A4 inkjet printer gives you the full range of print, copy, scan and fax capabilities you’ll need.
Print quality is good, operation is simple and fast – but make sure you have enough space for it.
RRP: S$499 (incl. GST).
HP Officejet Pro 8600 Plus e-All-in-One inkjet prints up to 20 ppm in black, and 16 ppm in colour.
The print quality of the Officejet Pro 8600 Plus is excellent. Text documents look as if they were printed by a laser printer, while photos (printed on glossy photo paper) were crisp and vibrant.
I was told the prints on normal A4 paper were “water-proof” so I immersed a few printed sheets in water overnight.
Indeed the ink didn’t run at all.
Of course the paper got all wrinkled after it dried but that’s got nothing to do with the ink or printer.
You’ll be hard put to tell they were not printed on a dedicated photo printer.
I tested the photo-print quality by printing full A4 sized outputs on glossy photo paper.
I was rather impressed as I didn’t expect a multi-function printer meant for office-use to produce photo prints almost as well as a dedicated photo printer.
Only if you peek really closely do you notice that the edges are that bit less sharp and colours slightly less vibrant.
The HP Officejet Pro 8600 Plus e-AIO boasts 50% lower cost per page than lasers.
The Officejet Pro 8600 Plus uses four cartridges (Black, Cyan, Magenta and Yellow).
Scanning (on the 36 x 22 cm flatbed) was straightforward once you’ve figured out how the simple menu system on the LCD control panel works.
Scanning speed was reasonably fast and quality from the 4,800 dpi scans was acceptable for photo scans. Document scan quality – no problem at all.
Copying was also fuss-free. Even for the large A4 colour photo of my kids with her friends from the Harry Potter exhibition.
Edges were a bit smudged and colours slightly on the dark side. But their friends couldn’t tell the difference between the original and the copies.
The 4.3-inch colour touchscreen can be tilted up to 45 degrees and shows on the home screen the icons for Copy, Fax, Scan and Apps functions.
I like it that the 4.3-inch colour LCD control panel could be tilted so that if you’re standing beside the printer and looking down at it, you can still use the panel without stooping and squinting.
The touch screen was pretty smooth – not quite as fluid as a smartphone touchscreen – but much better than other printer/GPS touch screens that I’ve used.
But you do have to jab at it occasionally to register a selection.
You can also print directly from all types of Flash memory cards.
Web Apps
An interesting feature is that the printer comes with Apps that lets you print pages from news websites.
I printed some paper airplane templates through one of the apps.
You can also print colouring pages and craft activities from Disney and Nickelodeon apps.
In addition to the pre-loaded apps, you can download additional and install additional free apps from HP’s ePrint Center Web site.
It can also print/scan/copy to/from the network folder, memory card, computer and within an email program.
HP’s ePrint feature assigns an email address to the Officejet Pro 8600 Plus so you can print a document by attaching it in an email and sending it to the associated email address – from anywhere.
Naturally the printer will have to be connected to the Internet and powered on for this to work.
Wireless direct printing enables you to print from any Wi-Fi enabled mobile device, such as smartphones, tablets, laptops, without using a wireless router or access point.
Setting up was easy.
The two handles at either side made it easy to carry the printer but at 12.4 kg you wouldn’t want to shift it around on a daily basis.
Plenty of connectivity options for the HP Officejet Pro 8600 Plus e-AIO.
And at 494 x 460 x 315 mm, you’d need a decent amount of space for it to sit. It can easily take up half your work desk at home.
My set didn’t come with the drivers for Windows 8 because the new OS had only just been launched, but a quick search on the Web was all that was needed for a simple download and install.
Hooking it up was easy. You can connect it to the computer via USB or Ethernet cables, or to the network via Wi-Fi. The LCD provides guided steps to key in Wi-Fi passwords etc.
Tags: copy, fax, HP, inkjets, Officejet, print, printers, scan
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