HP Officejet 8600 Premium Unbox & Review

This is my lightning review and unbox for the HP Officejet 8600 Premium E-All-In-One. Enjoy, and feel free to ask questions.

~*~MUSIC SELECTION~*~
2:25 : Glomag - 4Shame
watch?v=VRrs79qrP4g

5:20 : Anamanaguchi - Airbrushed (RAC Remix)
watch?v=ijv6SSmT66U
Note that the Airbrushed normal track, is kinda better than the remix.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Hewlett-Packard
• HP
• Officejet
• 8600
• all
• in
• one
• printer
• inkjet
• Printer (computing)
• Printer (publishing)
• Paper
• Officejet 8600
• Premium
• PC
• Windows
• printing
• graphic design

[NiGHTSChao689]

@davidbdoucette I doubt most people do anyway, I just got it on sale.

[davidbdoucette]

@NiGHTSChao689 Thanks again. I'm off to purchase the HP Officejet Pro 8600 Plus e-All-in-One Printer (what a name). I don't think I need the extra document tray.

[NiGHTSChao689]

@davidbdoucette I do not like the Photosmart printers at all. They cost 2-3x more than the Officejet series and have pretty much the same printing quality. HP adopted their systems in every single printer, the only benefit you'd get by getting a photosmart would be the addition of light-cyan and light-magenta cartridges, which to me do not produce a noticeable difference in color reproduction.

The ink-cost and lack of functionality alone makes me not like that series.

[davidbdoucette]

@NiGHTSChao689 Thanks again for the prompt reply. I guess I think of it as a printer and scanner and copier, with no preferential weight given to any of those three functions. I'm pretty sure it isn't a technical limitation that forces cartridges to be in the printer in order to scan. It is done that way to sell more cartridges. :)

Did you consider the Photosmart line of printers when making your purchase decision? If so, what made you pick the Officejet over the Photosmart?

[NiGHTSChao689]

@davidbdoucette The feature-set between the Premium and Plus is pretty small. Besides the paper-tray I can't think of anything else that is tacked on. If you want the paper tray you CAN buy it as an accessory for your plus model if you wish (later on).

[NiGHTSChao689]

@davidbdoucette Keep in mind, this thing is a printer. It does many self-checks to make sure the cartridges are functioning properly, and part of that is having ink inside. You can scan all you want, but you need to have the ink tanks in the printer, it needs to complete a circuit, and in essence, acts like batteries.

Yes this printer gives you an override option for black ink printing despite no color.

The paper tray is nice, but not necessary in my opinion.

[davidbdoucette]

@NiGHTSChao689 Thanks for the prompt reply. As long as I can scan even if the cartridges are empty, I'm fine with that. I still don't see a legitimate reason to tie scanning functionality to printing functionality. :)

On a related topic, does it allow black ink only printing with empty color cartridges?

Would you say the main, important difference between the Plus and Premium is the extra 250 sheet tray, or is there something else I should consider when comparing those two models?

[NiGHTSChao689]

@davidbdoucette You need to have all the cartridges at least IN the printer for it to function. You can still scan and what-not if they are empty, but they must be IN the printer (it is a PRINTER after all). The software has a "black ink only" option, however the quality of printing does degrade depending on what it is you're printing. You use a miniscule amount of color when printing in general, ink mixes to get more accurate results/smoothing/etc.

[davidbdoucette]

Does the printer force you to have print cartridges in place in order to use the scanning feature? Does the printer/software allow you to only use the black cartridge if you would like to print only in black, or will it also use the color cartridges (mixed)?

[NiGHTSChao689]

@deddagen Its relative compared to what laser printer you're comparing. Brother (B&W) for example prints around 2,600-2,800 pages for around $70-80, versus the 8600 which is rated for 2,350-2,500 pages for only $31-35.