HP OfficeJet 6000: Corporate Capabilities for a fraction of the cost.

Author's Rating:

Pros: Full range of capabilities. Excellent printing quality. Cost efficient.

Cons: Long setup time. Text-only screen.

The Bottom Line: 
This is a great printer that will save you money in the long run and provide you with outstanding capabilities.

Author's Review
I bought the OfficeJet 6500 for a few reasons that all tended to focus around saving money. First, I live in a big home with a lot of people. Being able to connect one printer to a lot of computers using the wireless capability was a must and a definite money saver. Second, because many people would be printing to the same printer, I wanted one with individual ink cartridges. This allows you to buy only the color that runs out, in the end saving you some money on expensive ink cartridges. Finally, although paper is generally pretty cheap, the option for double sided printing is one that you usually only get on large corporate printers. Having it at home has definitely helped to keep paper costs down. So that's why I bought the OfficeJet 6500 and it has definitely saved me money in those regards.

Basic Printing
During the time I've owned the OfficeJet 6500, I've probably printed just about every type of document there is. The text comes out really nice. The black ink is very black and very crisp, making the text documents look really professional. I have also been really impressed with it's image printing capabilities. Before, printing large images usually resulted in a wet, a little smudged page coming out. In comparison, once the OfficeJet 6500 finishes printing an image, it's dry to the feel, the paper is still flat, and the edges are really crisp. Before, I usually went to an outside source if I had to print an important document, like a resume, or one with a lot of images on it. Now, I have no problem using this printer. Finally, at 31 pages per minute, the printer is certainly pretty quick. I rarely print over 30 pages so printing is usually finished within a minute. I haven't noticed a significant time delay while using double sided printing either.

Copying
The copying function is really easy to use and produces equally impressive documents. While it usually takes a little bit of time for the copier to finish scanning, the results come out really nicely. Also, I've noticed that some copiers are really sensitive to folds or bends in the page, usually producing dark shadows on the results. So far, I've noticed only slight shadows, a big improvement to an annoying problem.

Scanning
With the wireless capability, extra functionality has been given to the OfficeJet's scanner. You can scan from the machine itself and send the document to any computer that is connected to the network. This is great if you have a home server or want to send the document to multiple locations. Also, if you would rather keep the scanned documents on a portable drive, you can connect it to the printer itself and just offload the scanned documents there. I've used both of these features and I can say that they work really well and make scanning a lot more convenient. The quality of the scans is just as good as the copies.

Unfortunately, I have yet to use the faxing feature. If I do come to use it, I will definitely update this review.

User Interface
Even with the extra features, I don't find the printer any more difficult to use than another printer. Everything that I have come across so far has been very intuitive and error free. Installing the printer on a home computer does take a while (around 3 hours) but the process is simple to follow. Additionally, I see other printers today with color screens. Unfortunately, the OfficeJet 6500 only has a text display. This isn't a huge feature but I would expect a printer of this caliber to include a color screen.

Conclusion
In the end, if you need a high quality printer for multiple computers, the wireless HP OfficeJet 6500 is a great option. If you only have one computer but would still like this great printer, HP does offer a wired version for around $90.00.