Review: HP OfficeJet Pro 8600 Plus

HP knew what it was doing when it attached the 'e-All-in-One' label to its OfficeJet Pro 8600 Plus device. It's a printer, copier, scanner, fax machine and specialised photo printer packed into a sleek machine - and it performs.

The device is aimed at businesses that need a wired or wireless, Web-connected all-in-one machine that offers low-cost printing and a host of mobility features. It's the big brother of the OfficeJet Pro 8100 and offers quite a few more features than its predecessor.

The Pro 8600 Plus is a good-looking machine. It's sleek and black with matt finishes and does not come off as being bulky, despite its jam-packed capabilities. The all-black design gives it a somewhat elegant feel, which is enhanced by the 4.3-inch interactive touch-panel to the right of the machine.

The panel can either be used flush with the machine's front surface, or it can be angled upwards. It provides instant access to the device's main functions - print, copy, scan, fax - as well as to print apps.

The device has a 50-sheet automatic document feeder at the top, which can be used to fax or scan documents. It also facilitates two-sided printing, copying and scanning.

The scan glass allows for scanning of documents up to legal size.

To the bottom-left of the machine, users will find slots for one USB stick and one memory card. These offer instant photo printing, although they would have been more useful if they picked up Word and other office documents for printing, and not only photographs - but more on this in a bit.

The Pro 8600 Plus has a 150-sheet output tray and a 250-sheet input tray.

At the back of the machine, users will find built-in wireless networking, a fax port, an Ethernet networking cable and a USB 2.0 port.

The Pro 8600 Plus is very easy to set up and users have a number of options when doing this. A software CD is provided that is loaded onto a PC in minutes. Users can also connect the device to a WiFi network, search for it on the network, and download the software from the Internet. I set up my desktop PC with the CD and my laptop through the WiFi network and both were very easy and hassle-free. My and my husband's iPhones, which are also connected to the WiFi network, picked up the device instantly and we were able to print from our phones straight away. In fact, any device that was connected to the WiFi network was able to pick up the printer.

For office environments, users can also connect the device to an Ethernet network.

The Pro 8600 Plus uses individual ink cartridges, so users only need to replace inks as they run dry. These are very simple to insert - they simply pop in and the printer does the rest in terms of aligning the printheads and printing a test page.

The touch panel is super responsive, intuitive and user-friendly. Aside from allowing users to choose between main functions, like copy, scan and fax, the panel also allows users to adjust settings, access printing apps, get help and check the printer's status.

The 'Eco' option lets users adjust screen brightness, switch to two-sided printing, set a timer for when the machine must go to sleep (eg after 10 minutes of non-use) and set a schedule for specific times of the day that the machine must turn on and off - handy for office use, as users can opt to only have the machine on between 8am and 5pm, for example. This obviously saves energy, contributing to the machine's green status.

The Web services icon checks the status of the device and informs users whether an update is needed. From here, users can adjust Web services settings, turn ePrint on or off, print an information page, update the printer, set the Web proxy, turns apps on or off, or remove Web services.

The information, or status, report is quite a nifty feature. In one page, users are provided with a summary on general printer information, such as model name and number, connectivity settings, scan settings and scan usage information, fax settings and fax usage information as well as print usage information (who's printing what). This is particularly handy, as it outlines the total number of pages printed, broken down into colour and borderless pages. The status report also shows ink levels, printhead information and options for additional assistance, such as fax test set-up and wireless network test.

The Discover icon offers work-smart tips, eco tips on how to save money and energy, recycling tips, a digital office, which, among other options, shows users how to manage hardcopy documents by creating and storing digital versions, and an HP product tour.

The Fax icon allows users to view the fax log, enable auto answer, adjust fax volume and toggle fax settings.

The Ink icon displays ink levels and specifies compatible ink cartridges.

Buttons on the outside of the panel include a 'home' option, navigation arrows, a help option and an indicator light that turns blue when the printer is connected to a WiFi network and flashes when data is travelling over the network.

Users navigate the touch panel options by either using the left and right arrow keys or by swiping the screen. All screen functions are easy to understand and navigate.

Moreover, the panel can be password-protected, ensuring safety of documents.

The range of printing options offered by the Pro 8600 Plus is sure to serve any office well. As mentioned above, users can print from any device (up to five, both PC and Mac) on a shared WiFi or Ethernet network. While software has to be loaded on all PCs, smartphones are able to print instantly.

Those not connected to the network can download the ePrint app onto their mobile devices, enabling them to print from any location. The device is also compatible with Apple AirPrint, enabling users to print wirelessly from their iPads, iPhones or iPod touches.

There are a host of other printing options, too. One option that fascinated me for hours and which worked really well was the e-mail to print feature. Each HP OfficeJet printer has a unique e-mail address. Sending e-mails (with or without attachments) to this address lets users print documents from anywhere they may be in the world, and they are even sent a confirmation e-mail that the machine has received and is processing the print job. I often resorted to this option when my laptop failed to pick up the device, presenting the first annoyance.

I connected the device to my laptop by searching for it on the network and downloading the software from the Internet. It worked perfectly for the first few days, but then kept telling me the device was offline - even though the WiFi indicator light on the device itself showed otherwise. Restarting the laptop, turning the printer on and off, and resetting the WiFi connection did not bring the printer back online, according to my laptop, which was somewhat frustrating.

The beauty of a network-connected OfficeJet Pro 8600 Plus is that users can scan documents and save them directly to any computer on the network, saving on unnecessary printing. Faxes can be saved in a similar way. Users can also save scanned documents directly to a USB stick or memory card by simply selecting that option prior to scanning. Documents are saved in a neat 'HP Scans' folder on the memory device. And as if that wasn't enough, users can also e-mail scanned documents to any address, directly from the machine. HP has effectively removed the PC from the printing process.

Printing directly from a USB stick or memory device was counter-intuitive, however. The printer only picks up photographs, ignoring any other document types. Printing Word documents, Excel spreadsheets or PDF files straight from a memory device would be super handy, but in this case, it is overlooked. Users can overcome this by saving their files in JPEG, TIFF or PNG format, although this is probably more effort than it's worth.

When copying a document, users can activate HP Copy Fix, which automatically enhances printouts by removing dark edges and fixing page skew problems for back and white copies.

Users can also resize documents, for example, to fit to page, reduce to 72% or enlarge to 94%. They can also fit two A4 documents side-by-side onto one A4 page. Users also have the option to preview how their documents will print before printing, choose whether to print in colour or monochrome, select how many copies they wish to print, adjust colour saturation and choose whether to do a single- or double-sided print - all from the touch panel.

With HP Direct Digital Filing, users can scan documents directly to folders on a network or share the documents as e-mail attachments without the need for additional scanning software. With HP Digital Fax, users can save incoming faxes to a folder on the network or forward the faxes through e-mail. Users can turn the printing of faxes off altogether if they wish to save ink and paper.

The HP OfficeJet Pro 8600 Plus has a dedicated photo-printing feature that allows users to edit photos before printing. Options include rotation, cropping, red eye removal, brightness adjustment and the application of colour effects, including sepia and antique. All changes are made on the touch panel before printing.

The 'Create' option lets users create their own photo albums, wallet photos and passport photos - a blessing if you need to make that dreaded trip to the licensing department; one less queue to stand in.

The Pro 8600 Plus' print quality cannot be faulted. Text is crisp and clear and colours are sharp, although I would definitely recommend using the correct paper when printing photos.

I experienced a few hiccups when printing, though. For example, when printing long documents (20-odd pages), the printer would pick up additional blank pages, so users have to pick all these out before stapling their documents together. Also, the printer sometimes cut off the last line of text, meaning users have to reprint some documents. Moreover, for some reason, the printer would pick up the last three pages in the tray, which was also a bit annoying. I can't say if this was the paper I used (Mondi green range) or the machine itself.

The device prints at ISO speeds up to 20 ppm black and 16 ppm colour. It prints documents in draft mode at speeds up to 35 ppm black and colour.

The Pro 8600 Plus comes preloaded with a number of print apps, including Google Docs, CommSuccess, ManagerTools, RTT News, Calendar (Google), Yahoo Daily Digest, Health4Life, DreamWorks, Sudoku and Daily Games.

I found the Google Docs app particularly handy. By just logging into their Google accounts on the device, users can access and print their documents saved in Google. They can also save scans and faxes directly to their Google Docs accounts.

The DreamWorks app is quite cute. Users can choose their favourite DreamWorks movie and can then print images of characters, colouring pages, door hangers, bookmarks, puzzles and games.

The RTT News, Health4Life and Yahoo Daily Digest apps are all news apps. Users can print either as and when they want the news, or they can schedule the device to automatically print the news every day. What was a little annoying here is that, while users can activate the daily news printing on the device, they have to log onto hpeprintcenter.com to deactivate this option. Users can also access and download more apps from this site.

The HP OfficeJet Pro 8600 Plus is Energy Star-qualified, consuming up to 50% less energy and using up to 70% fewer supplies than laser printers.

The HP OfficeJet Pro 8600 Plus truly is an all-in-one device. I believe it is ideally suited to the small or home office. The fact that it's easy to use and set up, with intuitive features, makes it perfect for those offices that don't have a dedicated IT team.

The Pro 8600 Plus lets users do it all - print, scan, copy, fax, e-mail and save documents - from one device and at lower cost than laser printers.

While the USB/memory card functionality is useful, it would be even more so if users could print Word and other documents, not just photographs, straight from these devices.

The printing hiccups - such as cutting off the bottom line of text and inserting random blank pages between long documents - are a bit of a nuisance but don't occur constantly.

Considering what it packs, the device is not badly priced and comes highly recommended.