Hi, I'm Justin Yu, associate editor for cnet.com.
This is your first look at the HP Officejet Pro 8500A Plus.
It has do it all multifunction and ample set of features that includes wireless AirPrint and ePrint technology, double sided printing and hand-free copying, but its ambitious price tag and lack of business setting features has its recommending competitive model from Epson.
The 8500A Plus looks great and that's a new all black design, but you will need to clear some room
on your desk port at 28 pounds, it will take some work to move it around your desk, but once you have it situated, you'll notice a single 250 sheet input tray that protrudes at the front and you'll also get a 50 page auto document feeder for scanning and copying stocks of documents hands free and that might sound good, but the Epson Workforce 840 actually has all of the above plus dual 250 sheets input tray thus winning the deal.
Epson also tramps this HP on the size of its display.
While HP give an ample
4.3-inch touch sensitive color display, Epson actually surrounds its own color LCD with a larger 8-inch touch panel that provide additional navigation button, but we do wanna give HP credit for bundling in 2 unique features that makes the 8500A stand out that's AirPrint and ePrint.
Using AirPrint, you can print your photo from your iPhone without installing any additional software and ePrint lets you send jobs from any connective device to the printer using a unique email address assigned to every printer that's shipped from HP.
They're both convenient, but also come bundled on other current models that we actually prefer over this one.
So, at the end of the day, the 8500A Plus has impressive speed and output quality aren't quite enough to offset its high price tag and questionably useful features.
We're thinking that home users won't really take advantage of the fax functionality and business would rather trade AirPrint and ePrint for an additional paper tray.
This and other missteps lead to recommend the Epson Workforce 840 instead.
That's an editor's choice winner that cost less and does more.
You can read all the details about this printer in our full review on cnet.com, but that's gonna do it for me.
I'm Justin Yu, and you just took a first look at the HP Officejet Pro 8500A Plus
