HP OfficeJet 6500 Wireless All-in-One Comments

I have done my own testing on this product and there are 5 items that should be mentioned. The one I tested was the 6500 wireless model number E709n this comes with duplexing. (I may be mistaken but one of the photos that is shown shows a duplexer attached to the product you tested.)

1)In the US there are 3 variations of this product all with the same name but not all come with the same feature set so the end user has to pay attention to the model number to make sure they get the one they want.
2)Here HP advertises a print speed of 32 ppm black and 31 ppm color with a “Laser Quality Speed” of 7 ppm black and 7 ppm color in my testing using the default setting (automatic 600 X 600) it came out to approximately 7 ppm black and 5 ppm color. But not all HP venders state the laser quality speed.
3)The HP datasheet it states a copy speed of 32cpm black and 31cpm color. No mention of laser quality speed. During the copy testing it became very apparent that this product could not even come close to that stated speed using default settings and real world documents.
4)Because my unit comes with duplexing I also tested this feature. HP does not quote a duplex speed and this is good thing for HP. Because if a person were to buy this product hoping to get a simple 3 page duplex document out in about one minute The end user would be very disappointed. As the product took over 2 minutes to do this. The reason is the unit waits about 18 seconds before it starts to print the other side of the document so the ink can completely dry.
5)As far as cost per page this is a guessing game with HP as you know there is no indication on the front panel or on the status page regarding a percentage or page count remaining. So to quote a cost per page in this case is not very useful and may be counter productive. In my testing using equivalent page count based on approximate known page coverage. Comparing that information with the visual boxes HP offers as a usage rate. My guess is the end user using default settings for most documents would get approx 30% less then what HP states the yield should be.
I must thank you for allowing people to submit their comments and give the other side of an issue. Keep up the Good Work even if I do not allways agree.

@Simon - as with many reviews of All-in-One units there is no mention of scan speed + quality. For many people a device like this with ADF could be a serious contender for paperless document archiving, especially as the other features of the unit appear to be very good. Typically small businesses and home users tend to scan documents in grayscale at 200dpi resolution, so a speed test with these settings would be a valuable addition to the review.

Can TR confirm whether or not this device can scan & copy in duplex (double-sided) mode from the ADF (Auto Doc Feeder) - as not all ADFs are equal in this respect.

Overall, I'm a little disappointed in TR's coverage of Printers / Scanners / All-In-One's - the depth of the reviews is very shallow compared with the normally excellent standard of your other product categories.

Please TR, review your coverage of such devices and bring them in line with your superb TV & Video product reviews.

Jake is correct, there are two versions of this printer, one with wifi and one without.

I brought one from Ebuyer based on this review, paid £135 for it, then discovered it was minus the wifi.

Why the hell do HP use the exact same model number for two different models!?

HP6500 and HP6500W, is that too difficult for them?

I just wanted to add that I have just bought the wifi version which I am absolutely thrilled with; installing was very easy and print quality great BUT I cannot print from quickbooks without first making a pdf. After hours of Trouble shooting over the phone with Quickbooks, they tell me their software dosen't work with wifi. Had I known this I would not have bought it! Ahhhhhh!

For the record HP have advised me how to fix the problem by installing another Driver for Quickbooks; Deskjet990c. using this driver fixes the problem.

I have had the J6480 now for about a year. One of the most frustrating pieces of equipment I have ever operated. Keeps going off line, loads up your machine with all kinds of superfluous programs, and uses up ink like crazy. I am off this morning to purchase another machine that, hopefully, will not turn my hair as gray as this one has!

Don't be fooled by the manufacturers claims the printer driver is littered with defects and HP supportt have been unable to remedy any of the problems after 4 months.

The problems are:
1. If a document contains a landscape page then the page orientation in duplex and booklet printing is incorrect.
2. In duplex printing the margings are diouble the size stated.
3. The user defined settings for draft normal, single sidded and double sided printing cannot be saved as described in the manual.
4. The print speed is much ;lower than stated.
5. Several scanner resoltion options do not work. Sadly if you select them all appdears well but no output file is created.
6. Output resolution cannot be set for inmmage files.
7. The scan to button is unreliable. It works to one computer on my network and not the other.
8. HP state on their web pages that if you need to replace the separate printhed you should contact them. After 3 months of inquiries , having been asked to contact trade only suppliers because HP had no stock I learnt that HP do not suipply the replecement printheads. I was also told that the warranty period for a printhead was the same as for a cartridge 90 days.

I plan to return my printer and I will be providing full details of the problems to the retailer with the recommendation that they withdraw the product from sale.

I could not recommend this product to my worsatr enemy, well perhaps my very worst enemy.

Oh by the way when I first contacted HP technical support I was asked to install the 990cxi driver and told to use that driver. A drivere for a 15 year old printer with no fax and no scanner. This is a positive reflection of the standard of support that you can expect from HP and is not an isolated case.

I can support all my comments with documentation including the advice to use a 990cxi driver.