HP OfficeJet Pro 8710 All-in-One Wireless Printer, HP Instant Ink & Amazon Dash Replenishment ready (M9L66A)

This printer works beautifully and the scanner is outstanding. However, the ink is a killer. The subscription for the so-called "instant ink" costs 3.3 cents, 4 cents or 6 cents a page depending on whether you sign up for a charge of $9.99, $3.99 or $2.99 per month, respectively. Moreover, the instant ink subscription counts the merest number of characters as a full page of printing. For example, printing just the words "Instant Ink" in black ink counts as a full page of printing and would cost a minimum of 3.3 cents and could cost about a nickel depending on your plan. My solution was to buy (from Amazon) a refurbished Brother Compact Laser Printer for $69.50 and a set of INK4WORK® 2 Pack toner cartridges (from Amazon) costing $14.95 and yielding an estimated printed 5,200 pages. I am printing like crazy all black and white documents on the Brother printer which is a limited purpose machine but which has worked flawlessly. The ink cost for these black and white pages on the Brother is roughly .003 cents per page (thats 3 one thousandths of one cent or a thousand pages for $2.88). I have quit the instant ink program and purchased (from Amazon) a set of "high yield" cartridges for the HP Printer at a cost of $103.95. I will use these sparingly and only for documents which need color. By the way these HP "high yield" cartridges hold less ink than those supplied with the instant ink program. I will report on how many printed pages these "high yield" cartridges yield. In any case it seems to me that HP is charging a high price for ink -- too high for me.

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(I promised I would update as I find more to report on this printer and I am back again at the end of August 2016 to let you know I found another reason to up my original low rating another star. This one is important. SEE UPDATE AT THE END) ------------------------- I have been using HP printers for a VERY long time. I have also had the opportunity to use a lot of different brands of printers over the years, and have always come back to HP. HP has had issues at times, but for me, it has been an excellent quality printer for the most part. However, once I tested out this printer, I can see that something has changed. I have really tried to like this printer. I will do my best to make this review as brief as I can, but I will also try to outline the basic observations I have made with this printer. I plan to update more in the future as I continue to try to work with this, as it is something I am going to have to find a way to cope with. My current printer (HP Officejet K550 dtn) is on its way out and HP no longer supports it or sells printer heads for it. WHAT IS THIS PRINTER LIKE? First of all, you need to be sure you have the space to put this printer. It is rather large. If you have one of those compact computer desks with a retracting printer shelf, get ready to move the shelf way down almost to the bottom, keeping the bottom shelf for paper only. The top needs plenty of swing space to lift as well if you need to scan something. The screen on the front of the printer is very clear and easy to use. It is self explanatory when you set it up, guiding you through all of the steps. The printer comes with ink, basic instructions and a CDROM to set up the software. You can also get it online. This printer uses either wi-fi from your in house router that you have with internet or you can use the cloud online. You can also connect via USB port to a desktop or laptop if desired. PROBLEMS I HAVE ENCOUNTERED I have not tried to print photos from cameras or anything like that due to regular printer quality being so low, I am just trying to make it look decent for regular printing needs. I will update should I try to use it for photos. INK First of all putting the ink into the unit was frustrating. I have never seen such rickety sockets for ink cartridges in all of my years using printers- even the really cheap ones that I didnt like too much. This was ridiculous. There is a spring in the socket and the ink cartridge (which is also cheaply made) is supposed to press in and lock. The problem is that they dont always want to stay locked in. I had a problem several times of ink cartridges popping back out and the printer would not run. I have NEVER had that kind of problem with any printer. SOFTWARE The driver is really annoying. I am frustrated most of the time trying to use it. This printer is designed to be used by smartphones, tablets, laptops and a desktop. I have tried it with all four of these and the results are frustrating at best. Using android, it is very difficult to control the print and how it will turn out. Many times the pages are cut off and are not fit to page, and are really lousy looking. The laptop and desktop are also frustrating when used for online printing. I know there has to be more control somewhere, but it is not anywhere as intuitive and easy to use as it has been in the past. I do not have this hard wired into USB at this point, so perhaps things would be different at that point, but I am being hopeful here. PRINT QUALITY Besides being goofy looking, half cut off and adjustments not being easy to use, I have also had trouble with the ink printed on the page. When it does print, the quality of the print is horrible. I mean HORRIBLE. This looks like some of the lousy quality bubble jet printers I have used in the distant past (not all were lousy, just the lousy ones). The ink looks faded, very blurry and not strong colors at all like the other HP printers I have in my house. PAPER FEEDING I have been spoiled. In the past HP printers have had a tendency to be fussy with paper feeding. Usually a year or two of feeding paper and then they really mess up. The current printer I have had for 8 years has had NO problems feeding paper. If something gets jammed on the rare occasion (Bent paper or something) it is a snap to fix and it still goes strong. This printer, however, is a different story. It feeds paper okay, but then it feeds through multiple papers, or halfway paper, etc. I am not impressed. I am using the exact same paper in my very old printer and it feeds through fine- it is not the paper. THE BOTTOM LINE I can no longer buy printer heads for my beloved K550 Officejet printer, the best HP printer I have ever had. I would rather use that in a moment. The ink is vivid, colorful, crisp, and fast. The HP Officejet Pro 8710 is such a disappointment in comparison that I have a hard time liking it. The software is not as easy to use as HP software in the past and I am not very happy with it. The printer itself is easy to set up although the ink cartridges seem cheap as well as the sockets they are supposed to be pressed into. I have had problems with printing being fit onto the pages, ink quality, as well as paper feeding. I will continue to work with this printer, since I am stuck with it, but I am so far unimpressed. Perhaps I will find some more positive things about it to report and I will update should that happen. At this point, I dont like to have to work so hard just to make a printer do what it is supposed to and has done without much effort in the past. I am giving this two stars at this point, but it is open to change in the future should I have better experiences with this printer over time. UPDATE May 31, 2016 As I said I would, I have continued to try to work with this printer to see if I might be able to get more satisfactory results. I have printed out a photo which I had at the exact same time on two different printers so you can see the comparison. The HP Officejet Pro K550 has such amazing definition, contrast, etc, that I could print the photo on draft print and it would look perfect. This was done with regular ink printing on that printer. Again, I could have reduced it down to draft level and it still would look good. The HP Officejet Pro 8710 has almost no contrast, very grayish black, and a red tone to the photo which is awful. The K550 photo is much more true to life. The HP 8710 is not at all the level of performance that I am used to with HP printers. I will continue to work with the printer, but so far, I am disappointed. Should I have the need to attach it directly to my desktop instead of Wi-Fi, perhaps it would be different. For now, it is not great. If I can find solutions to my frustrations with this printer, I will update to let you know. For now, I am used to MUCH higher quality printing from HP printers. JULY 11,2016 UPDATE I wanted to amend my original rating to bump up my review one star. I have had the opportunity to use and interact with this printer a lot more and have found that there are some things that I have come to like about it that I didnt get to use much before. COPYING The copying feature is really nice. The paper sits in the feed slot and makes the printer kick in to prepare to copy the page. All I do is pick what I want to copy (Document, Photo, ID) and then the machine pulls in the paper, scans, and copies it and returns it out of the other slot. The result is a lot better than the photo results were when printed and sent from the same computer desktop that I previously posted. That leads me to wonder if the problem is in the drivers for the printer or if it just seems to do better when scanning in itself as a unit. The results for simple lined diagrams, illustrations and print are nice and accurate, unlike my photo experiences so far. INK This ink is pigment based ink which is important if you are doing any kind of industrial labeling which needs to have permanency to it with those special labels. FURTHER UPDATES COMING I will continue to update as I have a chance to get to know this printer more as I interact with it over time. If I can find out how to adjust the problems I have been having with it, I will surely let you all know and change my rating accordingly. I am not one to give up so easily so if I can improve the way that it has performed so far, I will let you know and pass it on. It has potential to be a great all in one printer, and I hope perhaps I can find ways to get it to work better. UPDATE JULY 24,2016 (THIS LOVE HATE RELATIONSHIP TAKES YET ANOTHER TURN) I promised I would update as I found more out about this printer and I am about to explain why I updated and added yet another star to my originally low rated review. Although I am still not thrilled with photo printing which is important to me that this printer does, it does do something else which is fantastic and has me thrilled to no end. I have had a need to print some high quality oil resistant labels. I could not afford to have them printed and wanted the creativity options to do my own. I came upon the Avery UltraDuty GHS Chemical Labels for Pigment Inkjet Printers, Waterproof, UV Resistant, 2"x4",500Pk (60525) which sounded perfect for what I needed to do. I designed labels which got me two out of each label on the sheet, but my stress was wondering how many labels would be wasted trying to make them line up as so many other printers have caused for me. Boy was I shocked when this printer printed them PERFECTLY like a CHAMP! I LOVE this printer for these labels. It is a pigment based ink and causes the labels to be permanent and resistant to oils, water, etc. I could not be more happy. SO, although this printer has frustrated me on a few things, it really is a champ on something I can not do with any other printer- print PERFECT labels that withstand water, oil, and corrosive materials without wasting labels with misprints. I could not be happier. So, I have raised my rating to four stars as of July 24,2016. I still wished that it would print higher quality photos, but the labels make up for it and have earned it a higher rating. Will add more should I find other things to report to you all! UPDATE IN AUGUST 2016 I am still loving this printer for labels. Pretty soon I will be able to comment for you all on the instant ink aspect as I will be testing that part out as well coming soon. Since I have a need to print out all kinds of labels for my essential oils, creams, body products, and other soaps, I will be needing to replenish the ink more quickly. Will be updating once I have tested that facet of this printer. Stay tuned for my love hate relationship with this printer. A REAL soap opera. (sorry, could not resist the pun there) UPDATE February 2017 - AUTOSHIP INK COMMENTS My autoship HP ink program started today. Yes, I have used this printer since I got it with the ORIGINAL print cartridges. The auto program gave me quite a few free months due to promotional pricing. I was alerted today after installing my cartridges that they sent to me (within a few days of signing up) and true to their promise, they did not start counting my days until the cartridges were in fact installed. I wanted to comment on that for anyone who wondered about it. I have the $9.99 program which allows for quite a few pages a month. I can go down if I like in the future.

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Ive been purchasing only HP printers for the past few decades. This time I reviewed the literature on-line and learned that (in the tech review) HP is a second-tier vendor. I ran through the Amazon reviews and leaned that nobody really likes home printers, and I can hardly fault that. However; the HP models reviewed on Amazon all came up as the least worst. My experience with this newly purchased printer has been excellent. I selected it because it has an oversized black cartridge (HP simply quit making the big cartridge for my older unit). I is quite large, so be prepared. It takes up a third of my utility table (excellent deal, I got is from Amazon). Installation was straightforward and tool about 30-45 minutes. I ran the installation from the printer panel and my cell phone. When the install was done, the web interface for the printer came up on my desktop system (this was all via WiFi). I also got the latest setup software from the HP website and ran a full install on my desktop (another 20 minutes) with no hitches. I then printed some text, no problem and thereafter an 8x11 full-color image. It printed in less than 20 seconds and did a creditable job. Ive no comment about the photo printing, because Ive not done that. If I do get some photo paper and try it, Ill amend the review.

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