****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
Like many, I came to buy this printer after my faithful, six year old, Canon MP830 died. The HP 8630 is the same size as the Canon MP830 so as large as the 8630 is, it fit right into the same desk slot the MP830 occupied. Funny how electronics choose to die. Six years, not a hiccup and then after finishing the printing of an important letter which I found in need of a grammatical correction, the sucker dies and me needing to do a reprint as I had already shredded the other copy.Seriously!? :PNeeding a replacement printer yesterday, after speed reading through about twenty reviews that were found in the normal online tech magazines, and after looking over the all important Amazon reviews, I ordered a HP Officejet Pro 8630 from Amazon on the basis of unit price, price per page printing costs and print efficiency.A common thread I found with all manufactures and printer reviews, they have out of box quality control issues that are in the fifteen to twenty percent rate. Should this unit fail on arrival (DOA), the solution for someone with an urgent need for a printer who's newly arrived printer is DOA, don't get mad, simply buy a cheap $69.00 - $89.00 printer while fussing with any exchange issues one may encounter. That might sound like a strange expensive solution but eye on the ball, we need our printers printing. So far, this printer is working fine but it never hurts to have a plan B to keep life moving forward when plan A fails.With two day Prime delivery, the printer arrived on time and within a few hours, the printer was unboxed, up and running. I use a printer at home for letter writing and the occasional color image print.Un-boxed and in place, the unit has a sleek, unobtrusive look that exudes a quiet confidence in it's ability to do what's asked of it. Time will tell on this point but overall, in my opinion, it's a good looking unit.First things first, I did not install the second tray but should it be needed, it's nice to know it's right there in the garaged shipping box. For those who are curious, the second tray is nothing more than a base (with a paper transport mechanism installed) which the rest of the printer sits on. This adds about three inches to the overall height of the printer. I have additional print paper close at hand so I don't have need to keep a ream of paper installed in the print paper drawer. YMMV if using the 8630 in a commercial environment. Considering the price of the extra tray, features and the additional ink cartridges, I consider the price of the upgrade to the 8630, to be money well spent.Regarding setup, it's was easy and overall, setup was painless. To put things together and get the electric cord plugged in, was a snap. The first part of the printer initialization process, a snap. Once the password to the router was entered, getting the printer to recognize the wi-fi router, again, a snap. The trouble came when I tried to print and nothing in the directions told me that I needed to pick a printer from the print page menu. And nothing told me the software had failed to self-install. So for the next hour or so, there I was, rooting around like a pig looking for truffles.The CD automatically downloaded to the HDD but it didn't auto-install. I checked the program's list and the HP icon didn't show. So I checked the computer CD location, found "Set-up," double clicked on the icon and smoothly went through the set-up process.Overall, I found reviews for this unit to be very supportive. Overall, other than a normal amount of out of box issues, I found this printer to have a good operating reputation. Below is the most informative professional review that I found.http://www.computershopper.com/printers/reviews/hp-officejet-pro-8630-e-all-in-one-printerWe have two computers in our home. Both with need of print capability and due to the wireless feature, we have two computers using the one printer. Sweet. :DWhen it comes to printing, a very well receiver feature, is the two sided print option. Instead of having to stop and feed the sheet back into the printer so one can print both sides, tell the printer to print both sides and in a matter of seconds, your work is ejected with both sides of the sheet printed on. Very nice. It takes but a few seconds for the printer to warm up and another few seconds to spit out a three or four page letter, printed both sides. Double sweet!I have no complaints about print or color picture print quality. The print quality isn't the sharp edge print quality of a laser printer but overall, due to the printer being an inkjet printer, the print quality is as good as any print quality I've had the pleasure to share with other readers. My printer experience goes all the way back to the nine pin dot matrix printers that were on the market in 1982.As I use the printer, if any additional changes or additions need to be made, I will return and amend my above comments.At $200.00, with an extra paper tray and set of ink cartridges, to me, this is a well priced unit. Before buying, in my head, I had a printer budget of $250.00 - $350.00. The final price of this unit, two-day Prime shipping with state and local sales tax included, was $214.99. In my mind's eye, that's a good printer price.Wishing all you home office warriors well.
