Home > Consumer Reviews > HP Officejet 6500 Network Enabled All-in-One Multifunction Colour Inkjet Printer, Scanner, Copier, and Fax

Like other reviewers, I too had a few problems setting up this printer but with a little patience it can be done. In fact the second time I had to install it (don't ask - I blame my son!) it was a cinch. Once up and running the HP 6500 is a great little all-in-one for the money. Yes, it is noisy on start up but print quality is excellent and running cost reasonable. Running costs would be even better if HP supplied full ink catridges with their printers instead of the spit of ink they put in the introductory cartridges.

HP have made a great printer here - I purchased it specifically for it's advertised ability to scan directly to a network share. Frustratingly, it doesn't seem that this can be achieved without first connecting the printer to your computer and using the supplied HP Software, which doesn't run on Windows 7. HP's website says that you'll have to wait until "late November 2009" before they've released the full driver and software package.

That said, however, if it's basic printing and scanning you want, Windows 7 will support it using its own in-built drivers and the "Windows Fax and Scan" software.

My advice to you would be that if you really want this printer and are using Windows 7, wait a little longer for the software to be released to get the best experience possible.

The printer is well constructed (if a little plasticy), and a clearly laid out control panel. The multi-function display is simple to use and communicates useful information. The automatic document feeder is a nice touch, too - and seems to work well so far.

So far so good with this product, good print quality, sheet feeder a big plus, quieter than the older HP product that it replaced, still to see how long the ink lasts. seems to do alot of cleaning after every print.
I would recomend this printer.

This is a great printer, but not for the usual reasons. Sure it scans, copies and prints but these days they all do that.

For me there are a few touches that make this one special. The ADF makes scanning and faxing easy as cake (it sucks in the pages one at a time for you). Put a piece of paper in it and it beeps and confirms loading, just a little touch that makes it a pleasure to use. The "in tray" for your plain paper sits underneath the "out tray" where printed pages come out. This makes a lot more sense than having it hanging at the back - it just seems tidier, takes up less space and your pages don't end up bending under their own weight. Less plastic to break off too. The "wireless" model has an automated duplexer (prints both sides automatically) which is great, but as long as this is cheaper then for personal or small business use the manual duplex on this is great. The printer drivers make it very easy to duplex: prints odd pages first, then asks you to move them back to the other tray (which is easy because it's right underneath the out tray), then prints the even pages, sucking through any extra odd page at the end that may be blank on the back too. You don't need wireless functionality either as this takes an ethernet cable or USB cable, so for a wireless set up it just needs to be connected via ethernet to your wireless router.

Printer works without any of HP's software or drivers through plug & play with Windows 7, but the HP software does enhance functionality a little so worth downloading from their website.

One last little feature that made me really enjoy this printer is its shape and size. It fits in really quite well wherever you put it, much better than any other printer I've used (and I've been through a fair few Canon and Epson printers). Also, it has "borderless" printing. It may be another common function these days but it annoys me when printers can't do it.

One word of warning though: if you're printing text in draft mode make sure the little catch bar at the end of the out tray is up, otherwise the pages shoot out across the room (they come out very quickly).

I bought this to replace my old all in one HP printer, and with me no longer having a desktop computer I went for this due to it's wireless functionality.

The printer is a joy to use, easy to setup. The only thing that slightly bugged me was that I had to download the software for Windows 7.