This piece is a complete departure from the fiction or personal essays I usually write. Today, I’m offering you a few observations from both a technical and layperson’s viewpoint on a piece of technology — the HP Office Pro 9015 scan jet printer.
I must admit, I’m just a tad biased here.
First off, the laptop I’m typing this article on is an HP. I have a laptop and a desktop down in my office (I’m upstairs in the kitchen at the moment) both HP(s). Connected to the two downstairs computers are HP scan jet printers and upstairs the recent addition to my HP family the HP Office Pro 9015 scan jet printer via a wireless connection.
Yeah, we’re definitely an HP kind of home.
There were several reasons I chose the HP Office Pro 9015. The first was the original wireless printer (I bet you can’t guess the maker) decided to go to the big scan jet heaven in the sky a couple of days ago. It was long overdue anyway. I’d had the HP OfficeJet 6600 for almost seven and a half years so I’d definitely gotten my money’s worth for it.
I’m going to miss him/her…
Okay, I’m over that.
So immediately after the dearly departed printer gasped its last print job, I logged onto HP.com and started looking for another one. What suits this household is usually what they call a three-in-one scan jet printer. This means you can print, scan, and fax using the same piece of equipment.
Fax?
Who uses a fax machine anymore?
Okay, so if my family ever needs to send a facsimile to Andrew Carnegie about taking a pleasure ride on the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, we’ll have the capability. Or is that telegraph?
Whatever.
I usually consider three primary things when I purchase any type of electronic equipment. Price (of course), ease of installation, and ease of use. So, for the rest of this review, I’ll be covering these three topics.
Price
As the price goes the HP Office Pro 9015 comes in at the low and middle range. Anyone who’s shopped for scan jet printers knows several models can tap you for something in the neighborhood of a thousand bucks or better. Of course, the price is usually comparative with the requirement. If you’re buying a business printer that is going to get a grueling daily workout, the last thing you want to do is purchase something intended for home use. And vice, versa.
I chose the HP Office Pro 9015 because it was a good price and well-suited for home use. At $258.00 US which included tax and shipping, it was definitely a bargain. Plus, having owned HP printers before (remember my Office Pro 6600?) I knew how well built and dependable HP’s line of home-use scan jets are.
Not a huge dent in the pocketbook and reasonable dependability to boot.
Ease Of Installation
Full disclaimer here. I’ve been working in the technology field for the last thirty years. I’ve installed my share of dot matrix, laser printers, hard drives, monitors, and computer system boards.
And I still read the installation instructions.
Interestingly enough, the HP Office Pro 9015 comes with a one-page installation manual with no words. The entire installation process is encapsulated with a series of pictures.
Go figure.
So what did I do? I followed the pictures.
- Lift the lid.
- Take the protective cover off the scan bed
- Plug the electrical cord into the back of the printer (only one possible way)
- Plug the other end into a wall receptacle (only one possible way)
- Turn the printer on.
- Drop the front panel
- Insert the black ink cartridge in the slot designated by color
- The cyan
- The blue
- The yellow
- Close the front panel
And…you’re done
Ah, not so fast there buckaroo. Although that part of the installation was a cake-walk, the next was a little bit more time-consuming. As I said earlier, I had an HP wireless three-in-one previously installed. This is important so listen up. If you previously owned an HP wireless three-in-one, when you log into 123.hp.com to download the HP Smart installation package and launch it, don’t be surprised if it thinks it sees your dearly departed printer. What it sees is the original drivers on your system, and that you already have HP Smart installed on your system.
No sweat, here’s what you do.
On your computer, go into device manager/printers and delete your old printer. Then uninstall HP Smart and reboot. Then hit 123.hp.com again, download HP Smart, and follow the installation process.
Now, if you’re feeling rather techy smart and want to connect your new printer to your wireless network via the control panel on the new printer here’s a tip.
Don’t do that.
Part of the HP Smart process is the configuration and connection of the wireless device in the printer to your wireless network. When it gets to that part and tries to do what you did on the control panel it confuses the installation process entirely.
You can (I did) sit at one particular window for the better part of thirty minutes with no progress. Regardless of how competent you are or think you are around printers, it’s best to let the installation process do its thing.
Ease Of Use
I could provide you a litany of the features HP provides on their promo regurgitation about pages per minute and all that jazz. But I’m not going to do that. The reality is unless you have a major case of OCD and I mean like major, you’re not going to send a fifteen-page print job to this printer and then start your stopwatch on the sucker.
I measure the speed of a printer by how fast the thing prints out something when I’m really in a hurry. If I’m forced to sit around and wait; tapping my foot in anticipation, the printer is too damned slow for my taste. If it cranks the print job out before I have a chance to ponder the plight of my rapidly dwindling bank account then it’s good enough for me.
Oh, there’s one other thing.
For those who appreciate the ability to print from your phone (a necessity in this house), there is a specific setting you need to manage from your HP Smart application. If you don’t do these setting changes, each time you attempt to print from your phone a request for permission to print pops up on the printer’s control panel.
You have thirty seconds to get to the printer and press the “okay” button. Even if you do the printer has already sent a “printer not available” signal back to your phone.
Unless you really want to get your exercise running from your phone to your printer I’d suggest you make these changes. Start HP Smart then:
- Click on Printer Settings
- Settings
- Advanced Settings
- Click on Network >Wi-Fi Direct>Status
- Edit Settings
- The following settings need to be in place. Status — On. Wifi Direct name — [Direct-93-HP] (it will automatically give your printer a name). In my case, it named it Office Jet Pro 9010. Direct-93-HPOfficeJetPro9010.
I was hoping for something a little snazzier like THISISMYDAMNEDPRINTERANDDON’TYOUEVERFORGETIT, but hey, beggars can’t be choosers.
- Print <automatic>
- Select Apply then exit out of HP Smart and you’re finished.
To sum it up, from a cost perspective the HP Scan Jet Pro 9015, is right in the sweet spot for most of us. The installation is easy and almost intuitive except for a couple of spots. The printer performs dependably with a quality above most other Scanjet printers.
If you need a printer, give the HP Scan Jet Pro 9015 a try. You won’t be disappointed.
Thank you so much for reading. You didn’t have to, but I’m certainly glad you did.
Let’s keep in touch: paul@pgbarnett.com
© P.G. Barnett, 2020. All Rights Reserved.
