PRINTING. The HP Officejet Pro 8100 prints using inkjet technology, which sprays liquid ink onto the paper from a moving head. It prints photos on glossy paper that are fine for casual users, but not as good as most inkjet printers. Photo printing was reasonably fast, 1.1 minutes for a 4x6, costing 30 cents. Its text printing is Good, though not as good as most inkjets. Text printing was very quick, 12.5 pages per minute, costing 1.6 cents per page. It prints color graphics well enough for most purposes, such as school reports, at 4 pages per minute, costing 9.4 cents per page. It has auto-duplex printing to print both on sides of the page, with no loss of quality. The capacity of the main paper tray is 250 sheets, a generous size.
CONTROLS and DISPLAY. The printer has a small 1.8-inch display screen.
CONNECTIVITY and NETWORKING. You can connect directly to a PC with a USB cable, or to your network router either wirelessly with WiFi or with an Ethernet cable. Apple AirPrint and Google Cloud Print are built-in, to print wirelessly from smartphones, tablets and PCs. You can also install HP's app on your smart phone or tablet, as another option for printing over your WiFi network. You can also print an email remotely by forwarding it directly to this printer.
COST OF OWNERSHIP AND INK. When this section was last updated, the printer's purchase price was about $150, typical for an inkjet printer. Printing uses up ink. Over time, as you print, the costs add up. This printer uses 4 cartridges. The HP ink cartridges used in testing were the 950XL, 951XL C, 951XL M, and 951XL Y. At the time, their prices were $37, $28, $28, and $28 respectively. We estimate the cartridges to last a very long time: around 11.9 months. After 2 years of typical use, we estimate the total cost to be $311, typical for an inkjet. The estimated yearly cost is $80, also typical for this printer type. So the 3-, 4- and 5-year estimates are $391, $472 and $552 respectively.
PRINTER FIRMWARE. Firmware is software that exists inside the printer. All models are evaluated using the latest firmware version available at the time of testing.
SOFTWARE. The collection of software accompanying the printer may include: the printer driver, printer applications, electronic user manual, (and for all-in-ones:) scanning, faxing, and OCR apps. These get installed on your personal computer. All models are evaluated with a Windows 10 PC using the latest version of printer driver and printer support apps available at the time of testing. The software version was 9.84.0.1189.
