Review on HP OfficeJet Pro 6978 AIO Wireless Printer, HP Instant Ink, Compatible with Alexa (T0F29A) by Travis Oetting

HP printers have always been with me. Our old HP all-in-one was still working after 12 years but the scanner bed was getting dirty and I also decided it was time for an upgrade as I needed two-sided printing as well as the ability to wirelessly scan from my iPhone and iPad to press. A nearby office warehouse was closing and having a massive sale to get rid of all my inventory, so I decided to check out the print shops thinking I could strike a flashy deal. I spoke to one of the salespeople about my needs and she said that this is a very popular model that has all the features I need and then some. When it went on sale, the price was reduced from $180 to $153. Before I buy it I do what I always do and test out the Revain and was shocked to find that the exact same printer in the exact same box with Prime is only $99! I said goodbye to Office Depot (no wonder they're closing) and went home and ordered it! I have to say I LOVE this printer so far! First, it was the easiest printer to set up! I mean I really couldn't believe it! I'm a gadget whiz (built my own PC) and was willing to spend an hour unboxing, powering on, calibrating, setting up on my network, and connecting to my wireless printing devices. I'm used to that. Setting up this printer was AWESOME at how easy it was! You literally take it out of the box and remove all the foam, plastic, etc., plug it into the wall, press the power button, insert the ink (SO easy) and follow the on-screen instructions to align the cartridges. After it aligned, the touchscreen told me to go to hp.com/setup to download the drivers I needed. My computer/network automatically recognized the printer and knew what drivers I needed. Downloading and installing was a breeze! You can use the included floppy disk instead, but I didn't even take it out of my sleeve. The only thing I want to say about HP and their software is that they tend to overdo it. I recommend choosing the option that lets you choose which additional programs you want to install, rather than letting HP do it for you. I always end up with a lot more than I expect and end up deleting a lot of bloated programs I don't use that just take up disk space like HP Photo etc. I use Photoshop. There is an option only for the main drivers that you can choose from. Your printer works great with them and you don't end up on a blog with unwanted software. Although it still works great. I've tried both. The driver installation took 5 minutes. I then grabbed my iPhone and downloaded the HP ePrint app, which IMMEDIATELY recognized my printer and connected to it on its own! You can use it to print photos, the web, email and the cloud. GREAT! Here it is! In about 12 minutes out of the box I was fully set up, connected and typing! Here are a few other things I love about this printer: - Fastest setup of any printer (yes, I know I've mentioned this before, but it's worth repeating). No need to manually enter IP addresses or anything like that! The design is very stylish and modern. I love anything black with a small color screen! It's pretty sexy, like Drucker! - Small/thin profile. For everything this printer does and how well/fast it does, it really is very small! MUCH smaller than my old HP all in one! The touch screen is really high quality! I often get annoyed with touchscreens at checkouts and other places because they aren't very sensitive to your finger or pressing on a spot causes the adjacent button to be selected. This does NOT apply to this touchscreen. I find it very sensitive and accurate and also the display is clear and beautiful! - AUTOMATIC DOUBLE-SIDED PRINTING AND SCANNING. Hallelujah! - Printing is very fast and the print quality is excellent, especially for photos! - I LOVE that this printer only requires one cable (if you don't want to use the fax function) and it works so well wirelessly! - Printing from an app on my mobile devices is my new favorite thing to do. Unlike my old printer, this guy is quiet when it prints. It's a small thing, but I live with a 4 year old autistic child and a husband who talks on the phone like he's calling in air support for a military strike, so sometimes the little things make a big difference! Really amazing! I rarely give 5 star reviews to be honest, but this printer really deserves it, from the price to the settings, features and functionality. I highly recommend this printer for all your home office needs! And no, I didn't get it for free or at a discount. I paid full price for it and would do it again! I hope this helps someone else looking for an Office update! UPDATE 01/21/17. After a few weeks I started having problems with this printer turning itself off spontaneously and the only way to get it back online was to restart my computer. Around the same time we bought a Roku 4 and started having problems with streaming. The signal kept breaking off. I finally found out that it was our router which, after being a great workhorse for many years, was badly outdated in its "technical years" and needed replacing. I bought an Asus dual band router and since I installed it not only do we have flawless streaming, but the printer now stays "online" all the time! If you're having trouble turning off the printer, I would look at your network settings before blaming the printer itself.