Picking up this unit, I had pretty high expectations. HP has always produced excellent printers; in fact, back in the 90s they were better known as a printer (and possibly calculator) manufacturer than a PC brand. Suffice it to say that with this latest generation, it's clear they still make great printers. It's also clear that their software has improved since the last generation I've used, and that they're making a serious effort to improve usability across the board.
The HP OfficeJet 7500A is a large all-in-one, designed to accept wide format print jobs and clearly catering to a small office setup. It has practically every feature you can think of: scanner, copier, wireless, USB, fax, and e-mail printing. It also has a color touchscreen display, memory card slot, and dedicated sheet feeders for printing and copying. The size and weight of the machine are both substantial, so this is not something you'd buy to put in a crowded room or if you plan to move around frequently.
Straight out of the box, setup is simple. If you can configure a Kindle, this is really no harder- just plug it in, then hook up the USB, ethernet, and wireless as applicable. Install the software on whichever machine you want to print from (or don't- see below) and you're good to go. I installed it on an old Win XP desktop, my Macbook, and a Win 7 machine: two using wireless, one physically connected. No issues whatsoever; I wish all hardware was this easy to install.
Alternatively, you can simply turn on the printer, connect it to the internet via WiFi/ethernet, and use the e-print feature without installing any software. This also allows devices that can't install the software (e.g. phones) to print. Setup involves creating an account on the HP e-print site, after which you can specify a list of e-mail addresses allowed to use this feature (or let anyone, which is probably not recommended). To print, simply attach the file to an e-mail addressed to the printer. This feature recognizes most common document formats (.txt, .doc, .pdf, .xls, most image formats) and works pretty well. I did notice some quirks with it, for example it will not print graphics that are small size or low resolution. Why not just use this feature instead of installing the pretty big HP software suite? For one, it can take a while depending on how snappy your e-mail is. It also doesn't let you specify any formatting- you can only choose black & white or color in the general printer setup. Lastly, it doesn't support ALL document and image formats.
The third alternative is to put your media on an SD card and physically insert it into the printer. This allows you to print images directly from a digital camera, for example. The touchscreen allows some simple formatting instructions as well. The primary advantage of this is you don't have to have a computer running to use this.
Print speed is comparable to most modern printers- very fast for B&W, decent for good quality color. Print quality is fully configurable, and is very high (photo print detail) on best quality. The scanner/copier works as well as any comparable device; having the dedicated sheet feeder is a plus, as it allows you to automatically scan stacks of documents instead of doing it one by one.
The machine itself comes with a pack of photo paper to play around with, plus the standard four color cartridges. The black cartridge is the same size as the color ones despite the fact that the print head can fit a considerably larger one (as is the case with most modern inkjets). No doubt this is to get you to buy one sooner, which is a bit cheap on HP's part.
Additionally, this printer has built-in fax via a standard phone cable. I haven't tried this particular feature and don't use fax in general (it's such an 80s way to do things IMO). Especially with the scan-to-email feature, this is rather obsolete. However, if you need it, it's there.
The next big question is, who is this printer for? It's probably most suitable for use as a home office or small office machine. For personal use, it's pretty massive overkill in terms of features and power and is too bulky besides. For a large business, assuming most print jobs will be B&W, it'll work but will likely cost more than a laser printer in the long-run due to the higher cost of black ink. On the other hand, if you plan on printing color frequently this machine is going to be hard to beat. The fact that it can take outsized pages is an added plus.
Bottom line: though a tad on the pricey side, the OfficeJet 7500A has pretty much every feature you can imagine and can handle anything you can throw at it. It's easy to set up, the touch LCD is a nice feature, and the scan/print options are effective and powerful. It might not be the most cost effective unit for massive amounts of black and white printing, but it can definitely do the job.