Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

First things first: I'm using this with a Macbook Air 13" running OS X Yosemite (10.10.5) on a home network with router supplied by my cable company (it's an integrated cable modem + router). My background includes 32 yrs in IT (software development), but I'm NOT a "hardware geek," and I can be a little intimidated by some hardware. So I often approach installation/setup of new electronics with some trepidation. This was probably the smoothest install/setup I've encountered. There is one issue which didn't impact the actual install/setup, but I'll get into that later. From opening the box to printing my first page, I spent under 20 minutes. This included EVERYTHING: unpacking the printer, connecting all the bits that needed to be connected. powering it up, and installing the HP software on my Mac. You get a CD, but I didn't use it at all. I just followed the instructions and went to the HP website which led me step by step through the process. Also in the box are the power cord and the two ink cartridges (black and color). There is NO USB cable to connect it directly to your computer, so if you aren't planning to use the wireless feature, you'll need to furnish your own USB cable. Once it's powered up and the cartridges are installed, the printer will automatically print a test page. I had no issues at all connecting it to my wireless network. Once I had entered my network's password (I have it stored in a keychain, so I didn't have to manually type it in), it connected immediately. I went ahead and signed up for the HP Instant Ink 3-month trial. The price after the free trial period isn't too bad, considering the cost of the ink cartridges. I figure if I don't like it, I can cancel (there's no "contract" or minimum membership limits), and not having to worry about ordering ink on time is a nice convenience. I don't print a lot, really -- maybe 30 or so pages a month -- so this should work from an economical standpoint. After finishing the installation process, I sent it a variety of documents, both black and white as well as color, text, photos, drawings, etc. -- 10 in all -- to test out the print speed and quality. I sent them in "batches," waiting for the printer to idle between batches to determine how long it took to "power up" to print. It definitely prints faster than I expected -- both color and black & white seemed to print quickly -- and the quality is good. Black & white quality is really excellent; color is OK -- not perfect, but I was printing on general purpose inkjet paper, not photo paper, and it was fine for my use. I don't print photos on my home printer, so the need for precise color matching isn't as great for me. It does a "good enough" job. Power-up from idle is almost instantaneous, too. Overall, I'm very impressed with the performance. I also opted to install the HP printer "electronic help" that is supposed to integrate with Apple's Help function, and this is where things didn't work. You get only minimal product and usage info in the box, so you're supposed to install the more detailed help documentation during the installation process, which I did. Unfortunately, it seems to disappear into a black hole on a Mac running OS X 10.10.5 (Yosemite), because the instructions they include in the minimal "get started" guide that detail how to find it after it's installed bear no resemblance to anything I can find on my Mac. I spent the better part of an hour searching among the various Mac "help" functions for the list of commands presented in the HP 3830 "get started" guide -- they simply don't exist anywhere in the OS X Resources --> Mac Help tree. I finally went to the HP website, and even there it wasn't intuitively obvious where to find a "user manual" for this printer. I did finally locate one and downloaded the .pdf. Without the manual, you'll have to figure out how to use the document feeder, handle two-sided copying, etc. by trial and error. Given that having a detailed user guide to provide guidance on more advanced features of a printer is kind of important, I'm knocking off 1 star. At a minimum, HP should provide a link to the actual .pdf user manual somewhere in the documentation. The link provided for "additional support" goes to the "Drivers & Downloads," "Troubleshooting," and "Support Forums" page. Clicking on "Drivers & Downloads" allows you to select "Printers," and after a couple more clicks on a couple more pages with more dropdowns, you'll eventually get to the page for this printer where you can select "User Guide." It shouldn't be this difficult. How about just including a link for the guide?