What is That ? Oh its an HP!
Written: Oct 29 '02 (Updated Oct 29 '02)
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Pros: Solid performance, excellent color, super support
Cons: Large footprint, Win2000 buggy,no cables
The Bottom Line: The HP Deskjet 5550 is another solid performer. While it is not the fastest, it does offer handy extras at a reasonable price.
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| LaFeet's Full Review: Hewlett Packard DeskJet 5550 Inkjet Printer |
Lets face it, with today’s prices, it is cheaper to replace a printer than service one. Especially with the rapidly dropping prices and increasing print quality. And when my Lexmark laser died, I was in the market for a new printer. Enter Hewlet Packard’s HP5550 DeskJet. The first thing that one will notice is the odd, almost MacIntosh styling. It does look cool, but it takes up a chunk of desk space, occupying over 300 square inches (18 X 17.4 x 6.2 inches).
Functions and controls are nicely laid out amongst the ink cartridge and maintenance warning light on the right side. The 5550 includes hook ups for USB and parallel cables (no cables included) in the rear, next to the socket for the power adapter. Make sure that you have an extra socket available for the AC adapter since it’s transformer housing is about the size of a brick.
Hewlet Packard has taken all of the difficult steps out of printer set up, and setting up the Deskjet 5550 is incredibly easy. There is a colorful Quick Start poster in the box to show how to plug in the printer, load the paper and the cartridges, and even troubleshoot basic problems (I let the kids set it up). By using the included installation CD, you get an animated setup program that walks you through an expanded version of the poster. The CD also contains a comprehensive user guide.
This printer hooks up via both parallel and USB ports and is almost automatic with Microsoft Windows 95 and above, as well as Macintosh OS 8.6 or later.
System requirements are easily met by most operating computers today. Your computer needs to have a CD-Rom (you can download all of the drivers if you don’t have a CD-ROM), and at least 40 MB of hard drive room available. HP recommends a processor of at least a Pentium 133 for certain Windows versions. The Mac requirements also vary based on the OS (Mac OS 8.6, 9.0 or above - 64 MB RAM, Mac OS X - 128 MB RAM ).
I did run into a snag while trying to use it with Windows 2000 on our laptop. The software continued to loop in and out of the “Found New Hardware” wizard. Each time stopping with an "An error occurred during installation -- Access is denied" before beginning the loop again. message, then starting again. There was no help from the HP 5550 CD, nor was the HP website helpful. I just labeled it as another Windows bug and noted that I need to check for a patch in the near future.
Utilizing a 100 sheet input and 50 sheet output tray, the HP 5550 will not need refilling or clearing as often as some other inkjets. With horizontal loading comes a sharp U turn paper path. While I dislike this design, HP seems to have managed a technique to prevent paper crumpling or crooked feeding. There is a duplexer option to allow automatic two sided printing ($80), but I always find inkjets to flimsy after a single, large colored pass, much less for double sided.
Printing is a snap the Deskjet 5550, thanks to its user-friendly drivers (Win2000). As with most Windows drivers, you can specify your basic settings (paper type, print mode -Best, Normal, and Draft). You can also refine your print jobs with the advanced poster printing, ink volume, and dry-time settings. The latter feature is a boon for color and double sided prints. The Deskjet 5550 also lets you adjust five photograph printing presets (Smart Focus, Contrast Enhancement, Digital Flash, Sharpness, and Smoothing).
The HP Deskjet 5550 prints high quality text. Even using standard office grade copy paper, the text is dark and easily read all the way down to 2 point fonts. There will be some overspray as you reduce font size, this is a design fault of inkjets and has yet to be resolved.
The Deskjet 5550 really shines through while printing graphics. Even on plain paper, colors are crisp, clean and minimum blurring occurs. Line drawings are accurate and photos look almost professionally printed. There is a slight degradation with rendering smooth gradients and shading when using brighter, expensive paper. There are better photo printers, but not for this price. Photo backgrounds and colors look smooth, and there are minimal yellow splotching in skin tones. I tried putting it through a more rigorous test by printing a kill scene (excessive blood and gore) from Quake. The printer struggled with differentiating between shades of red.
The printer has an automatic sensor that detects the paper's weight and texture. It then adjusts its driver settings to suit the paper type and print quality. This means that you don't have to adjust the drivers to do picture quality printing on glossy paper or transparencies. There is even a setting to print from edge to edge, leaving no margin, for borderless photos and cards. This paper sensing is a big convenience and can be verified easily with the onscreen confirmation.
HP should be sued for false publication and misleading the public (or just give me a years worth of free cartridges). They state faster than achievable speeds for all three print modes. Only the draft speeds come close.
While having a rated speed of 17 pages per minutes (ppm) for black text, I found that the Deskjet 5550 average around 15 ppm when using varied fonts and sizes. Color printing is slower than advertised as well. Dropping from a touted 12 ppm I actually averaged 7 ppm. The photo print speeds drop off even more, it took over 4 minutes for an 8x10 photograph of a submarine. I did find that the speeds increase when I secured the 5550’s automatic paper sensor. If HP beefed up the buffer from 8 MB, this speed could actually increase to the rated values.
They also state that the resolution is 4800 by 1200 dots per inch (dpi). This is only available when printing high resolution photographs on photo paper. And the input picture must be at least 1200 dpi to use this higher quality print. For all other printings, the HP 5550 uses 1200 by 1200 dpi.
If there is one thing I dislike about the HP 5550, it is the frequency of cartridge replacement. We have a busy house, and we often print a number of items a day. Since buying the HP 5550, we have replace the color cartridge twice, and the black three times. Since the cartridges are not cheap (color cartridges run about 40 $, black ~ 24 and the photo cart ~ 30), I figure that I am paying about 8 cents for text printings, and about 35 cents for color.
It would have been nice to incorporate a digital camera memory card slots, but I imagine that the price would jump up 50 or so dollars. Its does consume ink cartridges faster than 3,000-page monthly duty cycle.
I have had little trouble with our new HP. But I do know that I can contact HP either by phone or internet. The HP 5550 comes with a standard one year warranty on parts and labor. And the toll free phone support is available from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. (MountainTime), Monday through Friday, as well as 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday. HP's website provides software updates, printing tips, and manuals at the end of your mouse.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 135
Operating System: Windows and Macintosh
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LaFeet
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Member: Paule Patterson
Location: Cushing, Ok
Reviews written: 314
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About Me:
Retired Submariner, ex Air-Force Brat, current radiation protection tech, hiding in urban Oklahoma
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