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Member Since 1987 |
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The Way We See It
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| Excellent |
| Good |
| Average |
| Poor |
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| Setup |
7.5 |
| Print Quality |
7.5 |
| Speed |
9.3 |
| Paper Handling |
7.8 |
| Supplies |
7.0 |
| Service/Reliabilty |
7.0 |
| TOTAL |
46.1 |
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In Short: The HP Color LaserJet 5550 is the latest tabloid color laser from Hewlett Packard and basically is a faster replacement of the 5500 series. This color laser printer is a bit more up to speed and can print up to 27ppm in color. HP boosted the processor in the 5550, which enables it to keep up with faster printers like the Oki 9600 series and Xerox Phaser 7400 or 7760 series. Those manufacturers are still a couple of generations further along in the color page printer arena. At 600dpi the HP 5550 prints smooth solid colors and color text. Print quality is adequate for most office applications. The 600 dpi limitation does show up, however, when printing hi-resolution graphics or any document with small details. Paper handling is ok but the HP 5550 cannot handle cover stock over 75lb. All configurations include PostScript3 emulation and at least 160MB of RAM. The 5550n includes an Ethernet 10/100BaseTX print server and the 5550dn includes auto-duplex as well. The 5550dtn increases the RAM to 288MB and adds a second 500-sheet feeder. The 5550hdn is basically a 5550dtn with an internal hard disk drive and two more 500-sheet feeders.
The Bottom Line: The Hewlett Packard 5550 series is a fast color laser printer but we feel it has some deficiencies. The 5550n is adequate for most office applications but may not be the best choice for hi-resolution graphics or applications where detail and color accuracy are important. The printer works well with most all networks and is easy to set-up. The HP 5550 does not feel as solid as other competitive models in our view. Due to the vertical orientation of the imaging units, the HP 5550 stands about 50% taller than most other tabloid color printers. The biggest negative factor, however, may be operating cost. If you print mostly black you end up paying about 6 cents per page unless you set the printer in a "mostly black " setting. If you print heavy color coverage you use up the toners faster than the imaging unit. This also increases you actual per page cost significantly. |
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