Customer Reviews

HP Color LaserJet 3550 Printer

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(3)

 

 

I looked at all of the laser printers and inkjet. Every article says there is nothing like an inkjet. I can tell you for a fact that they are wrong!! There is no comparison at all when printed on plain paper; this HP LaserJet 3550 is the best!! When printed on gloss paper a great inkjet is better but not by much at all. Meaning you will not need an inkjet unless you already have one. I read all the articles on all brands (OKI, Samsung, HP, Lexmark, Brother, Ricoh, Minolta, Panasonic, etc...) (trust me I spent 2+ weeks reading) of laser printers. I sent (and paid) for samples only to find out that the HP LaserJet printers (3500, 3550, 3700) produce the best output (B&W, color, and photo) and they only have 600*600 res., which goes to show you resolution means nothing (at least with HP)!!
This HP 3550 printer is fast and produced the best photos I have seen on any laser printer (no banding also!). Power consumption is low, it is Quiet for a laser, and of course it is bigger than an inkjet or a cheap (slow) color laser (that is why it is FAST) (they do sell cheaper, smaller, slower models). Trust me it is not that big in size (at least for what it does). HP does not put in half toner cartridges like others (Minolta, etc...). The only thing it could have is a duplex option, but it does a great job a manual duplex. I just can not say anything bad, I was very hesitant about buying a color laser but am very happy with this and am glad I did not go with any of the other brands (especially after getting in my samples of other printers) you will not regret this purchase!!!!! I have the LaserJet 3550n.

I have the HP Color Laserjet 3550. Straight off the bat let me state that this printer is big. When I say big, I mean big. When it was delivered I was astonished at the size of the box and after unpacking it I spend a few minutes taking in its size. I then realized that it was taller than I anticipated, even though the dimensions quoted in my prepurchase research were accurate. Seeing is believing. Despite the size, it is well designed and infact, beautifully made.

Setup of the printer and toners was extremely easy, and the installation of drivers was okay. After following the instructions given in the setup guide, the installation process stopped on my PC for no apparent reason. I eventually restarted the pc with the setup cd in the machine AND the printer connected to the pc and everything sorted itself out perfectly.

When I did my first print (the printer's demo page) and saw the quality on plain copy paper, I knew that I had made the right decision on purchasing the HP LaserJet 3550. So far, I am extremely pleased with this printer. I run a home-based desktop publishing business, and this printer has handled everything I have thrown at it without problems - business cards, labels, flyers, invoices, etc. As DonF said in his review, you will not regret this purchase!!!!!

I was pleasantly surprised with this color laserjet. I previously had the HP 4550, which was (is) the most disappointing color laser printers (at 4ppm and outrageously expensive ink drum). I was a little skeptical about the capabilities of the 3550, but with a little research online and testing at local computer stores, I decided to go with the 3500 (actually, I got the 3550n with networking). It did not come with a network card (like the 4550), but it did come with a USB network print server (which I like better anyway).

It boasts 16ppm for color (which is faster than my old one), but only 16ppm for b&w text (which is slow compared to my HPLJ 2420 at 25ppm). Others boast a fast 25ppm color and b&w text (Lexmark C762) but for twice the price. The comparable Lexmark unit is the C510, which prints 30ppm text, but a slow 8ppm color. This is why I went for the HP.

I will have to say that my inkjet printers (HP and Epson) can print better photo-quality than this printer, but that is a given. The 3550 was not designed to print on photo paper.

I purchased the 3550 about 6 months ago for over $1K, but I think you can get it for about $800 nowadays.

Summary: Text printing is fine (but slow), and color printer is fast (but crummy). I've had some people either like or hate the printer for its capabilities, but everyone unanimously agreed it is a monster size. So, if you have the space, I highly recommend this color laserjet printer.

Pros:
-excellent text quality
-very fast color printer (though not the fastest, but can hold its own against lexmark)
-easy to use; html toolbox user interface

Cons:
-HUGE footprint; I had to get a separate printer table for it because it would have taken up my work desk
-relatively slow all-text printing
-manual duplexing (similar to my HP Laserjet 2420)
-some issues with the color graphics; though good enough for home printing, I would not use it for business printing

I absolutely love this printer! Yes, it is big, but it is a work horse. As a business teacher, I print a lot of documents from a variety of applications. I have been using the printer heavily for the past month since the start of school and it has not jammed once!! I've printed labels, card stock, and used the manual duplex feature as well. I also love the HP software that activates as I attempt to use various features. It took me about one hour to have everything up and running smoothly when it arrived. I've read some reviews that indicate that printing is slow. Compared to the inkjet Lexmark that I had before, this printer is a dream. I highly recommend it for home use.

Well, maybe buy if all you are doing is printing from Office. This printer uses a host based driver that doesn't work well with non-Office products. I am trying to print from a financial program and it won't work. I contacted HP and was told politely "too bad". With host based drives, if it doesn't work, you're just stuck.

If you need it to be HP make sure it doesn't have a host based driver. The HP tech recommended a refurbed 2550 otherwise you'll have to go with the large printers starting with the 4700 series. One last time - stay away from anything with host based drivers.

I am pretty impressed after a week. Only beef is this is one BIG printer. Weighs over 60 pounds and BIG. Very fast! Pictures are good on semi glossy. I am going to buy glossy and see what quality looks like.

This printer cost a small fortune to operate!!!!!!!!!!
The cartridges cost over $500 per set and we have been using 2 to 4 sets per year even though the printer is just lightly used. That is $1000 to $2000 year. We have has several connective problems as well that required HP technical support.

Our office prints a small amount (50 pages/day/machine) but this printer lasted only two months before it started to produce spots in all colors all over the pages. We called HP and they said it was a firmware issue. Yeah, right. Stay away from this one. This is our 4th HP printer in <3 years (2 color lasers, 2 multifunction) all of which wound up in the trash. I am long longer an HP because they don't last even with light usage. We've got two Brothers now and we'll replace the 3550 with another Brother.