Customer Reviews

HP DeskJet 5150 Color Printer

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I recently bought my HP DeskJet 5150 as a replacement for an elderly HP inkjet printer that gave up the ghost. In general I have been very pleased with the 5150. It had flawless installation (I was ready to print ten minutes after I opened the box) and setup, and has excellent print characteristics in both B&W and color. It is very capable, starts up fast, has a quick throughput rate, and superior graphics resolution.

I have framed a couple of color prints printed on the 5150 (on HP photo paper), as they are equal to conventional photographic printing to the naked eye. My only caveat on the photo printing is that I can't vouch for the life of the prints, so far so good, but I know that some inkjet prints fade badly over time.

I am pretty hard on the 5150. Because I am in in the throes of researching and writing my Master's thesis right now, I am printing copious amounts, and running at least 500 pages a week through the 5150, and thus far have had no problems with it.

The one minor and completely unanticipated, annoyance I have with the 5150 is the shelf that holds the printed sheets is too short. HP provides a rickety pull out/fold over contraption to help hold printed work, but in my experience it is inconvenient at best (it almost doubles the frontal area of the printer), and is a real space hog on my desk.

Aside from that one small critique (which is the reason I gave it four instead of five stars) I think the HP 5150 is an excellent little printer at a bargain basement price.

I bought this with a client at Office Depot yesterday, and helped him set it up in his office. I'm very impressed, and am thinking about replacing my wheezing Epson 740 (which I've put probably 20,000 pages through.)

Things that impressed me about it:
--The box it comes in. It's not too big, and all the specs and technical info you need are printed on the outside. (And although others complain about it not having a USB cable and I don't have the box in front of me, I'm sure that it specifies that on the box itself. Besides, no USB cable has been an industry standard since USB printers first rolled off production lines.)
--The size. For an inkjet printer, it's quite small. It can also be used in low overhead areas, since the paper tray is underneath the output tray. My Epson Stylus 740 is, for all practical purposes, 13" high and 5" deeper than it would otherwise be, because of the paper tray.
--Software. Software for Mac OS X was simple to install.
--Print quality is excellent. We threw in some sheets of white paper that had been lying around outside the wrapper and the test picture came out great. Black and white text bled a bit in normal mode, but I think that has more do to with the paper having been inadequately stored.
--Print speed. Quite nice, particularly for text in normal mode.
--I got this printer out of the box and working for my client in fifteen minutes.

Cons:
--None I can think of.

For a $100 printer, not bad at all.

This printer is in general very smooth and prints high quality printouts. The cable is not included (and that is not listed on the box), so whoever got one included probably got lucky in that it was returned and someone left the cable in there.

Pushing the ink cartridges in takes some doing to make sure they are hooked in correctly. But if you'd had HP printers before it's probably easy because they are all done that way. I moved up from an Epson, so it took a little practice.

Setup for a single computer was relatively easy, although the included CD does not autostart. Instead, if you're using Windows XP the driver is already on your Windows system, and when you plug in the printer, turn it on, the Windows system detects it and installs the driver.

Setup for an older Windows 98 computer was more difficult. For starters, the older computer does not have the proper driver. But when you select "Have Disk", it does not browse correctly to the CD. Instead you must open the CD and run installation. If the printer is not connected and turned on, the installer crashes. I found this out the hard way because I was trying to install the driver on my Win98 but using it remotely from the network and could not do so because the installer would crash. Finally, I had to unhook the printer from my XP computer, hook it up to my Win98, install the driver from the CD, and then unhook it and put it back onto the network.

Printer also has strange quirks. For example, sometimes the arrow button on the left would blink for no good reason. Just press the button and printer will start. Other times the ink drop light will blink (and my ink is full since I just bought it). Just open the lid and push back down, and it'll print.

The output is great though, so if you can live with the quirks, and with the low price, it's still a worthwhile purchase.

I bought the HP 5150 as a replacement for a 7+-year old, broken HP ink jet, and I'm very happy with it. I use it to print a lot of envelopes and haven't had any problems with the alignment getting messed up like I did with my old printer. The guides adjust smoothly (unlike my old printer) and it prints quickly enough for my own personal use - faster than my old printer since the 5150 uses a USB cable (I saved $15 on that and bought it at Target). It was really simple to set up, too, and I only have a basic knowledge of computers.

I don't plan on using it to print photos, but I understand the cartridges switch out and you can print quality color photos. The cartridges were a bit tricky to snap in.

I am comfortable with HP quality, so I didn't consider any other brands. The price seemed reasonable.

Overall, I'm very happy with this printer.

I just bought the HP Deskjet 5150 Color Printer and I have to say that it is the best printer I have used. The only negative thing I can say is that it doesn't come with a USB cable and you have to buy it separetly. However, you can just buy it anywhere. The quality of the color is great, and it's also great for printing reports for school. The printer itself is very easy to install. Recommended for everyone!

I just replaced an HP 820cse used in a home based business with the HP 5150. This is a super low cost printer. It has excellent print quality and good speed. Easy to install and use.

The downside is that you'll go through ink, but that's typical of all these color printers. The money is made in ink sales. This printer's ink consumption is average -- but you'll be tempted to use it more often based on the quality.

Just terrific for home or light business use.

Perhaps the packaging people have been making mistakes, but I purchased this printer a couple of weeks ago from Amazon and it came with a USB cable (right in the box). It was incredibly easy to set up (for my 15 year old son), and works like a charm--quick, quiet with excellent print quality. I'm using it as a home printer, but have used similar HP's at work with excellent results as well. As for the person who said the printed papers were flying all over the floor--there's a little device on the paper depository that pulls out and keeps the papers from flying on the floor.

This is my fifth printer, and it is the best so far. With practically no startup time and no drivers to install (for Mac OS), this printer gives you a lot in a flash, for less.

One thing I really appreciate about this printer is that it loads and prints paper from the front. There is no need for an enormous back tray support protruding out of the back as is the case with many other printers.

This printer prints immaculately from edge to edge. The quality of the printing is simply astounding. It requires little if any alignment.

I highly recommend it.

I've had a long history with HP printers but their paper handling seems to be their Achilles heel. After buying an OfficeJet 600 and absolutely hating it for its inability to handle any paper, I switched to an Epson C80. My one complaint with the Epson was that the ink eventually started accumulating in the printer "wells" and started splashing onto everything. When that finally got on my nerves, I decided to give the DeskJet 5150 a try because the price was right and the reviews seem decent.

Compared to the Epson, the paper handling has been a nightmare. I can only load batches of papers at once because a standard single sheet will NOT go in smoothly no matter how hard I tug at the side tabs. We're talking about 1-2 mm that would make a world of difference. For one shot feeds of odd-size papers/letters, "convenient" is not in the dictionary.

To add insult to injury, it has started printing off alignment and giving me slightly crumpled edges just as I'm starting to look to replace the original ink carts. I'm definitely looking to cut my losses at this point.

No hard feelings but more than a tad bit disappointed.

This is a very good printer but I had some problems. First, the ink cartridges wouldn't load right. Then, my dad called HP support and their phone number changed. We finally got through, but we were put on hold for 40 minutes only to learn that the printer was defective, and we had to get a new one. A week later we get the new printer, and we get it running in less than 15 minutes. The instructions are very easy to follow. The print quality is amazing and the speed is great. It's also nice that HP throws in two FULL ink cartridges. We are glad HP tech support got an 800 number for you to call for support. Overall, this is a great printer which is a great bang for the buck.