Customer Reviews

HP DeskJet 5550 Inkjet Printer

5 star:		(69)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(23)

 

 

Purchasing this printer was such a difficult decision for me. My main hesitation was a direct result of the ink cartridges (they are quite a bit smaller than those of the 900 series - black containing 19 ml of ink, and the tri-color containing 17 ml). I didn't want to buy this printer and then end up being afraid to print anything out because of my need to save ink. No one wants to buy a printer only to be a slave to the ink cartridges, plopping down $60 every time you turn around, right? After reading an independent reviewer say that the cartridges only decreased by a little more than 20% after printing out over 100 b/w & color images, I figured I'd buy it.
I don't think you will find a negative review on the quality of this printer - it's unlike anything I've ever seen: vivid colors, high resolution, stunning photograph-quality prints. Bottom line: if the ink-life equals the price we pay, then this is by far one of the best printers you will find on the market today. For those of you who have not yet bought a printer and are considering this one, you may want to watch for more reviews to come in regarding quantity vs. quality before making your final decision.

After having used an HP laser printer at home for so many years, I was skeptical about buying an ink jet. They're slow, they gobble up ink, and if you get the printouts wet, the ink will run. Well, when I heard about the 5550 I knew it was time to "get color". And I was totally blown away by the performance of this affordable little printer.

Text and color graphics are great, of course. Color photos come out perfect, limited only by the quality of the source image. I even borrowed a good digital camera from work, and was amazed by the quality of photos produced by the 5550, far better than what we ever got from our regular 35mm camera. It's kind of a hassle to switch the ink cartridge and paper when printing photos, but if you only do this once in a great while, it's not a big deal. Takes just a few seconds.

So far I've printed a ton of pages, many with lots of color, and still haven't replaced any ink cartridges, so they seem to last quite a while. Plus, it's faster than my old laser printer. So I highly recommend this as a great HOME printer, especially if you'd like to print photos once in a while. For an office environment, I'd recommend sticking with laser (I've worked as a lan administrator, and have purchased a lot of printers over the years).

The only downside is that the ink on the printouts can run if you get them wet. But that's not likely to happen often, and the high quality color printouts are worth it. I believe that this is the best overall home printer available.

I have purchased so many printers over the years (less expensive ones) and they never seem to last. Although this one is new to me, I am completely impressed. It's fast - pumping out a page every 7-8 seconds and the quality on every type of paper matches my roommates LASER printer! I can see no difference and he paid $250 more than I did. The resolution is photo quality and this has never been true for me in the past. The ink cartridges cost the same as most machines, but are easy to find in any store (and here on Amazon.com). The sleek design is a bit much, but that's not really that important to me. Time will tell how long it lasts, but for this price, how can you lose? You can always send it back, but I doubt I will.

This is a solid little entry-level photo printer. It uses the new HP 56, 57, and 58 cartridges. It is rather low-profile, and it looks a bit like a U.F.O. It has top-of-the-line resolution (4800x1200 d.p.i.) like it's big brothers, the 7150, the 7350, and the 7550. For the price, this is a good little printer. I don't want to sound like it isn't. But, there are a few disadvantages. One, like the 7150 and 7350, it only uses two of the three cartridges at a time. The black #56 and the photo #58 cartridges must be exchanged every time one changes the type of print they are using. This can be rather cumbersome. Not impossible, but a touch annoying. The other disadvantage is no 4x6 photo tray for automatic uptake. The tray is available on the 7150 and up. Also, the text printing is top shelf. My dislike of the cartridge swapping goes for the 7150 and 7350. It only goes away on the 7550. It uses all three. Also, the text printing is top shelf. If money is an issue, this is still a fine printer. It will have the same output as its big brothers in the line. But it lacks some of their features. It is not bad all. The body of the printer is very solid. It is good if there are little hands around it. As said before, it is low profile. It feeds and ejects from the front side like most HP, which means you need little room above it. The cartridges are pretty typical. The 56 is cheaper than most other HP black cartridges, the 57 color is about the usual price. The 58 photo color is generally somewhere between 56 and 57 in price.

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If you're doing loads of research in an attempt to find a printer that produces photo-quality prints and crisp text documents, look no further!
I was originally planning on getting the HP PhotoSmart 1315 to go with my Sony CyberShot DSC F707 digital camera. I noticed it wasn't readily available, and figured out that HP had released the 7550 with similar, and presumably updated, features. My sister-in-law has the 1315, and the print quality is excellent but the machine is very slow.
Well, I was at Best Buy and the salesman convinced me to try the Lexmark Z65. I returned it the next day because of the horrible print quality (horizontal banding).
After even more research, I decided to try an HP like I had planned to. I was debating between the PhotoSmart 7550, 7350 and 7150. I was afraid that I would be "missing something" by not going with a more expensive printer. Wrong!
I compared the 7150's features with the 5550's and decided the latter would suit my needs. I bought the 5550 today and I could not be happier! For B&W printing (text) on regular paper, the 5550 acts just like a regular Deskjet, but there is a hidden side to this printer. Printing with Kodak photo paper and the original color ink that came with the 5550 produced excellent results, even though HP offers a "photo" color ink cartridge to be used for color photo printing. I don't think it is necessary! My prints looked just like my sister-in-law's (we have the same camera and use the same paper) but it cost ... less! How great is that?
Stop researching and buy it already!

Loading the drivers and setting up the 5500 is a smooth, pain free process. I had it printing within minutes of being out of the box. The HP "Printer Assistant" program is user friendly. Use it to check ink levels, users manual and make adjustments in print quality, paper type and size. The printer also can run on the default settings, which are fine. Print speed and quality in black and white is exceptional. A twenty dollar b/w cartrige lasts long enough that I consider it a bargain. Printing photo quality pages takes some time but the results are nice enough for me to frame and hang on my walls. The optional photo print cartridge, which replaces the black ink cartridge, is recommended for photo quality prints. This printer does a better job on color photos than my HP P-1000, which I purchased just after the price dropped from $399.99 to $299.99 a few years back. The 5500 sends a pop up screen when the cartridge is about to run out of ink. A nice touch. Changing ink cartridges is a snap. In 5 months I havn't had a paper jam or improper paper alignment. My only complaint about this machine is the loud paper feed. For $129.00, the HP Deskjet 5500 is a fine printer and, I believe, a good value. I'd buy another one and I recommend it.

I had recently purchased this printer. It does a great job printing photos on HP photo paper (even with the ink cartridges it came with, you can also purchase separately another cartridge specifically for photo printing). I was very impressed that it looked like store developed pictures. I have yet to try it out with the photo ink. Text printing is great in b/w & color. For the price, it's worth the money. No complaints about it. We were thinking about a multifunction printer by HP, but we were told that the print quality & $ of this printer can't be beat, especially for photos.

After first having an HP 722 and then an HP 895, I knew I'd get another HP printer. A few months ago, I tried an HP 940 and then the 960. I returned both because the paper was always jamming and was quite noisy picking up and dropping the paper onto the tray. I'm glad I returned it because now I'm very happy with my HP Deskjet 5550.

Besides the unique shape of the printer, another noticeable difference from the other HP printers is the size of the cartridges. They're much smaller than the older models (700-900, etc.) so it most likely won't last as long printing as those printers. That's only a very small down point, though.

I've now done many test samples of the printing and it's great. It doesn't jam like the 940 and the 960 always did for me. Its resolution can go up to 4800 x 1200 dpi on photo paper. Its printing is true photo quality and can be even better if you wish to buy the photo cartridge. Its speed is also exceptional.

You can't go wrong with this purchase.

This printer actually produces very nice, crisp text even in the "normal" mode, especially on inkjet paper. "Best" mode reaches laser quality, though the printer slows down considerably. Speed in normal is about 8 ppm. In draft the pages fly out. Lines are also sharp and do not bleed. I mostly do text printing so I'm happy so see an inkjet that produces crisp text. Not everyone uses their printers to produce photos and color brochures! I almost bought the Canon S750, due to it's strong reviews and the lower-priced Canon ink. When i tested them side by side at various sellers, the quality was similar on most papers. But on very basic, uncoated paper the Canon bled all over the place while the HP 5550 stayed crisp. However, if you will always be using inkjet paper the Canon 750 will do fine, and you'll save on ink costs. I'm using the HP 5550 with Mac OSX without any problems (it's built for OSX). HP says they do not offer all of the features yet for OSX as they do for OS9, but it hasn't been an issue for me. So far it's handled everything smoothly. Now, to find cheaper inks...
Finally, a printer that's prints quality text. It probably does a nice job on photos, but I wouldn't know. My recommendations for those in need of quality text at a reasonable price are the HP 5550, the Canon S750, or the Samsung Laser 1210. I tried the Samsung 1210 first but took it back as i didn't want the deal with the "office" odor of laser printers. If you don't want to buy a laser for that or other reasons, try this strange looking beast, or the unimaginatively-designed Canon 750. Text on the better Lexmarks is fine, but ink costs are much higher. I'm not satisfied with the print quality on the Epsons I tested.
HP is claiming laser-quality text on the HP 5550, and unlike most other inkjet contestants, they are pretty darn close.

I was looking for a printer to do photos and text, I looked at Canon i850 and s900, text quality on both is terrible, looked also for Epson, most of the reviews on Epson gave me the feeling that they have reliability problem.

I do have an old HP (660C) that is still working great after 7 years, but can't provide the print quality of new technology; I was not willing to spend more than $$$.

I got this printer from Costco for $$$+ tax, how can you go wrong with that price? Out of the box, with no adjustments, no configuration, I managed to print an amazing 8x10 photo that I took with a 3.2 MP Canon digital camera (S30) on a provided HP glossy photo paper.

One point to consider, the printer uses the same cartridges that are used by the more expensive Photo Smart printers from HP, the only difference is that it comes equipped with a black cartridge (56) and a tri color (57), you can buy the photo cartridge (58) that replaces the black one and will make it exactly like the Photo Smart.

But even with the basic cartridges I got amazing results, don't forget that the cartridge is the actual print head.

Text is amazing on plain paper; it's very fast and quiet.

As I said, It's a winner.