4550 HP Printer: A Must Buy or a No Go?

As a thoroughbred in the HP portfolio, the 4550 offers much in terms of resilience, reliability, performance and speed. Looking at the best things this printer offers include:

The large paper tray. A tray that can hold more than an ample amount of paper may seem like a minor issue, but if you happen to be printing a large amount of brochures or newsletters you will find not having to baby sit the paper to be a blessing.

Toner, not ink. Ink is not a cheap item and it runs out very quickly when you do any bulk or detailed printing. Running on toner is a lot more cost effective and since toner cartridges are so much bigger they will last a lot longer.

Fast printing, once the machine is warmed up. The significant warm up time is balanced by a high sheet per minute rate once the printing begins.

Quiet printing. While it may not be ninja quiet, this machine can keep going at full capacity and still not interrupt a phone call only 3 feet away.

A solid all round performer with an exceptional shelf life.

Significant warm up times. When you first turn it on the HP 4550 can take some time to calibrate and warm up for use. However, once it has aligned itself this is a truly marvelous workhorse printer.

The size and costs. Unless you have a true office or home office you may have a bit of a hard time finding a place to put this machine. You will need to plan your space well. Costs are also significant, therefore, unless you will be able to write it off as a business cost. At least then you will be able to recap some of the significant output.

Faxing. Incoming faxes are only going to sit in queue one at a time and if you want to copy or print at the same time you are stuck out of luck since they will be waiting in that same line. Other similarly priced printers allow you to by-pass such issues and multitask job queue management. This can be annoying when you are in a hurry.

Mac: OSX 10.3.9 and above

Windows: Windows 2000, Windows XP Home and Professional and Windows Vista

Requirements:

Windows 2000: Intel Pentium 2 or Celeron, 200MB free space

128 MB Ram

Windows XP: Intel Pentium II or Celeron 410 MB free space and 512 MB Ram

Windows Vista: 800 mhz 32-bit or 64 bit processor, 765 MB free space, 512 MB Ram

Mac OS: Power PC G3, G4, G5 or Intel Core Duo Processor 500 MB free hard drive space, 256 MB Ram.

Printing (Black and White, Color)

* Print speed: Black up to 28 ppm, color up to 22 ppm, photos as fast as 26 seconds on a 4x6.

* Print resolution: Black 600x600 dpi, color 4800x1200 dpi, photo papers 1200x1200 dpi.

* Borderless printing for sizes up to 8.5x11 inch paper sizes.

Scanning

* Scan size up to 8.5x11.7

* Resolution: up to 1200x2400 dpi for greyscale, 4800x1200 dpi for color graphics, 1200x1200 dpi for photos.

Copying

* Copy speeds: Black 28 copies per minute, color 22 copies per minute

* Can be programmed for up to 100 copies

Fax

* Fax memory up to 100 pages

* Fax modem up to 33.6 kpps

* Up to 90 fax speed dials

* Features: Auto redial, speed dial, group speed dial, forwarding (no color), junk barrier with caller ID or phone call

* Fax resolution: color 200x200 dpi, photo 300x300 dpi, black and white 203x196 dpi

Ports: USB, External I/O’s, 1 phone and 1 phone line.

Print Type: Thermal Ink Jet

Processor memory: 16 MB

Processor speed: 120 mhz

Sizes supported: 3x5 to 8.5x14