Printer Reviews

After using several B&W HP lasers for years, I'd always wanted a color laser. Finally, I splurged and got this one as my desktop printer about 6 months ago. I'm not happy- nor totally unhappy either. It's definitely a workhorse. Once it's warmed up, calibrated and running, it works beautifully. Furthermore, it is much less expensive to run than a regular inkjet. I had been spending close to $/month in ink with the PSC500 I was using before this printer. I'm still using the original cartridges which came with the printer...In this respect, it's a great buy.

However, to save energy it goes to idle after 15 minutes or so, and takes about 5 minutes to warm up, calibrate and get up to speed. If you get a paper jam, it will again require the whole cycle. Thus, it's not really suited to be a personal printer. It is best suited for specific large jobs, not as an everyday printer. Everytime I write a one page letter, cut a check or do something simple, I have to wait and wait, and it's definitely exasperating.

Also, it's not really good as a photo printer, although I have often used it as one.

I hope the new color laser series is better.

I have used my 4500 for about 6 months now and could not be more in love with it. I have owned about 6-7 color inkjets before this and finally made the big move to color laser. You can print perfect photos on just about any kind of paper. I would like to see some "true" glossy paper on the market for photos, however. Most specialty papers for inkjet printers (mostly glossy) will not work with the laserjet because of the heat. Keep in mind you can not do heat transfers with a laserjet printer. There are four cartridges that make up the 4500's color. They are VERY expensive, but I am still using the same one that came with the printer and have printed well over a thousand photos. Long term is much cheaper to run than an inkjet.

I print A LOT of graphs and charts on both paper and transparencies. I was very happy to see how well this printer handled them. Using HP Transparencies the printing quality was consistent and clean. No jams at all. Using plain 20lb copy paper, quality was even and bright. You can load up your media and literally walk away knowing that when you come back everything will be printed without having to "baby-sit" the machine. With the amount of printing I do (10K+ a month) that is very important to me. Hope this review helps people in their choice for a color laser printer.

I was surprised by how fast and reliable this printer has been. My office prints hundreds of pages per day and we have yet to have a single problem with this printer. It's relatively quiet, and it prints pages very quickly without sacrificing print quality. It all has a duplexer which allows for printing double-sided pages. We also haven't had a paperjam yet which is good. The only possible complaint I have is its paper tray capacity is a little small and it would cost $150 to add another paper tray. However, I highly recommend this printer for small workgroups or single users.

All I wanted was a fast laser (I produce HUGE documents), and handles publicity materials like postcards. The 2200 dse initially seemed too expensive, but after heartbreaking struggles and large Kinko's bills (paying for something my own printer should have handled easily), I looked at this price range. No regrets! Easy to set up; blazing with little (if any) delay to first page printing, and handles media like envelopes and postcards -- stacks of them -- without breaking a sweat. HP rules!

It is noisy, and there is (as another reviewer notes) a goofy plastic sound. I'll live with it!

My recent life has been a search for the perfect laser printer. I went [less costly] and fast, [less costly] and slow, but didn't get happy until I paid up for speed and accuracy. Sure this is pricey, but its sheer paper-handling acumen makes it a great buy. It does stacks of odd media, like postcards, in a jiffy. To think of the money I wasted at Kinko's while trying to save on a lesser machine! All hail HP!

PS: Yeah, it's noisy, and what is that plastic sound? No matter; it's a keeper.

I'm a SOHO user, with an IT background. As a result I don't want to compromise on my computer equipment. I've only bought HP printers for the last 12 years, and I've been *very* satisfied ... UNTIL I bought this 4550 Color Printer two months ago. I bought this printer with the hope to do all my printing work myself, also in color (my 4050 satisfied my needs, except that is was Black & while only).

Compared to the HP 4050 it replaces, the thing is *very* bulky, the duplex keeps having paper jam problems if I start to re-use paper which was already printed on (which I never had with the 4050) and the warming up time is TERRIBLE (even after a paper jam, it takes AGES to warm up again). Also, having used the 4050, which was a 1200dpi printer, the 600 dpi of the 4550 is rather disappointing. Finally, the large drawer only takes 250 pages, compared to 500 pages for the 4050 - this means refilling the printer twice as often (and waiting for warming up again).

OK, my business cards coming out of the printer on 220 gr. look professional in color, but my pictures are less good than they would be on an Epson Deskjet with 1440 dpi.

Finally, I was really disappointed by the worth my "old" 4050 had - I got only 33% of it's value for a printer that was as good as new - HP only offered 16% of the initial value.

Conclusion?

For SOHO users - don't buy a HP printer that is bigger than what you *really* need - if you would resell it "as good as new" it will have lost it's value. For other users: maybe you should spend a bit more to get a better color printer than this one.

I own the HP-Color LaserJet 4500 ( Older Version Of The 4550 ). There are 2 primairy Differences bewtween the 4500 and 4550, They are as Follows, #1: The 4500 Comes with Half as much ram and #2: The 4500 has a little bit Slower CPU. The 4550 In Every Other Way Identical to the 4500. Both Printers use the same exact Consumable parts, the front control pannels function identicaly. I Paid Only [money] total for the 4500. This will probably be the last printer I need to buy for awhile. Prior to getting my HP 4500 Color Laser, I had owned the Epson Action Laser 1500 ( MonoChrome Laser ) for more then 10 years. I Feel that most hown users and home based business would be pretty well off with Either of the Color Laser Printer's. So far I have not had any Major problem with the operation of the printer. I am currently running a Personal Computer System besides Windows or Mac; I am using the AMIGA PC.

I broke down and purchased an HP Color Laserjet 4550 in March (my yearly bonus paid out!). While it required my teenage son and myself to lug it into the house (it is rather lofty in size), setup was simple and the quality and durability of prints cannot even be compared to an inkjet printer.

Prior to purchasing the 4550, I owned three color inkjet products and have never been satisfied with the final prints. Even if you could get the prints to look good right out of the printer, their durability (ink smears, color degradation, etc.) certainly suffered.

How to justify a rather sizeable purchase? Save your money and don't buy the poor reliability from color ink jet printers not to even mention the cost of the cartridges (but note you will have to anticipate the costly replacement of the four toner cartridges used in the 4550 laserjet eventually). Also, purchase a nice card maker software package (I use Hallmark Card Studio 2) and some good laserjet photo paper, and you can easily justify the cost of this color laserjet.

I wish I would have never bought into the color inkjets and waited for this nearly affordable color laserjet instead.

It's great stuff for Epsons! It just runs out too fast, that's all.

what else can I say? Easy to install. No problems.

The cartridge is just as good as what you find in the store. But you don't have to go to the store and wait in line. This is shipped to your door. A real time saver for the person on-the-go.

Because my time is money, it is cheaper for me to shop online. I found this product at the Hewlett Packard retail site for $60. Office Max retails it for $48.97. Staples' web site was having technical problems and I couldn't get on. Amazon is always available and competitive.

Okay, my printer, a Hewlett-Packard LaserJet 5L, is not great. Despite mechanical problems, it prints well. Crooked, maybe, but otherwise well. Using the real HP toner makes a difference. The greys are more even, fine lines are crisper. I tried two versions of recycled cartridges and the results were immediately noticeable. Amazon has a great price on the real ones, so it is worth it to stick with them.

HP includes a free shipping label in the package of each cartridge so that you can easily send the old cartridges back to them (they recycle them). You can improve the life of the cartidge by taking it out every now and then and making sure the toner is well-distributed by slowly shaking it. I printed 2 boxes (20 reams) with one of these cartridges, set on Light (which looks fine). ...

I love my e400, only odd problem is the power switch. I'm having problems similar to the one mentioned in Bryan Davis' post. The switch always turns the monitor on...but sometimes doesnt turn it off...

3 power switch problems..Hmm....whats going on here...

other than that....its a-w-e-s-o-m-e.

I've done some research on all the 19" Flat monitors on the market before I bought the Sony E400. It's one of the best quality monitors you can buy for the money. The picture is incredibly sharp and clear.

Incredibly crisp image - even miniscule text is sharp a legible. Great color saturation - colors look rich. Image is so sharp I can display at 1280x1024 and leave the settings on "small fonts and small icons" without any strain. Fairly short for a 19" monitor too - takes up less space than my 17" Nanao did. Image sharpness blows away my old 19" Viewsonic 790 - which it has, ahem, replaced.

I was sold on this product based on other reviews. Couldn't find it (at) well known national retailers that I visited. Couldn't find it on HP site so called them. It is no longer available. HP suggests the K80. They say it has better resolution & other improved features. Compatible with Windows 2K but have to go on-line to download drivers.

I have been involved with computers over the last 18 years. The T65 is the best printer I have ever used. It's ease of operation is fantastic. I put the printer on line with my computer and it worked right away after using the installation disc. The FAX is easy to use and brings quick results when you send the order form filled out. I have enlarged many photographs to 8 X 10 and framed them. The color copies are good as the original. The T65 is a great buy and has exceeded my expectations.

My HP T65 works flawlessly. It replaces the excellent and slower T45.

One good feature is the forgiving paper handling system. I print both sides to conserve paper.

This is my third multifunction printer, Brother 7000 which failed, HP 45, which I moved to my shared office and the T65.

The 58 cartridge does not run out of ink as fast as the no. 56 one does. Could HP make a cartridge that does not run out of ink so quickly? I like the printer and it prints great photos from the no. 58 but the black cartridges run out of ink so quickly that it is placing a dent in my wallet.

You don't get much choice about which cartridge to use when you purchase a printer. Fortunately my HP Photosmart 7760 printer uses this cartridge. The results are excellent. Okay, the cartridge runs out of ink quickly, but it costs less than other larger cartridges. The printer also advises you that you are running low before the cartridge is empty so you have time to prepare. I keep a few extras around to make sure that I can always finish what I start printing.

I ordered three Canon color cartridges. All arrived quickly and as advertized, were Canon originals. Also, prices were the best online I found. Thank you.

I had this printer 2 weeks now and it is AMAZING. I am graduate student in economics and I need to print out a lot of papers with very tiny mathematical notation. I need to be able to distinguish an "i" from a "j" subscripts and, sometimes, the font size is 4. This printer does an amazing job. Text book quality.
The printer is also amazingly fast!! It is way faster than the professional printer in my department. I could hardly believe when I saw 200 pages coming out within minutes; all of the highest quality.
The only cons is that it was hard to install. I followed the instructions to no avail. Inside the box with which the printer comes, there is phone number to which you can call-free-of-charge. The operator was very curteous, but not very knowledgeable. We tried several things, after trying and trying, I asserted myself and I said that it was the thrid time that I was telling him that Windows XP was telling us that a file was missing (can't remember which file, sorry). Once that file has been put into place, the printer started working wonders.
A note: the cable to connect the printer to the computer is not inclueded in the box and has to be bought separately. If your computer has a USB port, a USB cable is great.

I purchased this printer (under $100, on sale at Staples) as a first step up from an inkjet. I have owned it for less than two weeks as of this writing(May 3, 2004).
It prints text quickly and clearly. I haven't used it for graphics yet. It has a relatively small footprint and it is a little noisy when it initializes: you hear the fan and the printer mechanism. It quiets quickly when initialized in about 20 seconds or so. As to toner costs: I found Konica-Minolta toner in a retail store for $80.96! It is important that you use ONLY Konica-Minolta toner. Other toners will put the printer into a constant cleaning mode and will slow the pages per minute output.
I downloaded updated drivers from the website, but, the drivers on the enclosed cd ROM worked fine too. I did have to call Konica Minolta Tech Support to understand how to install the new drivers. Their techs were courteous and knowledgable.
I was only dissatisfied in one area: the manual. It would be nice if manufacturers would return to the practice of providing directions that consisted of illustrations AND TEXT in English in a MANUAL. There is little information in the manual though it is in multiple languages. Instead, you must rely on the cd ROM and download the Adobe Reader. It's not a problem, but, I prefer the simplicity of a complete manual that I can hold in my hands and study and that is written in English! That being said, I recommend this printer unreservedly. If you prefer the security of extended warranties, they are available.

This printer is great for a home user coming off of the inkjet bandwagon. It only runs off of Windows which is good enough for 85% of you out there. Cost per page is great as is the speed.

I also had the 1250W and the 1350W is basically the same thing with better constrution/looks and faster. To the guy who was complaining about the toner cartridge - yeah, you have to use the Minolta toner which is probably a load of crap but don't misrepresent the product's cost. A regular toner is around $80, about $10 more than the Samsung equivalent. The high-capacity toner runs about $120 and is almost impossible to find so I wouldn't use it as an example of cost.