- 600 x 600 dpi color and black resolution
- 264 MHz processor, 64 MB memory, expandable to 192 MB
- Manual duplexing; includes second input paper tray
- Parallel, USB 2.0, and 10/100Base-TX Ethernet/Fast Ethernet RJ-45 ports
- Up to 4 ppm color, 20 ppm black; PC and Mac compatible
I bought the printer because I read reviews saying that it had excellent print quality. The fact that it was supposed to be noisy and slow was ok, since I don''t print high volumes and the price of the printer is very good for a network color laser.
I found the print quality to be disappointing, however. It''s better than an inkjet but not nearly as sharp as a monochrome laser. I can''t tell whether it''s worse than comparable color lasers--it''s just not as good as I expected.
The thing that really ticked me off is that the cartridges expire after a set number of pages even if there''s ink left in them. At $600 for a replacement set of cartridges, this sleazy trick can make a sizeable difference in operating cost. The effect is even worse when you get an error with a stream of mis-printed pages with just a couple of characters on each page. Better be around the printer to make sure there''s no error that spews out 50 pages of gibberish (there goes $10). I hope HP cleans up its act now that Fiorina is gone, because a reputation for sleaziness is easy to get and hard to recover from. At least the printer shipped with full cartridges, not half-empty ones (a trick other companies use).
On the plus side, HP''s customer support was excellent. Initially, the printer would sometimes work and sometimes not, completely unpredictably. The HP representative correctly diagnosed the problem as a physical problem with the Ethernet cable. To my surprise, replacing the Ethernet cable fixed all the problems. The rep was bright, spoke flawless English and fixed the problem quickly. Overall the support was outstanding.
On the plus side: low price for a color network laser, relatively compact size, reasonable printing cost per page, reliable operation, user-friendly software, excellent HP support.
On the minus side: slow speed, noisy operation, built-in electronic cartridge expiration counter, disappointing print quality (not awful, but not as good as expected from reviews).
Overall, the questionable print quality tips the scale against rating this printer higher.
Buy HP Color LaserJet 2550N Printer Now
I have liked HP printers in the past and have been very pleased with my LaserJet 5L which I have owned for ten years. To take advantage of HPs trade in program, I decided to upgrade to a 2550n color laser printer. I read the first review here, on this printer and dismissed the low rating as a fluke. I purchased the printer anyway, and then became disgusted.
First, it failed right out of the box. I was very careful to follow each instruction to the letter and once everything was installed, the failure light would turn on after cycling through the cartridges a few times. After I power cycled it a few times, it finally passed it''s diagnostics and was ready. I print a test page, it looks good. I print another and it fails. Power cycle again, the printer is ready. I print two more test pages and it fails again. This flakey behavior continued again after I connected the printer to my PC. I could print a few pages once, then again, but after the third or fourth time it would randomly fail. This had nothing to do with paper jams, but seemed to occur when switching from one color cartridge to another. The simple LEDs that flash at you tell nothing about what is wrong, so I would strongly recommend buying a printer with a LCD display.
The software was difficult to install, especially when I wanted to have it use the ethernet port instead of the USB interface. The printer options are very minimal and not comparable to printers like the Samsung CLP-510n which allow things like printing multiple pages on the same sheet. By the way, I don''t necessarily recommend the Samsung printer but the user manual can be downloaded from their web site and the printing options are quite comprehensive.
If the LaserJet 2550n would remain idle for 20-30 minutes, it would suddenly spring to life and make all sorts of noises when there was nothing to print. It sounded like the cartridges were tumbling around. Why can''t it do something like this immediately and then just stay quiet? When printing, it is also quite noisy as it cycles through the cartridges.
The printer is slow. I sent it a picture and it took slightly over a minute. I did it immediately again (it should be all warmed up) and it still took another minute. The processor inside the printer is too slow and real-world page per minute numbers may be disappointing. The only real positive thing I could say is the print quality was good, even for pictures, provided that they are not expanded in size.
Some people like the OKI C5150n or the Brother HL-2700cn. I haven''t seen what the Brother prints like, but the OKI is quiet and print quality is as good as the HP while printing much faster. Dell also sells a color printer in this class, the 3100cn. Although the HP printer may be the smallest, I didn''t like the noise and reliablity and so I think there are much better choices out there.
Read Best Reviews of HP Color LaserJet 2550N Printer Here
This printer was purchased to be shared among 4 co-workers. It was great until we "Needed" to replace the black cartridge after two months. A new HP cartridge was purchased and every thing worked fine for two weeks. Then the drum light came on. I thought it was a little soon for a new drum so I called HP support. They said that basically every time the black cartridge needs to be replaced the drum will also. That''s $100 for the black and $200 for the drum. A drum was purchased and the printer seemed to work fine. Then the yellow cartridge went out. I thought this was very odd since color is not used very much. I did a little research on this printer and found out that you can replace the microchips on the drum and cartridges. I ordered them from e-bay. I installed them on the old drum unit and surprise, surprise it worked. Then installed one on the old black, and the old yellow, and you guessed it they still worked as well. They worked for two months until the black toner actually ran out and left streaks on the page.
Print quality overall is good, but the shaddy cartridge replacement, and noise will have me looking for a new laser next year.
Want HP Color LaserJet 2550N Printer Discount?
I''ve always liked HP''s printer quality. In fact, I''ve had several black and white HP laser printer in the past, and all have performed flawlessly for years and years. Recently, then, I decided to "upgrade" (yeah, that''s a joke -upgrade) to a color laser printer -stop using the expensive ink jet I thought!
Well, we have two of these 2550n printers in the building here, and both have developed a similar problem after about 700 pages. Neither one will print anything but blank pages, and both develop some strange series of lights on the control panels. There doesn''t seem to be any consistency in the light ups either. One time, the drum light might come on. Another time, all four toner lights will come on. A third time, we might get just two of the toner lights, and still another time, we might get the toner and drum lights on only this time they''ll be blinking.
Unplug them and leave them unplugged for a few days, and you might get a green "go" light right after turning it on again. If you''re really lucky, you might get a clean printout, but that''s the only printout you''re going to get until the printer has rested a few more days again.
Yeah, it''s hard work being a color laser printer! Don''t, I repeat, DON''T buy one of these printer -not even used! They''re bad, BAD news!!!!!
The printer puts out acceptable business output (nowhere near photo quality) but I am currently printing a graphic that ended up at 24mb to the printer and it has been 38 minutes processing over a USB 2.0 connection. When I send the same graphic to our 3500 color laser, it processes in about 18 seconds and prints in 30. HP tech support told me that this was acceptable for such a "large" file and perhaps I should reduce the file size. Since I''m printing full-page graphics and not postage stamps, I guess I''ll look for a good inkjet...and certainly NOT an HP!
