7550

Wouldn't it be nice to print up the images from your digital camera without having to wait on your computer? Wait, you can with the HP Photosmart 7550. HP and compatible inkjet cartridges at discount prices.

HP Photosmart 7550 Review

Like fine wines, some printers improve with age. When the HP Photosmart 7550 arrived out we awarded it good, however , not outstanding, marks. Despite the fact that its output was good, we at first anticipated even more from a photo inkjet at price. Nevertheless, the Photosmart 7550 has withstood the test of time very well, and its print quality with all of the varieties of output - photographs, text, and graphics - challengers even the latest generation of photo inkjets at equivalent prices.

Outwardly, the 7550 is able to to successfully appear both cute as well as space age. It is actually constructed just like a brick house, but at 15.2 by 6.5 by 20.2 inches, this compact unit will not hog the table room. The paper tray is nonretractable, however even that doesn't add many additional inches to this particular printer's waistline.

The CD includes drivers for Windows 98, 2000, Me, and XP, in addition to Mac OS 9.x, X, as well as 10.1. Furthermore, you get photo and imaging software for Windows. Even though the 7550 totally supports the USB 2.0 interface, HP's bundle includes no USB cable.

This particular unit brings an intriguing strategy to ink cartridges. Whilst conventional ink printers work with a CMYK cartridge structure, the 7550 includes three specific cartridges: Black, Regular Colour, and Photo Colour. Notice that there are actually three print slots in which you place the black as well as colour cartridges. The photo cartridge, which has nozzles made for significantly finer firing, kicks in when you need to print high-resolution pictures.

You will want to use the photo colour cartridge merely when you are printing a colour photo, usually via the Print dialog box. Based upon your own printing habits, you may be in a position to replace a bit of your ink a bit less frequently. For instance, if you mainly print pictures, you'll most likely change the photo colour cartridge a lot more regularly in comparison to the others. A lower number of cartridge changes result in a lesser amount of cash outflow, even though the 7550 negates any cost savings by utilizing more ink than the majority of printers.

As well as printing photos from a Pc, the 7550 prints straight from camera media, such as CompactFlash Type I and II, SmartMedia, Secure Digital, Sony Memory Stick, as well as MultiMedia cards. Additionally, the 7550 includes a built-in 1-inch (diagonal) Liquid crystal display, that lets you preview, zoom, as well as crop photos intended for printing without the need of using software on your computer.

In speed assessments, the 7550 produced inkjet text at 3.83 pages per minute (ppm), significantly less fast compared to output of standard inkjets. Printing one 8x10-inch photo required 5.3 minutes.

For a photo inkjet, though, middle-of-the-road rates of speed are far less crucial than the output quality, and the 7550's output virtually cancelled out its mediocre print rates of speed compared to those of many other photo printers. Even though the 7550's picture was a little bit dark, it appeared razor-sharp as well as finely detailed. The colours especially skin tones, came out precise, sleek, and also well blended.

The 7550's text output using the HP Photosmart 7550 ink cartridges appeared sharp on both plain as well as coated papers, even though details seemed to completely disappear at tiny font sizes. Plain-paper graphics looked great on the surface, however closer examination exposed several pixelation problems. For example, we could easily see the pixels used to make a metallic image. Luckily, the 7550's pixel trouble isn't apparent enough in order to cause alarm. In fact, when compared to the text and graphics output from photo printers we've examined recently the HP's printouts appear distinctly outstanding.

On the other hand, the HP Photosmart 7550 may end up costing you a bit more compared to similar models, thanks to its vast ink usage. The Photosmart 7550 is nonetheless a fantastic choice for grade-A photos as well as B+ text and graphics...if you are not really in a rush.