The HP DeskJet 5150 color inkjet printer delivers professional photo quality - up to 4800-optimized dpi or optional 6-ink color at fast speeds - up to 19 pages per minute in laser-quality black, up to 14 in color. It even prints photos with or without borders on standard-size photo papers. And you will save time and money with the print cancel button, on-screen ink-level indicator and the optional HP exclusive automatic two-sided printing accessory.
HP's DeskJet 5150 color inkjet printer offers high resolution output, fast print speeds, and time saving features that you won't want to be without. Delivering color prints at 14 ppm and black text at up to 19 ppm, you can choose from five different print modes to optimize print quality and speed. Resolutions of up to 4,800 dpi are achieved on a variety of media types and sizes, and optional 6-ink color printing can achieve prints that will resist fading, and last for years to come.
Connectivity is offered through a standard USB port, and optional wireless and networking accessories are available to expand versatility. Other convenient features include a print cancel button, on-screen ink level monitoring, one touch screen shot printing, and an optional duplexing unit. The DeskJet 5150 comes with a handy bundle of photo and imaging software, and a one-year warranty.
What's in the Box
HP DeskJet 5150 color inkjet printer, HP no. 56 (C6656A) black inkjet print cartridge, HP no. 57 (C6657A) tri-color inkjet print cartridge, power supply, power cord, software on CD-ROM (PC and Mac), reference guide, setup poster, media pack.
1 Good Printer
This printer came in a package i got about a year and a half ago and i just started using it in november of this year. it prints out good quality on BEST mode. on normal mode its really bad. my ink just ran out so 3 months or so the ink lasts. its time for me to upgrade but being a teenager i dont have the money.
2 HP Support Service Rocks
HP telephone support service provided my 12 year old daughter with a calm, step by step process in downloading a printer driver more compatible with her computer. We very much appreciate the time and the patience given to us.
3 An Achilles Heel
I've had a long history with HP printers but their paper handling seems to be their Achilles heel. After buying an OfficeJet 600 and absolutely hating it for its inability to handle any paper, I switched to an Epson C80. My one complaint with the Epson was that the ink eventually started accumulating in the printer "wells" and started splashing onto everything. When that finally got on my nerves, I decided to give the DeskJet 5150 a try because the price was right and the reviews seem decent.
Compared to the Epson, the paper handling has been a nightmare. I can only load batches of papers at once because a standard single sheet will NOT go in smoothly no matter how hard I tug at the side tabs. We're talking about 1-2 mm that would make a world of difference. For one shot feeds of odd-size papers/letters, "convenient" is not in the dictionary.
To add insult to injury, it has started printing off alignment and giving me slightly crumpled edges just as I'm starting to look to replace the original ink carts. I'm definitely looking to cut my losses at this point.
No hard feelings but more than a tad bit disappointed.
4 Great basic printer for the money
I bought the HP 5150 as a replacement for a 7+-year old, broken HP ink jet, and I'm very happy with it. I use it to print a lot of envelopes and haven't had any problems with the alignment getting messed up like I did with my old printer. The guides adjust smoothly (unlike my old printer) and it prints quickly enough for my own personal use - faster than my old printer since the 5150 uses a USB cable (I saved $15 on that and bought it at Target). It was really simple to set up, too, and I only have a basic knowledge of computers.
I don't plan on using it to print photos, but I understand the cartridges switch out and you can print quality color photos. The cartridges were a bit tricky to snap in.
I am comfortable with HP quality, so I didn't consider any other brands. The price seemed reasonable.
Overall, I'm very happy with this printer.
5 Ours just died one day
We had our 5150 for three months and it conked out one day in the middle of a job. We called HP and were told, "Maybe it's the power cord. We'll send you a new one." That was wishful thinking, and we ended up having to send the printer back to HP in exchange for a brand-new one. It was a hassle, though, dealing with HP's computer system (ironic).
6 A Good Compact Printer
I recently bought my HP DeskJet 5150 as a replacement for an elderly HP inkjet printer that gave up the ghost. In general I have been very pleased with the 5150. It had flawless installation (I was ready to print ten minutes after I opened the box) and setup, and has excellent print characteristics in both B&W and color. It is very capable, starts up fast, has a quick throughput rate, and superior graphics resolution.
I have framed a couple of color prints printed on the 5150 (on HP photo paper), as they are equal to conventional photographic printing to the naked eye. My only caveat on the photo printing is that I can't vouch for the life of the prints, so far so good, but I know that some inkjet prints fade badly over time.
I am pretty hard on the 5150. Because I am in in the throes of researching and writing my Master's thesis right now, I am printing copious amounts, and running at least 500 pages a week through the 5150, and thus far have had no problems with it.
The one minor and completely unanticipated, annoyance I have with the 5150 is the shelf that holds the printed sheets is too short. HP provides a rickety pull out/fold over contraption to help hold printed work, but in my experience it is inconvenient at best (it almost doubles the frontal area of the printer), and is a real space hog on my desk.
Aside from that one small critique (which is the reason I gave it four instead of five stars) I think the HP 5150 is an excellent little printer at a bargain basement price.
7 Great option for Mac users
This is about my fifth printer, and it is the best so far. With practically no startup time and no drivers to install, this printer gives you a lot in a flash, for less.
One thing I really appreciate about this printer is that it loads AND prints paper from the front. There's no need for a huge back tray support sticking out the back like many other printers.
This printer prints immaculately from edge to edge. The quality of the printing is simply astounding. It requires little if any alignment. It is a great printer, better than any Epson I've tried.
I highly recommend it.
8 usb cable costs over 25 dollars - where do you shop?
For the person who stated that "expect to pay 25 - 30 dollars for a usb cable", you can buy one at www.newegg.com for $3.00. I bought the 5150 plus, the usb cable, and free shipping for under $90 dollars at newegg.com
9 Buggy product for me
I've had good experiences with HP printers in the past, but the 5150 was a big disappointment for me. Here are my pros and cons for this product:
Pros:
1) Inexpensive
2) Fairly small and light
3) Setup map is easy to understand
4) Good print quality
Cons:
1) Black ink cartridge generated error message every time I tried to print something. Contacted HP, and after checking a few things, they determined my printer had a hardware defect.
2) Power cord is very big, and also too short.
3) Printer frame seems cheap and flimsy. I have a five-year old HP 712C printer, and it is much more solidly built.
4) HP setup CD-ROM installs a BUNCH of programs without asking you first. After installation was complete, I checked MSCONFIG's startup list, and about 5 new programs were added. These may slow down older computers.
Anyway, after this frustrating experience, I returned the HP 5150 and purchased the Canon i860 printer. Once again, the power cord was a bit shorter than I would have liked, but otherwise the Canon printer works fine. No error messages, no new programs added to MSCONFIG, and it has a solid, well-built frame. The Canon i860 also uses five ink cartrides as compared to HP 5150's two.
10 Great Value
I read some of the other reviews before purchasing this printer. I must agree for under $100 this is a great value! I previously owned a Deskjet 3320 which came free with my pc. I print greeting cards a lot and was very disappointed with the way the 3320 printed the envelopes. This 5150 printer does a great job on card envelopes as well as business envelopes. I even ordered the photo cartridge and was very impressed with the quality of the pictures. This 5150 is quieter, faster and doesn't take up much room. I'd definitely recommend this printer for those that are looking for a lot with a small price tag.
11 Great Printer for a Great Price!
As a poor college student needing a printer I was looking for quality for the best price possible. I knew that HP was a reputable brand as far as quality goes, so that's what swayed me in that area. For photo printing I was immensely impressed with the quality and detail. With the right resolution they look as though done by a professional photographer. The only downside is the consumption and price of the ink and the fact that you need to buy the connecting cable separate, but considering the price of the printer I'm not too miffed. It also doesn't require a lot of space. Score is 4 out of 5 stars.
12 great value
I just purchased this printer, and I think it's a great value. It is a little noisy, but the printouts are professional quality, it's fast, it was easy to set-up and it's cute!
I didn't know I needed to buy a USB connector, but I got one for $9 at W___mart.
13 Great for the price, has it's quirks though
This printer is in general very smooth and prints high quality printouts. The cable is not included (and that is not listed on the box), so whoever got one included probably got lucky in that it was returned and someone left the cable in there.
Pushing the ink cartridges in takes some doing to make sure they are hooked in correctly. But if you'd had HP printers before it's probably easy because they are all done that way. I moved up from an Epson, so it took a little practice.
Setup for a single computer was relatively easy, although the included CD does not autostart. Instead, if you're using Windows XP the driver is already on your Windows system, and when you plug in the printer, turn it on, the Windows system detects it and installs the driver.
Setup for an older Windows 98 computer was more difficult. For starters, the older computer does not have the proper driver. But when you select "Have Disk", it does not browse correctly to the CD. Instead you must open the CD and run installation. If the printer is not connected and turned on, the installer crashes. I found this out the hard way because I was trying to install the driver on my Win98 but using it remotely from the network and could not do so because the installer would crash. Finally, I had to unhook the printer from my XP computer, hook it up to my Win98, install the driver from the CD, and then unhook it and put it back onto the network.
Printer also has strange quirks. For example, sometimes the arrow button on the left would blink for no good reason. Just press the button and printer will start. Other times the ink drop light will blink (and my ink is full since I just bought it). Just open the lid and push back down, and it'll print.
The output is great though, so if you can live with the quirks, and with the low price, it's still a worthwhile purchase.
14 Wonderful printer
This printer is quiet, fast, and compact. It doesn't take up very much room and is so quiet that you don't even know that it is there. The printer prints text quickly and the text quality is very sharp. The graphics are good and the printer prints photos very well.
15 Nice machine
It was a breeze to set up and get running. This is a very easy to use machine. Everything worked as I expected the first time with no suprise prints. The copying feature produces excellent copies. I love it.
16 Great printer with USB cable
Perhaps the packaging people have been making mistakes, but I purchased this printer a couple of weeks ago from Amazon and it came with a USB cable (right in the box). It was incredibly easy to set up (for my 15 year old son), and works like a charm--quick, quiet with excellent print quality. I'm using it as a home printer, but have used similar HP's at work with excellent results as well. As for the person who said the printed papers were flying all over the floor--there's a little device on the paper depository that pulls out and keeps the papers from flying on the floor.
17 Yes they do have the cable
For the guy that can't find the cable, I ordered one from Amazon "Belkin F3U133-06 USB Device Cable" It was like 6 bucks.
Great printer for the price.
18 Wow What a Printer
This is one fine Printer and it works very well on Mac OSX 10.3.2 Panther. It is Fast and works well and I would tell all Mac Users to get this Printer it well worth the price.
19 Great Printer, but software bugs with XP.
This printer is amazing! I love it! It replaced a cheapey Epson C42UX (Which was quite an inksucker) and the ink cartridge life was soooo much better than my Epson. It is pretty fast and is very sleek and stylish. It also isn't to big nor to noisy. (But then again you can hear the Epson through two closed doors.) This printer is highly recommended.
The following I added on after I have experienced the printer, but Amazon wouldn't let me change my rating:
One complaint, whenever you go to shut down XP it says that the HP 5100 Series Printer Assistant is not responding and that it needs to shut it down. This is just a minor issue, but because this printer is so new on the market, you'd expect it to be ultra-compatible with XP. Oh well, it is still a great printer.
20 You can't go wrong with HP
Don't be mistaken... this is a "low end" printer. But if you're on a budget this is a great deal for less than $100. I am very satisfied with all printing applications. The only real negative aspect for me is it's kind of noisy when feeding the paper through, but is worth it for the speed and quality (and price). Be aware that this printer connects to your computer strictly through USB connection (no parallel). Expect to pay an additional $25-30 for the USB cable if you don't already have one.
21 Terrific Low Cost Printer
I just replaced an HP 820cse used in a home based business with the HP 5150. This is a super low cost printer. It has excellent print quality and good speed. Easy to install and use.
The downside is that you'll go through ink, but that's typical of all these color printers. The money is made in ink sales. This printer's ink consumption is average -- but you'll be tempted to use it more often based on the quality.
Just terrific for home or light business use.
22 Would you recommend?
I'm planning to buy HP deskjet 5150 printer but I'm a little bit worried because my computer is just Windows 98 - and it has only 64MB since I only use the MS Word. I read that this printer is compatible with WIN98. Should I need to upgrade my computer or everything is just fine?
23 Not a fan of this printer!
Maybe I have just had really amazing printers in the past, but we just got this printer at work and I hate it, as does everyone I work with! It is slower than slow, even with adjusting the printing speed to a lesser quality selection. I had to print out 30 copies of something with a very simple table (3 columns, no rows) and it took 30 mintues to print out these 30 copies! Furthermore, the way the tray is set up for the printed pages, it cannot hold the paper so the paper is constantly falling all over the floor. Thus, I can't just print something and forget about it, I have to sit there and pick the pages off of the floor as they come out because the tray will only hold about 3 pages before they fall.
The only good thing I can say about this printer is that the picture quality is decent, but not great. My advice: skip this printer!
24 Fantastic printer
this printer is used in the offices where I work ,so I went and got one and it has been the BEST printer Ive owned ! It has to be the BEST printer on the market for under a $100 Thanks HP you've done a great job with this one !!!!
25 Great little printer
I bought this with a client at Office Depot yesterday, and helped him set it up in his office. I'm very impressed, and am thinking about replacing my wheezing Epson 740 (which I've put probably 20,000 pages through.)
Things that impressed me about it:
--The box it comes in. It's not too big, and all the specs and technical info you need are printed on the outside. (And although others complain about it not having a USB cable and I don't have the box in front of me, I'm sure that it specifies that on the box itself. Besides, no USB cable has been an industry standard since USB printers first rolled off production lines.)
--The size. For an inkjet printer, it's quite small. It can also be used in low overhead areas, since the paper tray is underneath the output tray. My Epson Stylus 740 is, for all practical purposes, 13" high and 5" deeper than it would otherwise be, because of the paper tray.
--Software. Software for Mac OS X was simple to install.
--Print quality is excellent. We threw in some sheets of white paper that had been lying around outside the wrapper and the test picture came out great. Black and white text bled a bit in normal mode, but I think that has more do to with the paper having been inadequately stored.
--Print speed. Quite nice, particularly for text in normal mode.
--I got this printer out of the box and working for my client in fifteen minutes.
Cons:
--None I can think of.
For a $100 printer, not bad at all.
26 Great printer!!
I just bought the HP Deskjet 5150 Color Printer and I have to say that it is the best printer I have used. The only negative thing I can say is that it doesn't come with a USB cable and you have to buy it separetly. However, you can just buy it anywhere. The quality of the color is great, and it's also great for printing reports for school. The printer itself is very easy to install. Recommended for everyone!
27 printer i can live with
so far so good. yeah, printer doesn't come with usb cable, but you can find those at any computer store. i mainly use it to print some digital photos that i tooked, and it works pretty well, for that price. don't get me wrong, i know there's printers that prints at quality much better than this, but you got to look at the price as well. one thing that really bugged me though is the price of the inks. by all means, they are not cheap! at 35 dollars per color and 25 phto color cartidges that prints around 30 photo papers. but i guess hp has to make their money some how.
28 No USB Cable
Yeah, I don't even know if this is a good printer yet, because I have to go out and buy a USB cable to use it!!! Those guys over at HP should have the decency to give us a USB cord...
29 Second time's a charm
This is a very good printer but I had some problems. First, the ink cartridges wouldn't load right. Then, my dad called HP support and their phone number changed. We finally got through, but we were put on hold for 40 minutes only to learn that the printer was defective, and we had to get a new one. A week later we get the new printer, and we get it running in less than 15 minutes. The instructions are very easy to follow. The print quality is amazing and the speed is great. It's also nice that HP throws in two FULL ink cartridges. We are glad HP tech support got an 800 number for you to call for support. Overall, this is a great printer which is a great bang for the buck.
30 Great Quality....Great Value...
No need to spend a ton of money for a quality ink jet printer.
This unit does it all.
Esp. nice is the 6 color printing ability...by simply switching one of the ink cartridges.
Have printed color reports for small business....they look Flawless.
Photos are excellent.
Best inkjet I've owned to date FOR THE MONEY!
31 Sitting useless in my office
This may be a great ptinter, but HP has really stuck it to the purchaser. This printer came with no connector cables. Amazon doesn't sell the right cable for it. The only way to get it is to order it directly from HP, for a cost of [money]. Thats right, you have to shell out almost 25% of the purchase price of the printer to get it to work for you.
Do what I did, and box this thing up and send it right back.
