Get high performance from the HP PhotoSmart 7550 printer - HP's best photo-quality printer! Preview and edit photos before you print with the color LCD for easy photo previews. Crisp detail and color with up to 4800 optimized dpi (on premium photo papers and 1200 x 1200 input dpi when printing from a computer) or up to seven-ink printing. Print directly from your digital camera memory card using convenient card slots - without using a computer.
The HP PhotoSmart 7550 brings exceptional quality, speed, and precision photo printing to home desktops. Crisp detail and rich, vivid color arrive through an optimized maximum resolution of 4,800 dpi, while advanced paper sensors automatically adjust the print settings for best quality.
The HP PhotoSmart 7550's most remarkable feature is a front-panel color LCD screen that lets you preview and edit photos before printing. With the 7550, you can print directly from your digital camera memory card without using a computer. Compatible with CompactFlash Types I and II, SmartMedia, Secure Digital, MultiMediaCard, and Sony Memory Stick memory media, the printer can produce borderless photos using the 4-by-6-inch photo paper tray and HP Premium Plus photo paper.
The paper tray holds up to 100 sheets of varying sizes, and is built to accommodate heavyweight glossy pages without frustrating jams. Specially designed HP inks and papers resist fading twice as long as traditionally processed photos--up to 65 years in some cases. The included software bundle lets you organize and file images in a variety of ways--even create custom slide shows viewable on a PC or TV via a DVD player. Plus, Windows users can organize and store digital photos on CD-ROM and print favorites.
The USB-equipped HP PhotoSmart 7550 is compatible with either PC or Macintosh and has all drivers, power cords, and ink cartridges included right in the box. Hewlett-Packard provides a one-year warranty that covers parts and service.
1 Best Printer I ever owned
I love HP printers, but this one takes the top award. It prints photos, word documents, and whatever else you want it to with ULTRA high quality. The LCD just adds to the design. Ink can be expensive as this model holds ALL 3 (black and white, color and photo) all at once, unlike lower models. Its easier though, and well worth it! This is some printer.
2 Great printer
I am not a technophobe, yet I found this printer easy to use and operate. I have printed all the way to 8 X 10 photos with no problems and great clarity. I really like it, and have owned it since they first came out over a year ago with no problems.
3 Quality Unsurpassed!!!
This is a fabulous printer. I had an hp see-through flatbed 4600 scanner that just wasn't working with my ASUS motherboard so I decided to opt for a photo quality all-in-one (Print, Scan & Copy) that I bought today. I'll be reviewing that HP model after I've tried it too. The print quality on the 7550 is every bit as clear as laser. The blacks are nice and solid. the 7 ink technology brings brilliant color results. There are 3 separate ink cartridges, but the yield is greater for this reason. Keep in mind that even though the machine tells you the ink is running low, wait until the print/copy quality is actually fading before you change the cartridges. Just keep an extra handy for when it's needed. I loved this printer and will miss it! The only con is that it's a bit noisy, but oh well, color quality and ease of use is way more important, don't you think?
4 Great 6 ink photo printer
I have used Canon, Epson and HP printers. Without a doubt I find the HP to be the one that produces the best results for me, with the lest pain and strain. This printer setup easily, without any unexpected turmoil. The machine calibrated its paper tray and 4 X 6 tray without hitch. I inserted a photo card, went to the menu and printed a stunning photo on premium glossy photo paper (gotta use this for best prints). I've printed over a hundred 8 X 10 and 5 x 7, and four times that many 4 x 6 prints with this printer. I am still impressed with the photo quaility of its printouts, Some printers might be faster, some louder, so more expensive, but I think that this is one tough printer to surpass from print quality for the average home user. Easy to use, can print with, or without computer support, and has HP customer support available. A real A+ product.
5 Great pictures...Just what I was looking for
I was looking for a printer that did my digital pictures and could print out my basic black & white documents. I recently had an Epson printer, but I did not like the print-outs and the ink cartridges were so difficult and messy to exchange. I decided to choose a new printer since the Epson wasn't doing my digital print-outs very well.
The first thing that stunned me about this printer is the LCD display in the front and the easy-to-use editing buttons. There is no need to go through the menus looking for the "zoom" or "rotate" selection, there is a button for each editing tool.
Another great feature is the front panel memory card reader. It is so easy to print a picture, even without the computer hook-up. If you have an HP computer, setup is so easy. All you have to do is insert the setup disc and plug in the USB (which is not included for some reason), the computer does the rest....All you have to do is read the Terms & Agreements.
I printed out pictures and they are so stunning, nothing come close to any printer I have ever seen. Also, the black & white print-outs are fast and look as though they are done by a laser printer. The only problem when printing is the 4X6 paper that is included in the paper tray is hard to use and gets jammed easily. I suggest not loading the smaller paper tray more than 15 sheets full.
6 Piece of garbage after warranty period!
This unit printed nicely for me for about a year and 1 month (how convenient that the warranty was for 1 year). HP wants $30 to talk to you on the phone to suggest a fix with no guarantee it will work. I bought it new for $300, and now it will probably cost as much to fix it as to buy one new on Amazon.com. Very disappointing end to a promising beginning. HP customer support stinks as they are unfriendly, unwilling to help, and has communication issues as their customer support lines are staffed in a foreign country that can barely speak English. DO NOT BUY HP. BUY SOMETHING ELSE. ANYTHING ELSE.
7 4 x 6 w/Tab
Decent printer for photos and documents but you must use the 4 x 6 w/tab only. If you use 4 x 6 without tab it will print 4 x 5 1/2.
I've had good success with this printer and reccommend it.
8 4x6 Printing Problem
I absolutely dissatisfied with this printer. Being in the tech support field, I can usually figure things out fairly quickly. I busted my head open for HOURS to print 4x6's only to find out it needs "special" tabbed paper to print out. Although I haven't gone out to buy this paper, I can only imagine the price since this requirement only seems to be coming from this particular HP printer. And since this printer is already discontinued I can only imagine what a hard time I will have trying to buy this paper as more time goes by.
If there was an option for no stars, that is what I would give it. I like simplicity and this printer does not offer that, the print quality may be really good, but that doesn't do me any good if it only decides to print a portion of the picture and not the rest. Thank goodness I bought and extended warranty, because I will be getting a new printer.
9 What a great surprise!
I orginally bought this printer a year ago as a basic color printer that would work with both my Mac and my husbands PC. The photo option was just a bonus because I thought I would eventually purchase a digital camera and it might be nice to print some out. Well I have been using it now for a few months as a photo printer paired with my Konica Minolta DiMage G600 6.0mp camera. The photos are exceptional. One would never know they were printed from my digital camera. I use the HP Premium Plus Matte paper. As a Senior Graphic Designer I am pretty particular about the quality. My boss liked it so much he bought one for himself! We have never had any problems with the printer and my husband uses it frequently has a general color printer in his home office. I do admit the cartridges are a little pricey but overall well worth it.
10 The print cartridge holders break.
I am on my second one. HP sent me a replacement for the first which I appreciate greatly but having the replacement break as well is truly a pain. Today I was printing and red turned to pink. The tiny plastic arm that holds in one of the cartridges has broken again. On the replacement unit!! Otherwise I'm truly happy with this printer but this seems like a design flaw.
11 Special tabbed paper required for 4x6 borderless printing
I was so disappointed after spending 3 hours trying to figure out how to print borderless on a 4x6 photo paper.
It turns out that I needed special tabbed paper. See this article from HP.
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?lc=en&cc=us&docname=bpy21061&product=72891&dlc=en&lang=en
12 Super pictures, easy set up, flawless prints
I bought this printer, refurbished, after a lot of hemming back and forth between several other HP models. The photo quality is wonderful, but I will admit, I use the premium plus quality paper. If you want the quality prints, you need to use quality paper. It prints a bit slow, (the only reason for four stars), but not excessively so. I imagine it has to be set that slow in order to get the wonderful photo quality pictures I have been printing. As far as the ink content that comes with the printer, I have printed out 20 8 x10's and still have yet to run out. This printer is relatively quiet compared to a lot of printers I have heard. It does take up a bit of desk space though, so if you're trying to squeeze a lot into a little space, this may not be the printer for you. The set up was easy, printing pictures five minutes out of the box. I haven't used the print from card feature yet, but it's nice to see it takes all types. As a result, I haven't utilized the LCD screen. But those two features are not what I bought this printer for. One thing I have found, the picture quality is best when printed thru the HP software. I tried printing thru Corel photo and colors weren't quite right. When I switched to the software that came with the printer, not only was I astounded by the quality, I found the software program very easy to use and a nice photo set up. I will still use the other software for any altering of pictures, but use the HP software for actual printing. A great printer for a great price!
13 Best Printer ever!
I bought this printer on a fluke. I happened by an office supply store, and stopped to see what I could find for a cheap replacement printer. This one was a clearance table as a floor model selling at 90 bucks, so I jumped on it, not even knowing anything other than it was color. I had no book for it. I took it home and had it print off a picture of my son shaking hands with Donald Rumsfeld. WOW! It was better quality than if I had gone to a professional studio! I AM VERY IMPRESSED! I used glossy paper and a high resolution .jpg, so that is obviously what makes it or breaks it. If you give it poor quality to work with, that is what you will probably get.
I am looking into buying a digital camera to go with it, as I can see how simple you can use the photo cards it it!. It would rate 10 stars if I could give it that!
14 I just Love it !!
I have been using this printer for a year now, and have no problems whatsover.
I used it print pictures, greeting cards, etc. The setup was pretty straightforward. Pictures , if taken well, really look very neat after they are printed.
15 Very Bad & Poor Product
This product always comes with a factory defect (mechanism problem) which does not print the photos completely.
Also the services of HP is very poor and bad.
I don't advise any one for this printer or any of HP printers. The quality for HP printers is really poor & not like before in addition to their services.
16 Great Photo Print-outs
Although I haven't had this printer for long I've got to admit I'm impressed. I took pictures at Thanksgiving and my relatives were amazed at how professional looking the prints turned out. I think this printer is a great buy for anyone.
17 Great But...
This is a great printer but it runs out of ink quickly which is costly but if you want great quality fork it out for this one
18 Photosmart Owner
I want to add on to some of the previous positive reviews. A couple of the negative reviews state the printer still pixelates and does not reflect the colors correctly. I would beg to differ.
My wife and I went to Maine this Fall, and after showing our pictures to friends...NOBODY could tell the pictures were printed, not developed professionally. I think some of the other complaints regarding this printer may have more to do with the digital camera. Combine a decent digital camera with this spectacular printer, and you will be very happy. Again, the people we showed the pictures too could NOT tell they were printed. Excellent printer!
19 ink guzzler
I just replaced my old HP Deskjet 722c with the Photosmart 7550. I am sorely disappointed in the fact that I've had to replace the ink cartridges 5 times since I got it last week - Buyer beware - the tricolor ink cartridge for the 722c is $35 and contains 30ml. The tricolor cartridge for the 7550 is also $35 - but contains only 17 ml - major difference when you do a lot of high-quality color printing. Next time I will know to check the size of the ink cartridges. Mind you, I was printing at a higher than usual resolution - "Normal" resolution for HP brochure/glossy paper. There are a couple of lesser resolutions and then the "best" resolution. The copies so far are extremely nice, but what was supposed to be a reasonably priced Christmas present (calendar) for 28 of my closest friends because more expensive than if I'd just taken the project somewhere to be done professionally. Would I buy this printer again - probably not since my reason for wanting it is for high-quality printing and at a reasonable price. Final note - I had the "photo" options turned off.
20 Not Good Enough
It will be a great day when the consumer can perform all of their digital photography functions, at a high level of quality from the comfort of their own home. As much as I would have liked to praise this printer, it fell well short of my expectations - and hence, a two out of five rating.
I bought this printer at a great price from Amazon. Installation was a breeze, setup was easy, and I was impressed that HP included a few sample pieces of the glossy 4x6 photo paper.
I had one photo in mind that I wanted to use to test this printer... a digital picture of my wife and I on a beach, in front of a vivid sunset. If the printer could reproduce this, it can do anything.
I was disappointed in the results. The colors were dark, the waves lacked detail, and our faces were "pixely." The output from the HP 7550 did not compare to that of the same image professionally developed.
I would highly recommend taking a test before buying this printer. 1) Find a treasured digital picture and have it developed professionally. 2) Then take this same image to your local retailer, and test it out on the HP 7550. The results of this test should tell you whether or not this printer would be a good choice for you. Good luck!
21 NEW PRINTER
I HAVE JUST PURCHASED THE HP 7550 2 MONTHS AGO. WHEN I CHECKED THE 57 CARTRIDGE, CLOSED DOWN THE TOP A LITTLE PLASTIC PEICE BROKE OFF OF THE UNDERNEATH SIDEWHERE THE SPRING IS. NOW IT WILL NOT HOLD THE CARTRIDGE SECURE AND THE PRINTER SAYS CARTRIDGE FAILED; PLEASE REPLACE. THE PRINTER WILL NOT WORK AT ALL.
22 Don't hesitate to buy
The HP Photosmart 7550 has been the best printer that I have ever owned. I purchased this model last December 2002 to print photos to send in Christmas cards. Many people couldn't believe that the photos came from a printer.
Pro's - Many easy to use features, professional results, memory card readers, works great in conjunction with an HP scanner, reliable.
Con's - Haven't found any yet and I print many long documents and photos.
23 Good printer
Fast shipping. Print quality for photos is excellent, some of the lighter colors appear washed at times. Prints borderless 4x6 prints from a secondary photo paper tray (no switching the main paper tray) quality excellent. Regular printing quality is excellent, although much the same as my four year old HP 722C inkjet. Has front USB port for connecting a HP camera and printing directly from the camera (I don't have one, so haven't tried it.) Also can print from six different types of media cards directly. The 7550 came with some useful software (photo management and custom printing software) - I would recommend this printer to anyone looking for a solid photo printer, although it is probably more expensive than some other models on the market.
24 Yes, there is NO USB cable...
When I looked at the reviews for this printer, one said there was no USB cable included. I could hardly believe it, but ordered one, just to be safe. And good thing, because there was none. Even the instructions say to purchase a cable, but it's a little late. Be warned!!
The print quality is stunning, but the mechanics of this printer are frightening. It has ruined almost every other sheet of photo paper I've used, with the ink carriage getting stuck on the crumpled paper and tearing it. Irritating and expensive. Is this a new HP money-making strategy?? I've learned to NEVER let it grab the last sheet of paper. That never, ever prints correctly.
The print cartridges are scary to put in. I don't like this machine, and I forsee a lot of mechanical difficulty and repairs ahead. And the ink is used up so fast, it's like pouring it out of the cartridges. Yeah, it's neat, and has a lot of features, but if it doesn't print reliably, oh boy....
25 Not worth the money!!!!
If I could I would give this printer 0 stars!!!! I bought this printer about 6 months ago and now I'm going to have to replace it. After two months of use the ink carriage jammed and sprayed ink all over the inside of the printer. After four months of owning it the mechanism that spits the paper out once it is done printing no longer works so you have to sit at the printer and pull the paper out after printing or it completly crumples the paper and jams the printer. Now you have to hit the power button at least three times before it will turn on and even then that doesn't guarantee it will power on. Most of the time I have to unplug the printer and plug it back in and then hit the power on button before it will work. And finally today it no longer works. I went to print something and an error message came up saying the printer could not be found. After uninstalling and reinstalling all the software and printer drivers and then downloading all the new drivers (13.8 MB workth) it still does not work. This was my first HP printer and it will be my last! Don't waste your money.
26 Excellent Pictures
I just got the printer from Amazon.com and have printed text and photos.
My test Photograph of a butterfly with yellow, bloack, bule and red/brown colors. It came out perfect. I used Kodak Photo Paper and the colors matched reality on an 8 x 10 picture that came from a Toshiba M70 3.3 megapixel cameral. In previous tries on my old Canon 620 the colors never matched. That is one reason I upgraded to the HP 7550. The test picture came out good enough to frame.
I did quite a bit of research on other printers and my decision came down to the HP 7550 or the Canon i950. I checked...to compare reviews with those at Amazon.com. Most reviewers put this printer in their higher categories but not necessarily at the top. Their reasons for limiting the appeal of the printer had to do with speed and price.
Both the Canon and the HP were rated excellent for picture quality, however, another reviers mentioned that Canon pictures did not stand the test of time, while the HP is supposed to last many...many years.
In my opinion, the printer speed is adequate for home use, and although not the fastest, it is not excessively slow either. The price compared with the Canon was close when considering rebates at Amazon.com and in comparison with others..., had one of the best prices.
On the downside, the printer has a moderate noice level and it is also larger than many other printers. But for me, this did not matter, so I decided to stick with 5 stars.
27 Wow
I dont often say wow!
I build systems and have a somewhat jaded view of some claims as a result.
I paired this printer with an Olympus 4megpixel and also a Sony 4 megapixel camera.
It showed up and I inserted a memory card without firing up the pc, two presses later out popped a 4x6 that could have come from the Lab.
8x10 also no problem.
If its not photographic quality then I dont know what is!
Amazing quality on HP paper.
I read some of the other reviews that were not as flattering and I am glad I ignored them.
I truly fail to see how the quality of the prints could be any better.
28 I'm not quite sure yet...
I got this for my girl friend's father for an early Father's Day gift.
The set-up instructions were really easy and I was able to load and print a terrific picture from a smart media card within 10 minutes.
He was very happy to use it for about a week. And then it broke.
HP tech support - after several days of phone calls - said that they would send him a replacement.
So - at first glance this printer seems really good, but I don't know about how well it is going to perform in the long run.
29 * NOT Memory Stick Pro compatible *
All of the other reviews raving about the ease of use, the convenience of the photo tray, and side loading ink cartridges, as well as the ability to hold all three types of ink cartridge, are true. The print quality is fantastic. We networked a color laserjet at home for heavy duty printing, and gave away our then year old all in one inkjet printer, and BW laser to students/family almost 3 years ago. First of all, let me say that HP printer quality is fantastic. Two Canon printers I'd owned prior to switching to HP were both trashed within a year. I know the HP printers I own and I passed on are still going strong after 4 yrs of daily use.
And while those prior inkjets HP/Canon were superior to our color laser in color print quality, none of them approached photo quality. So I still sent away for prints at shutterfly and ofoto with digital pix, and still bothered with getting CDs from our trusty 35mm point and shoot.
AFter 2 days of owning this printer(and probably other photo printers of this generation) I am ready to give away all my film cameras. You can't tell the difference from a real store print especially on the premium paper. and my online photo accounts will probably get archived from disuse... My visiting aunt was so happy to get some instant photo prints with my mom. You don't need to take down email addresses to mail album links etc later.
Cons:
The included software to print and handle photos is not the greatest but its adequate if you took good pix in the first place.
My biggest disappointment is that it won't read my 512 MB memory stick pro card. anyway, I was planning on using that big one more for MPEG movies at VGA res, and have a couple of 128 MB sticks which it does read, that I can use for photos. and given that my camera hooks up via USB to the computer, not much is lost.
30 Greatly exceeded my expectations
I bought this printer after owning a Canon i850- which turned out to be a total disappointment. I ended up selling it. The HP 7550 exceeds all my expecations. It prints photo quality. You cannot tell the difference if the picture is in a frame, using photo glossy paper. This is an outstanding printer.
31 Awesome Printer
We bought the 7550 to print photos from our 4 megapixel camera. The printer has more functions than we're likely to use but the bottom line is output quality of this printer is STUNNING. It's better than any other printer I've seen. * That alone gets it 5 stars. *
Pluses:
+ Bundled software is actually very useful and easy to install.
+ Setup and driver installation was easy and went flawlessly.
+ 4x6 photo card feeder and auto paper sensor takes the guessworok out of printing photos.
+ Photo printing is better than I've seen on any other printer.
+ Employs 7 ink colors for excellent quality photos.
Minuses:
- I was quite put off by the fact that no USB cable was included. I actually had to run to the store to buy one in order to hook it up.
- This thing guzzles ink. Because of the cost of consumables, we are going to use the 7550 exclusively for photo printing. We have a Canon S630 that is no comparison when printing photos but has great quality for all around printing. We're keeping it since it is much more economical to operate than the HP. The Canon allows you to replenish ink tanks individually. With HP, when one color is exhausted in a 3-color cartridge, you throw it away. I wish HP would change this...
- The price was little difficult to swallow until I saw the output.
32 LAB LIKE PHOTOS!!!!
After I printed the first picture I could not believe printers had such capabilities. The photos have the same quality as a photo developted in a lab. The memory card slots are extremely usefull since you don't have to wait for your computer to boot up before printing. Your friends come home, you take their pic, print it and give them the pic. They love it. Picture life spam is 70 years!
Only cons are the cost of cartriges and 4x6 photo paper.
33 The BEST Home Photo Printer
When I bought a 3 megapixel Olympus Digital Camera, I knew right away that I'd need to be able to print these pictures out. I've always used HP printers, and been happy with them, but there are a few to choose from.
I considered the 7150, the 7350, and this, the 7550. The print quality remained the same on all three (especially the 7350 and the 7550) but there were a couple things that put the 7550 over the top. First, the digital color LCD viewing screen and multiple card readers in most noticable. You'll probably NEVER preview pictures on this screen if you have a decent computer, but the bottom line is this printer doesnt NEED a computer to print pictures. Even then, the LCD screen will tell you if theres a paper jam, and you can cancel prints with a button on the printer instead of messing with the "cancel print" screen that usually prints 2 more pages before stopping.
The 2nd major difference is the ink cartridge holders. In the 7350, only two cartridges are held at once. Therefore if you wanna print pictures, you have to change to the photo cartridge by opening it up and physically removing it. The 7550 holds ALL 3 at once, which would seem much more convenient, and it is.
The bottom line is that this is HP's premier photo printer. It's thier top of the line, and it should be. It's got all the gadgets and features you probably don't need, but will like to show off to your freinds! (Looks sweet next to a loaded Dell 8200, trinitron monitor and klipsch 5.1 speakers!)
Hope this helps, good luck.
34 The best printer ever
I got the Hewlett Packard 7550 printer for Christmas, and I loved it ever since. The pictures that you print come out with no jaggedy lines or misprints. This is a great printer inside and out.
35 A Big Improvement
I've owned quite a few HP color printers and keep "trading up" hoping to find the perfect one.
Well, with the 7550, HP has really done it. After the dismal failure of the 1315 (nice LED screen on front but nothing more), the 7550 puts HP back in the running for the industry standard in printing position.
All things considered, it is not quite as wide as the pictures make it look but it is a lot bigger than their 895 series so it is not going to fit on anybody's desk with room to spare.
But it does have a lot going for it. HP listened to the public and this unit is built a lot more solid than the last one - particularly the paper trays. Also, putting in the ink cartridges is a breeze as the door is to the right of the LED screen and you don't need to have half the top of the unit come up.
They've now given us a third cartridge but I don't think this is an unnecessary expense. Rather, it is exclusively for photographs and, using the software they generously give you with the system, it only takes one test run to realize that this is better than any photo developers shop output. Professional quality doesn't really tell the whole story; that's how good your photos will look!
And the reason for only 4 stars? The unit still shakes and rattles somewhat violently when printing. Make sure it is securely placed on a table before you go to print. And, like all the rest, HP is generous enough to give you a starter set of ink (thank you!) but why on earth would they sell a printer without a USB cable?
So, if they're still listening to the public, fix those two minor "quirks" and this baby won't be getting four stars next time around - we'll give it SIX!
36 Blue-ribbon Printer
This is the nicest printer I've ever owned. I have a Sony DSC-P9 digital camera and use the printer's memory stick slot to download my photos. This process is a bit slower than downloading from my camera, but the convenience outweighs the slight increase in download time. Print quality is excellent.
37 Pretty Sweet Printer
I got this printer a few months ago, and I've been pleased with its performance. Setup and installation on my Win98 PC was a breeze (contrary to another reviewer's rather bizarre saga). I later hooked it up to my WinXp Pro PC and again, no issues.
The printer has slots for most of the popular types of memory media: secure digital, compactflash, smartmedia, memory stick, etc.
Printing on this machine - It's quiet, as long as you put it on a stable surface. (put it on a three legged table and you're getting what you asked for) Don't be too fooled by the posted PPM count-- it's a fast printer, but you'll only get the maximum # of pages per minute if you set the properties to 'fast draft' mode. Fast Draft is perfect for printing content off a web page, and has served to save more than my share of ink cartridges.
Now, photos.. wow. Superb. If you have a digital camera, I recommend you print directly from your card, inserted into the printer. I've found my prints to be just *that* much better when I don't get the PC involved. (I'm not sure if that's because of my camera to pc transfer settings, since I haven't tweaked that setting yet.)
I will say that the bundled software (like most bundles) is rather so-so. I like the image transfer software for when you're printing directly from a card inserted into the printer. The photo album software is nice for making album prints or even a sheet of the same print.
In contrast, the image cataloging and editing software leave much to be desired. Non-intuitive interfaces that leave you wondering just what you were doing and how the heck you got there in the first place. Install the minimum software and just get another program for image manipulation.
Oh yeah, and printers have *never* come packaged with USB or parallel cables, so always purchase the appropriate cables for your PC, mmkay.
*Special note if you're using WinME: upgrade your operating system. WinME is the red-headed stepchild of the Windows family, and you never know if it's going to embarass you at your next family reunion.
38 Beware....problem with internet copying
The picture quality on this printer is excellent. I did have 2 problems...the first was if I turned the printer on when the computer was already on the computer would not acknowledge the printer. I had to turn on the printer prior to turning on the computer in order for the computer to recognize the printer. When I contacted HP they said the hardware does not work well with many windows 98 programs and I would have to basically go in and remove most of my programs and then download the printer then go back and reload my programs. That would take hours.......I decided it was easier to just remember to turn the printer on before I turn of the computer. I could live with that.
The big problem I discovered later.......the printer would only print out 1/3rd of a page when copying something from the internet. (This was from the left side of the page and then the rest of the picture or whatever you are coping would just not show up). I contacted Hp again and after spending 2 hours doing things on my computer with them they ended up telling me that there was a known glitch in the system that HP KNEW about preventing the printer from copying things from the internet. They are presently working on a patch to correct this problem. I asked them why I wasn't told about this when I purchased the printer and they said that sales people are not aware of this problem. So until they come out with this patch you cannot print from the internet. Since I have children that rely on this feature for homework etc. I had to return this printer. Luckily the store I purchased this from took it back after hearing what Hp told me and was shocked that this was not revealed to them as they have been selling many of these printers without this knowledge. I also went to 2 other leading stores that sell these and one actually found out about this because they had people complaining about the same thing and investigated it. The other store had people complaining about it but didn't know why it was doing that.
This printer has beautiful picture quality, but is very noisy and very slow. I actually would have put up with that if I could have copied from the internet. If you need to copy anything......recipes, airline confirmations, pictures etc. from the internet do not purchase this.
I still cannot believe that HP is still selling this product without telling sales people there is a problem with this. They should either notify consumers or take the product off the market until it is fixed.
39 My First Photo Quality Printer
After doing quite a bit of research...I found for the money I couldnt beat the HP7550. This printer performs as advertised. It is simple to install, the ink cartridges are simply plug in as well...three ink cartridges allow you not to have to take them in and out for B/W document vs photo printing....ink consumption seems reasonable...but I have already ordered replacements here to keep one set on hand....I have a sony DSC85 digital camera and this printer accepts the memory stick directly into its own port.....I found it very easy to simply print one pic directly from the memory stick...If you are reviewing several pics...I found it easier to manipulate with the computer however, then printing. The one gotcha is the printer does not include the USB A/B cable required to connect it to the computer...nor did any of my research mention that....otherwise Im extremely happy with this printer after one months use and probably 50 pics printed, mostly 4X6 and some 8X10s.....some have complained the printer is noisy.....I compare it to other inkjets and find it the same or less...if you want a "quiet" printer...go laser!!! I would highly recommend this printer!
40 Great printer for a reasonable price
I am really happy with my HP photosmart 7550 printer. The pictures are unreal and it was very easy to hook up and get started. A 4 x 6 picture prints in about a minute and the colors are amazing.
41 Great printer, but?
I highly recommend this printer due to its incredible quality and vivid colors in any type of paper.
The previewing screen is a bit "smallish", but then again you can preview and change anything on your computer. If you're in a hurry to print some pictures the multiple card slots (compact flash, memory stick, etc) are very handy.
The only thing I was upset about was that once I got the printer I thought that all the necessary stuff was included to install it and run it the same day, unfortunately someone at HP (in all their immense wisdom!) decided NOT to include the USB cable to connect the printer to your computer. Now... how do you like that?
Of course, since I came home from work with my brand new printer - and I get home after the stores are closed, I had to wait an additional day in order to go to the local Radio Shack and buy the "stupid" cable, so I could finally use my printer!!!
All in all, it's still an awesome printer, so if you're in the market for a new one - buy this one - you won't regret it! (but you have to buy an A-B USB Cable separately!).
42 I'm impressed
I bought this printer for Christmas (for my wife, heh-heh...yeah, right...), and I (uh, we) been having fun using it since then. No, seriously, she uses it too, and we both love it! The quality of the photographic output is on a par with my friend's top-of-the-line Epson and just as good as my father's Canon i850. It has more nice features than I can list here, so I won't try, but I do love the fact that the paper feeder is right under the output tray so you can fit this printer on a book-shelf with low overhead clearance. Why don't all printers have that? The quality of text and graphics is indistinguishable from a laser printer without magnification. Most of all, color gradients are the smoothest of any ink-jet I've ever seen, and there is absolutely no sign of the horizontal striping that so many ink-jets put down. On the down side, saturation is slightly less vivid than the Epson, and the Canon leaves it in the dust speed-wise.
You may read some less-than-enthusiastic comments from other reveiwers, both here and at ZDNet and Consumer Reports, and I think there are logical reasons why this could be. For starters, I'm much more concerned about quality than I am about speed. Others seem less patient than me. Their choice. In real life, I'm getting almost two text pages per minute under CUPS with hpijs set to 600DPI, which I think most would consider overkill for all but resume printing. I don't think that's so slow for high quality output on an ink-jet. "Wait a minute", you say..."CUPS? hpij...what was that?". This brings me to my other point.
I have decided to wean myself from the inferior products that The Monopolist (Microslop, that is) is trying to force down everyone's throat. I am using Linux as my main OS, and I'm loving every minute of it. You should give Linux a try, too--you'd be amazed at how much better it is. No more crashes...no more viruses...tons of software, most of it free--it works, and it's great.
Anyway, HP has decided to allow open-source programmers access to the information they need to write high-quality drivers for their printers. Basically, this means that Linux fully supports my HP printer. The other printer I was looking at--my father's Canon, does not. While this is very unfortunate, I'm sure it is no accident. The Monopolist will do anything in its power to kill off competition, even if that means paying peripheral vendors to not grant access licenses to developers from competing organizations. And no, I'm not being paranoid. Check the news.
So some people are reporting less than stellar output quality. Indeed, what I saw coming out of the printers in a demonstration in Albany, NY would have seemed to corroborate that printers like the Canon i850 edge the HP out somewhat in terms of quality. But the reviews I read were conflicting, and I wanted to buy a company that supports open source software, and so I took a chance. Wow!! The quality I saw when I got it home was much better than what I saw at that demo. I'm not sure why. Maybe it's the high quality of the renowned hpijs Linux printer drivers. Maybe I just got a really sweet specimen. Maybe they were using the wrong type of paper at the demo. Who knows?
Oh, and by the way, when other users report that they were out of ink after their first day of printing, keep in mind that the "starter set" of printing cartridges included with the printer (at no extra cost) are only half full. So the HP isn't really an ink glutton, after all. It's about average, in fact, although it's cartridges are slightly more expensive than some because the print heads are part of the cartridge and not built into the machine. This means that if one should get gummed up, you're out [money] for a new cartridge instead of a hundred or more for a new print head.
43 hpphotoexpress
My daughter gave me a digital camera for Christmas. I was quite intimidated by the idea of printing with a USB cable off my 6 year old Gateway P.C. with a HP 722 printer.
Nervously, I went shopping at several local electronics stores to get educated and before long realized that a photo printer was the way to go never expecting that the HP photosmart 7550W would easily and economically make my anxietity go away but I'm very relieved & happy to say that it did.
This thing couldn't possibly be any easier to use and the photo quality so far is, incredible!
The digital camera is a 2.1 mega pixal & I can't imagine that a better camera would make much noticeable difference in the picture quality.
I almost bought a Epson but for just a few more dollars I'm positive that I made the right choice. Thank You HP.
44 Broken right out of the box!
I will try not to judge this printer that likely has very fine print qualities too harshly, but when I got this out of the box and the first thing I get is a jammed printer cartridge error it was very disappointing. I called the HP help number and was waiting for about 15 minutes before a tech got on. It took him another 10 minutes or so to finally tell me it's broken and to take it in for a replacement where I bought it. So much for a great experience and fun Christmas present. I hope the new one works better.
45 Looks great, but NOT for Wireless networks
I opened the printer packaging excited for an improvement over my existing HP PhotoSmart 1215. Unfortunately, I found out that the new PhotoSmart 7550 does not come with a parallel printer port. This would not normally be a problem since most all PCs these days come with a USB port, BUT if you wish to have the printer connected via a wireless printserver -- which come only with parallel port connections as far as I know -- you're out of luck. To me, having a wireless connection trumps the need for an upgrade to an already decent photo-quality printer. So, the 7550 is returned. Alas...
46 TOP OF THE LINE!
This printer far exceeded my expectations. We had been looking for a good quality photo printer since I take mostly digital photos. We did a lot of searching around and checking reviews and finally settled on the HP 7550. We were a little hesitant because of the price, but it is well worth every penny! We bought it on December 27th, and I've already printed quite a number of photos. The installation was seamless and very simple, and the printer was ready to go within minutes. The photos print very fast, and they come out with no layering of ink as was noticeable with our old Epson. There is no waiting for the photos to dry, either.....a very nice improvement. These photos look like they were printed in a photo lab!!! The 4x6 borderless photo printing is very easy and looks great. Other pluses include separate paper trays for your HP 4x6 photo paper (200 sheets of HP Premium 4x6 paper come with the printer) and regular 8-1/2" x 11" printer paper.....no switching, and there is even a separate slot for envelopes. This printer is a little wider than average because it will hold all three ink cartridges, photo, tri-color, and black, and you never need to switch out cartridges depending on what you want to print. The door is also on the front, not the top, so it's very easy to access the cartridges.
Another great feature is the ability to print directly from your camera's memory card.....no more cords and downloads to deal with. It takes several different types of memory cards. Just pop the card in and your pictures come up on the LCD screen in seconds. You can toggle through your photos, select the ones you want to print, and even adjust the brightness, zoom, rotate, add fancy borders and frames, etc. You can also press the "save" button and the photos are automatically saved over to your computer. Browse to select the file you want them in, and it will even sort into separate folders for the month in which they were taken!! I can't say enough about this printer. I was able to download, print, and save my photos while my daughter was busy on the computer. What a time saver! The quality of the photos is excellent, and everything prints VERY fast. I would recommend this printer to anyone!!
47 Top-quality photos and easy to use
The good: These are the best quality prints I've seen from a photo printer, period. Using the HP Premium Plus paper, the prints are better than our local film processing place (my wife and I tested this by taking the same pictures with both our film camera and our digital camera). And of course with the printer you have the added advantage of being able to zoom, crop, enlarge, and print as many as you want. This printer is so easy to use, I was able to take it out of the box and print 4x6's almost immediately, even before connecting it to my computer. But once you do have it connected to your computer, you can read your memory cards. It comes with more software than you'll probably use, as some of the many utilities bundled with it have overlapping functionality. But I find the program useful that lets you lay out 8.5x11 sheets like a photo studio would.
The bad: It reads my SmartMedia cards rather slowly. Some of the parts seem rather flimsy. Every time I handle the paper tray, I think something's going to break. The top flexes every time I push a button. Also, it seems that sometimes it doesn't respond to my button presses but that may be due to the slow card reading, as the menu navigation seems fine.
48 What a pleasant surprise
I got this printer for my wife for Christmas. I was looking for two primary specs - it needed to make excellent, photo-like prints, and it needed to be very easy to use, since my wife is not remotely technical.
On the first score, this printer makes beautiful prints. Let me qualify that statement. Using HP Premium Photo Plus Glossy 4"x6" paper and files from a Canon 2.1 megapixel camera, and printing directly from the memory card inserted into the printer - the prints look very much like they came from a photo processing outfit.
On the second score, this printer is very easy to use. We haven't hooked it up to a computer yet, so I can't speak to that aspect of the printer, but to me that's the beauty of it. You simply insert your memory card from your digital camera and it;s loaded onto the printer. You select that file you want to print on the small LCD screen on the printer, and if yoiu want to you can also enlarge the photo and/or crop it as well as a few nice enhancements like contrast and brightness tweaking.
I was surprised at the high picture quality and ease of use as I previously had been taking my digital picture files, tweaking them in PhotoShop and printing them on a high end Epson printer. Since the quality is higher with the HP Photosmart and it's ten times easier to use, the Epson might be getting tossed into the eBay soon.
49 Great Photo Color
The color for the Photo Prints rival any that I have from my Nikon SLR camera. I can't believe the color and quality of the prints using the HP Premium Plus Glossy Photo Plus Paper. Whether I am using pictures from my computer or using a compactflash card from my Kodak Easy Share Camera.
I don't have the HP Digital Camera, but the pictures from my Kodak Digital Camera, via the compactflash card, or the pictures I scanned with an older model HP scanner into my computer, all came about as if they were printed at a camera store directly from my Nikon. In other words, I am amazed at the quality of the color prints.
50 Best printer HP has ever made
My wife wonders why I've bought so many printers over the years. I think it might be up to ten by now. I expect I will keep the 7550 a good long time. I have finally found what I've been searching for- a printer that does an outstanding job with photos and uses inks that will last while also doing a decent job as a document printer.
The 7550 uses 7 inks. I think that is the current high water mark for consumer printers. Yes, that much ink raises the cost of operation, but the results are worth it.
The few reviewers who have had problems with the printer sound to me like issues with simple fixes. It is unfortunate that HP service couldn't solve these issues. Mine worked perfectly out of the box. It is very customizable. If you always print pictures from the computer, great. If you want skip the computer and use memory cards, great. If you have an HP camera and want to plug in directly, great. I've used all three methods.
The photos produced are bright and detail is incredible. I can't vouch for the 65 year longevity claim (yet), but I can tell you the pictures resist fading. I've placed several in a sunny room just to see. After three months, there is no visible fade.
I wish HP and the other printer makers would stop trying to make us buy their own cameras and allow a true USB direct connect. And I wish HP would throw in the two-sided printing accessory instead of just leaving a place for it in the back of the printer. Those are my only two complaints with the 7550. I don't consider either issue a major point.
This printer has the easiest ink changing process and paper loading process of any HP I've owned. The LCD screen is handy and the control buttons are well marked and helpful. I particulary like the Print Cancel button.
Good job HP. Products like the 7550 will keep you at the top of the printer market.
51 I returned this one for Canon i850...
This one is expensive when it comes to ink and also noisy.
I will recommend to test out Canon i850 and you will know the difference...
Canon i850 is way, way elegant , versatile printer and cheaper on inks,
52 SIMPLY, THE BEST
I first bought a Canon 900. Lousy pictures from any but Canon paper. Next was an Epson 850. Had to wait on the tubes to load. Picture quality great, but BAD ink smears at top of paper. Then bought the 7550! Unreal! Senses the type paper used and adjusts automatically. Print on ANY paper is outstanding! Photo prints from Canon S40 4.0 meg camera are WONDERFUL! Document printing is from the seperate and cheaper priced cartridge. Cartridge ink level is indicated. Why would ANYONE buy another printer? Forget the slightly higher price. It is worth every penny.
53 Please with move from HP 1100 Photosmart to HP 7550 Photosma
I had an HP 1100 Photosmart Ink Jet printer for nearly 3 years and was very pleased with it.
However, I was never able to install Windows XP because of incompatibilty. This in the face of installing numerous drivers from HP. I was not able to hook up with USB either.
With my HP 7550 all such worries have gone. No problems in setting up and even downloaded a new driver from HP.
I am very pleased with my prints from 4X6's to 8 1/2 X 11's. I really like all the new features of the 7550. It makes printing photos and other documents a snap.
Finally, I made one call for Technical help and found the HP Tech to be extremely helpful in resolving the very simple problem.
In my opinion you can't go wrong with this printer.
54 Good Pictures, Great Features.
This is a pretty impressive printer. It has all the bells and whistles that a high end home photo printer should. The LCD monitor is the key feature. You can review your pictures right on the printer. By using the memory card reader, you can call up photos from Smart Media, Compact Flash, Sony Memory Stick, and SecureDigital. You don•À?t even need to have a computer to use this printer. This printer has several other advantages over its little brother the 7350. The 7350 has the ability to utilize the new HP ink cartridges. Unfortunately, it only holds two of the three at a time. This means you have to swap them out when you print text or photos. The 7550 has a slot that holds all three. Another nice feature is that the new black cartridges are pretty [inexpensive] in comparison to previous black ink tanks. The printer can make borderless 4x6 prints pretty well. My only real reservation about the current HP line is the lack of brightness of the ink. Even the photo black can be a bit muddy. The 7550 prints quality pictures, but the convenience is the key feature. There are better photo printers on the market, but this one combines really decent pictures with the durability and the convenience associated with HP.
55 This is #1
As a previous Epson fan, I searched for a new Epson Photo Printer before deciding to check the HP (and other) printers. After much research, I purchased the HP 7550. An excellent printer, and extremely quiet (a feature I was not concerned about, but a bonus.) If you want to save yourself weeks of research (this perfectionist did it for you!) just buy this one. It is a top of the line printer at a very reasonable price. Definitely worth the extra few $'s for the extra features over the lesser priced models. The quality of print is superior, even on the non-HP glossy photo paper that I have left from my previous printer.
56 Quality Problems
I have bought the HP 7550 twice, and had to return it twice. The purchase was from a major retailer. It was easy to set up and the prints were good, but the machine was not properly calibrated from the factory, so that 6x4 in. borderless prints would not print on the 6x4 paper without leaving a border on one side or the other. After two hours problem solving with customer service, they suggested I return it. I returned it for another HP 7550 (factory unopened box). This time it was calibrated properly. Some pictures looked great, but on pictures with a lot of black or red, there was a noticable red marbeling in the pictures, and black never looked to be solid balck. Once again, after two hours on the phone problem solving, HP customer service suggested I return it either to HP or the dealer. I wonder how many others are havong quality problems. My next printer will not be an HP.
57 Outstanding!
I bought this HP 7550 Photosmart as an upgrade to my previous HP 1315 Photosmart printer. The print quality of the 7550, quite frankly -- is phenomenal!
When compared to the 1315 (and the previous generation of Photosmart and 990 series printers), the colors are brighter and more accurate (particularly in the purples and pinks). The images are sharper and the flesh tones are dead-on. Four-by-six snapshot printing is now borderless (which was something the 1315 wouldn't do) -- and, most importantly, PC World magazine (in their November 2002 issue) verified in accelerated age testing HP's claim of a 73 year photo life when using HP Premium Plus photo glossy paper, which I use.
The results from the 7550 are so lifelike -- in either 8 x 10's or 4 x 6's -- you may never use a photo-finishing lab ever again!
The 7550, like the 1315 before it, has a LCD window for precise photo selection and some special effects when printing directly from a memory card.
The 7550 uses HP's new six color printing system, which is also available in HP's new 5550 DeskJet, PSC 2110 and 2210 all-in-ones, the portable HP 450, and the lesser-featured 7350 and 7150 Photosmart printers. In each of these models, six color printing is accomplished by trading out the black (#56) cartridge for another three-color (#58) unit. (The original #57 three-color cartridge remains untouched.) The 7550, however, has an extra-wide chassis -- to accommodate all three cartridges simultaneously -- so switching inks isn't necessary, which I thought was great.
Brighter, truer color, borderless printing, and archival quality -- what more could someone ask for?
If you're in the market for a new printer, these new models from HP are definitely the one's to consider.
58 Awesome higher-end home photo printer
GREAT printer for the home user looking for a little higher end.
Setup was very easy and printing even easier from both the PC and direct from the card.
Quality was awesome...even from the still shots out of my camcorder which of course are not 3+ MP
59 Great Except for Two-Sided Printing
SUMMARY
Pluses:
á Rugged, according to HP.
á Quiet operation with minimal vibration.
á Fade resistant ink, according to HP.
á Loaded with features, including a small display and a separate 4x6 tray.
á No cartridge swapping
Minuses:
á TWO-SIDED PRINTING ACCESSORY WORKS WITH PLAIN PAPER ONLY.
á Factory settings for color photos give dark, muted colors. (Fixable in most cases-see below.)
More pluses than I can cover within the 1,000 word limit. The software installs easily and runs glitch-free. Canceling a job doesn't send the printer and software into a tizzy like with my previous printer.
HP gives each of its printers a "recommended monthly volume, maximum" rating, which HP techies call the "duty cycle", which is how many pages the printer can print per month without dying young. This printer is rated at 5,000 pages per month, much higher than some of HP's cheaper printers.
Per HP support, "About 20,000 hours of use is the average mean time before failure if you stay within the duty cycle." So if HP is right, the 7550 will print many thousands of pages before it wears out. I tend to believe this because the printer's quiet operation (after loud clunks at the beginning of the paper feed), with little table shaking, suggests that it is not under much stress.
The impressive control panel includes four card slots, thirteen buttons, and a small LCD display. Yes, the 7550 is a small computer in its own right. For me, this is more a psychological edge than a practical advantage because I like to pass my photos through an editor and run the printer from my desktop computer.
It hasn't misfed a page yet, from either the main tray or the 4x6 tray, and the 4x6 photos print reliably, not sometimes tilted like with a gravity-fed printer.
HP claims that the ink will be fade resistant for 65 years, which is important to anyone who, like me, prints family history or other archival information intended to last for generations. (By the way, I recommend also using an acid-free paper. HP, will that extend the fade resistance beyond 65 years?)
I've spent ten hours, much paper, and half the ink in my color cartridges in testing this printer and learning its quirks and how to get the best results. Setting up a print job requires several software selections regarding dots per inch, paper type, and color handling. Or you can just set it on "Automatic" and hope for the best. Actually, when left on Automatic, the 7550 is pretty good at sensing the paper type and selecting the best dpi, but the color settings sometimes need manual intervention, as I will explain.
Factory settings for the 7550 darken and dull the colors in my Fuji 3.2-megapixel digital-camera photos. For example, a vibrantly green leaf among brown leaves turned into a green-brown splotch that no longer stood out. (The unedited photo, taken in bright sunlight, shows correctly on my monitor, which is set to True Color, 24-bit. However, for photos taken with the flash, the camera is also partly to blame for color washout.) BUT I can bring the colors back to life, without using a photo editing program, as follows: Click on the 7550 printer icon, then click on the Color tab, then move each of the three sliders two notches to the right, toward Vibrant, Lighter, and Warmer. This gives more differentiation between colors and simply makes the photo match reality. With this adjustment, the 7550 prints superb color photos. If I slide further to the right I can really jazz things up, but I may get weird effects such as the brown gutters on my house turning red. The two-notch adjustment works for landscape photos but is not necessary for canned art (which does fine with the factory settings), and it harms greyscale photos by adding a red haze. Based on one test that included a person's face, the skin tone was excellent with the adjustment, so I think that the adjustment works for most color photos. It may over-redden a photo where editing has already boosted the colors. If a page contains both a black-and-white photo and an unedited color photo, a compromise is needed-maybe all color sliders one notch to the right. Finally, all this color information is MY experience with the 7550. Your own camera and camera settings may give different results.
I guzzle ink and will boost HP's ink profits. If, say, the black ink well in the photo cartridge empties but the other two ink wells are half full, that's too bad. It's time to throw that ink away and buy a new ink cartridge. If you want efficient ink management, buy a Canon printer.
Finally, my big problem with this printer. A major reason why I bought a 7550 instead of a Canon S900 is that I print on both sides of the page. (I print books.) The 7550 and several other HP high-dpi printers allow attachment of an optional two-sided printing accessory, advertised as providing "brilliant photo-quality on both sides of the page." Once you buy the printer, its help text tells you that the accessory is for plain paper only. I had a long chat with HP's online tech support (which I like), and they stress that the two-sided printing accessory should be used only with paper weighing less than 24 lb. I have never seen a photo-quality paper below 24 lb. Even if a coated paper was that lightweight, one side would show through to the other. Note: HP's own two-sided photo quality paper is 36 lb. The whole idea of two-sided printing, let alone "brilliant photo-quality," is inconsistent with lightweight paper. HP throws me this consolation: If I run a thicker paper through the duplexing accessory (thus stretching its internal mechanisms) and never attempt to return to a thinner paper, it MAY continue to work, but they won't support this.
60 A great printer for the money!
Excelent printer! Set up was a snap...you will need a usb2 hi speed cable to connect to your computer...It is fast and relatively quiet.I love the LCD display that allows you to view your photos from the camera before printing. The only down side if there is one is the cost of ink(it only comes with a start up set of cartridges) and the body feeling rather flimsey. In either case, it is a lot of printer for the money.
61 excellent product
In the past year, I have purchased high end photo printers from Canon, Epson, Sony, Olympus and HP. This is my favorite printer. The only disadvantage relative to the other printers is that the Canon is significantly faster. The HP, especially since they added the third cartridge for longer lasting prints, wins in every other important category.
62 excellent product
In the past year, I have purchased high end photo printers from Canon, Epson, Sony, Olympus and HP. This is my favorite printer. The only disadvantage relative to the other printers is that the Canon is significantly faster. The HP, especially since they added the third cartridge for longer lasting prints, wins in every other important category.
63 excellent product
In the past year, I have purchased high end photo printers from Canon, Epson, Sony, Olympus and HP. This is my favorite printer. The only disadvantage relative to the other printers is that the Canon is significantly faster. The HP, especially since they added the third cartridge for longer lasting prints, wins in every other important category.
64 excellent product
In the past year, I have purchased high end photo printers from Canon, Epson, Sony, Olympus and HP. This is my favorite printer. The only disadvantage relative to the other printers is that the Canon is significantly faster. The HP, especially since they added the third cartridge for longer lasting prints, wins in every other important category.
65 Portfolio Quality!
Let's forget the gadgets like the LCD viewer and card reading features for a moment and get to the nitty gritty. This printer prints EXCELLENT quality photos!
I upgraded from the HP Photosmart 1218, which was also a good printer. But with the 1218, even on the highest print settings, I saw pixels.
On the 7550, I printed a 4X6 of an outside skyline (taken with a digital camera) and literally could not see the pixels in the sky part!
The true test came when I printed 8X11 photos from a digital camera source. The pictures were taken inside, so I expected less detail when printed. Where there were solid colors, I saw NO pixels. It was excellent! The subject (person) in the picture also looked good.
Of course there were some pixels there, a little dithering, blur and bitmapping. I had to make some resolution adjustments in Photoshop to sharpen it. Finally, looking at the prints from about 1 foot away, they looked like PROFESSIONAL prints! In fact, they look so good, they're going to be used in a portfolio WITH professional prints.
I've read about the Canon being better, and maybe it is. But this one's nothing to shake a stick at. If you want a great printer with the extra features for digital camera users, this is the one I'd suggest!
Cons: Big; Rapid ink consumption when printing photos.
66 All the pieces come together in this top of the line printer
I have owned several HP and Epson photo quality printers.
Each has been pretty good, but had one or two annoyances
that grew more bothersome over time. Particularly as
consumer digital cameras have improved to the 3 and 4
megapixel level, it was necessary to do something about
the quality of home photo printers. I think HP had the
farthest to go and they have closed the gap and taken a
wide lead with the 7550. The move to seven inks (from
HP's usual 4)in this model and the ability to go as
high as 4800 X 1200 dpi, has answered my concerns about
larger prints from my 4 megapixel Canon camera. This
printer also has a simple loading mechanism for 4x6
snapshots and I really like the new print cartridge
access (to the right of the paper trays), which means
I no longer have to drag the printer out from under the
shelf to open its top and change a cartiridge. This,
plus the front paper loading mechanism, makes the 7550
a real low profile machine. The LCD and controls allow
you to print pictures without the computer, though that
is not a big deal to me. The printer is quiet and fast
and I haven't given it a picture yet that it hasn't
handled with beautiful results. HP claims the new inks
and papers it is releasing with these new model printers
will last 65 years. I'll get back to you about that
claim in 2067.
