Kyocera 2160 - page 15

Hewlett-Packard Color LaserJet 5550n

Hewlett-Packard Color LaserJet 5550dn

Hewlett-Packard Color LaserJet 5550dtn

Hewlett-Packard Color LaserJet 5550hdn

27ppm full color

27ppm black & white

Sum-up: Affordable ledger-size printers with good speed.

The ledger-size Color LaserJet 5550 family runs at

27ppm in both black-and-white and color. These power-

ful machines are suited for large departments that need

color printing.

There are four members in this family:

lThe Color LaserJet 5550n ($3,549) comes with

PostScript and PCL, along with Ethernet connectivi-

ty. It starts with 160MB of memory, a 100-sheet

bypass unit, and a 500-sheet paper tray.

lThe Color LaserJet 5550dn ($3,749) adds automatic

duplexing.

lThe Color LaserJet 5550dtn ($4,999) adds more mem-

ory (288MB) and a second 500-sheet paper tray.

lThe Color LaserJet 5550hdn ($6,299) adds a 20GB

hard disk (optional on the other models). It also

comes with four 500-sheet paper trays, for a total of

2,100 sheets of input. While the printer series can

handle paper stocks up to 53lbs., it cannot handle

110lb. card stock, which might be a concern for some

users.

All of these models are driven by a 533MHz processor,

and they can be expanded to a maximum of 544MB of

memory. All of the models can be upgraded to the full

2,100 sheets of input that comes standard with the

5550hdn. HP claims that its ImageREt 3600 image

enhancement is even better than the ImageREt 2400 soft-

ware available on most of its other color printers.

Like other HP printer products, this series has nice

management features, including an embedded Web serv-

er that works with HP’s Web Jetadmin program. There’s

afour-line interactive display that allows you to check

supply levels and diagnose and fix problems. The sup-

plies consist of four all-in-one cartridges that are easy to

replace through a front door. Consumables costs of 1.9¢

in black and 9.8¢ in color are moderate.

This is a strong ledger printer family.It does, however,

lack finishing equipment, even as an option. If you want

finishing, you should look at the Ricoh Aficio CL7200, a

less expensive ledger printer with both a finisher and a

booklet maker as options. Another strong competitor is

the Lexmark C920 family, which also has a finisher. Or

you can look at HP’s own Color LaserJet 9500hdn. If

you don’t need finishing but do need ledger-size printing,

the Color LaserJet 5550 series looks like a solid buy.It’s

earned our Editor’sChoice Award.

Chart entries — pages 81–82

Hewlett-PackardColor LaserJet 9500n

Hewlett-Packard Color LaserJet 9500hdn

24ppm full color

24ppm black & white

Sum-up: Ledger-size printers with good finishing options

(9500hdn only).

The Hewlett-Packard Color LaserJet 9500 is a family of

ledger-size color printers. They are durable machines

with solid features and, at least on the high-end model,

excellent output capabilities. Note that this is no desktop

model. Fully equipped, it is four feet tall.

These laser machines run at 24ppm both in color and

black-and-white. That speed is supported by a fast

500MHz processor.Note that they are bested in speed by

HP’s newer 27ppm Color LaserJet 5550 family. Both are

rated by HP for an impressive 200,000 pages a month.

PostScript is a standard feature, as is Ethernet support

through an internal server. These models do not, howev-

er, offer a USB interface, though parallel connectivity is

standard.

In other ways, the two members of the family, the

9500n and 9500hdn, are quite distinct. As you might sus-

pect from the hdn suffix, the 9500hdn offers a standard

hard disk and automatic duplexing. While the 9500n

Better Buys for Business

Hewlett-Packard Color LaserJet 5550

Consumables costs at-a-glance

Price

Yield

Full-color cost per page

Black-and-whitecost per page

Blackprint cartridge $225.99 13,000 $ 0.017 $ 0.017

Cyan print cartridge $315.99 12,000 $ 0.026 N/A

Magenta print cartridge $315.99 12,000 $ 0.026 N/A

Yellow print cartridge $315.99 12,000 $ 0.026 N/A

Imagetransfer kit $200.00 120,000 $ 0.002 $ 0.002

TOTAL PER-PAGE COSTS

$0.0980 $ 0.0194

9.80 1.94