*Review: Hp Office Jet Pro K550*
Here Comes the Laser Nemesis
Here Comes the Laser Nemesis
Hp the global leader in Printers manufacturing has again dominated the whole industry by launching “The Hp Office jet Pro K550†the printer is a master piece. The printer claims to be the fastest printer available today. As always Hp engineer reinforced their stronghold in the market with their latest technology.
Introduction
The Hp Pro K550 printer is the fastest ink jet printer available in the market today... This printer trounced every printer which stands in the laser category. The printer has speed similar to Laser printer. The cost per page has also been reduced so that a home user that cannot afford steeply priced color laser printers... The K550 is a color printer having all the functions which an ideal printer should have
.The overview of the printer:--
- 30% lower print costs than laser.
- Up to 2X faster than laser.
- Professional laser-quality printing every time.
- Print speeds of up to 37pmm black and white and 33ppm colour.
- Reliable duty cycle of 7,500 pages per month.
- Cartridge yield of 2,350 pages for black and 1,200 pages for colour.
- 250-sheet input tray; 150-sheet output tray.
- Optional two-sided printing accessory for professional, two-sided documents.
- Built-in USB 2.0 full-speed port for direct printer connections.
- Optional Ethernet connectivity.
[BREAK=Ordering & The Printer]
Ordering
Ordering was not so hectic rather much more perplexing than I thought since I am a HP satisfied user so watching for any other brand is just not getting under my neck. My friend asked me to buy a printer for him under 10k so I went straight away to the Hp authorized seller quoted “The Comnet Salesâ€. After heading towards the shop I found that lots of me model had arrived after my AIO 1410 purchased.
. I left the shopping for another day. After doing a lot of pondering over the net I came to the conclusion that HP Office jet is what he needs. Since his father uses the printer for huge workloads I decided to buy a power packed printer with loads of features 
.Another day I went again to the same whop asking the Shop Vendor is that having a Office jet in stock. Watching my curious face he prompted yes. After all the forms filled I was done. Bringing the printer to the home was more chaotic then determines which printer to buy. Weighing 12kg this machine was killing me and the scorching sun was laughing loud at me.
Well after all exertion I finally reached home. Huh……..:bleh:
The Printer
The printer comes in two flavors named the K550 and other K550 DTN. The latter is a bit highly loaded model meant for huge workloads with ample options. The former is less bulky and much sleeker than the latter with a reduction of some add ons. The office jet series are tad gaudy but the performance talks not the looks. This is the most powerful inkjet printer I had ever seen. The most power printing one can buy and one when looking only for a printer can’t get better deal than this. Hp has taken every aspect into consideration while building the beast. From packaging to accessories every thing was so precise.
[BREAK=Build Quality.]
Build Quality and Ergonomics
The printer design mainly looks is quite tawdry when contrasted with latest sleek design from different companies. The company does not ship another additional paper tray for extra paper capacity. The bundled tray does not come with a cover or the like and cannot be folded so dust particles can easily enters inside the main system. The tray can be stretched which falls paper from falling. The rear panel can be detachable and can lodge an add on tray for double side printing.
The control panel is very easy to understand and the there are only three button to operate unlike my 1410 with nearly 6-7 buttons. :bleh: . The control panel is very intuitive and can be learnt within minutes.
The print cartridges are placed within the side panel unlike the rudimentary Inkjet Printer. This make removing and installing new cartridges trouble-free. The most exceptional feature is that if you forget which cartridge goes in which slot then there is a new resolution of lights. The lights will blink and will give an indication of which cartridges goes in which slot.
The looks of the printer are not very charming like some available in the market but the build quality is very good. The printer is sturdy built with good material used as usual what one expects from Hewlett Packard. The buttons have very good tactile feel.
All in the entire printer has a very good built and ergonomic wise it’s pretty good. The buttons are very well laid out. Intuitive design and a hassle free ink installation.
But installing the printer is not so easy when you compare it with normal inkjet printers. A newbie cannot install this printer by itself one has to refer the user manual before installing the printer. The main reason behind this is the amalgamation a whole new set of functions and features to the “Inkjet†series.
[BREAK=Features and Specifications]
Features and Specifications
The printer features is very high so hold your breath specially Laser User...
- Great values with up to 25% lower black costs per page than mono lasers.
- Up to two times faster than colour lasers.
- Professional impressions that last.
World's fastest desktop colour printer for business - up to 37 ppm black, up to 33 ppm colour in Draft print mode. Default mode delivers laser quality speeds up to 12 ppm black, up to 10 ppm colour - up to twice the speed of colour laser at up to 30 percent lower color cost per page, plus up to 25 percent lower black cost per page than lasers. Network options using optional HP Jetdirect EX Print Server and the efficiency of four individual ink cartridges and optional auto two-sided printing.
1)-Print Specification.
- Print technology - HP Thermal Inkjet
- Colour printing technology - HP Photoret III
- Print head nozzles - 2112.
- Print quality (colour, best quality) - Up to 4800 x 1200 optimized dpi with 1200 input dpi.
- Print quality (black, best quality) - Up to 1200 x 1200 dpi.
- Print speed (black, best quality, A4) - Up to 5 ppm.
- Print speed (black, draft quality, A4) -Up to 37 ppm.
- Print speed (black, normal quality, A4)- Up to 12 ppm.
- Print speed (colour, best quality, A4) -Up to 5 ppm.
- Print speed (colour, draft quality, A4) - Up to 33 ppm.
- Print speed (colour, normal quality, A4)- Up to 10 ppm.
- Custom media sizes -76 x 127 to 216 x 356 mm.
- Standard media sizes -A4, A5, A6, B5 (JIS), C5, C6, 10x15 cm, 13x18 cm.
- Maximum input capacity (sheets) -Up to 600.
- Standard output capacity (sheets) -Up to 150.
- Duplex print options - Automatic (optional).
- Standard memory - 32 MB.
- Pages per month - Up to 7500 pages permonth.
- Windows 98, 2000, Me, XP Home, XP Professional; Certified for Windows Vistaâ„¢; Novellâ„¢ NetWare 3.2, 4.2, 5.x, 6; Mac OS X v 10.2.x, 10.3.x, 10.4.x; Red Hat Linux 9.0 and higher; SuSE Linux 8.1 and higher; Debian 3.0 and higher; Slackware 8.1 and higher; Lindows 1.3 and higher..
3) ii- Compatible network operating systems.
- Via HP Jetdirect print severs: Windows NT® 4.0, Windows® 98, Windows® 2000, Windows® Me, Windows® XP Home, Windows® XP Professional; Novell™ NetWare 3.2, 4.2, 5.x, 6; Mac OS X v 10.2.x, 10.3.x, 10.4.x; Red Hat Linux 9.0 and higher; SuSE Linux 8.1 and higher; Debian 3.0 and higher; Slackware 8.1 and higher; Lindows 1.3 and higher.
Finally Hp products running both on Linux and Mac :bleh:
4)- Connective.
- Hi-Speed USB 2.0 port (compatible with USB 2.0 specifications).
- HP Jetdirect External Print Servers(Optional).
- 90 MHz Pentium®, 16 MB RAM, 90 MB hard disk space, monitor (640 x 480 resolution, 256 colours)
6)- Standard printer languages.
- PCL 3 with HP High Performance Architecture (HPAâ„¢).
7)- Acoustic power emissions
- 6.5 B(A) (printing at 12 ppm, Normal mode); 6.9 B(A) (printing at 37 ppm, Draft mode).
8) -Physical Specification:-
- Dimensions (W x D x H) - 496 x 403.2 x 212.5 mm.
- Package dimensions (W x D x H) - 307 x 603 x 535 mm.
- Weight - 9.7 kg.
- Package weight - 12 kg.
- Power consumption - 52.17 watts.
- Power supply type - Internal power supply.
- Power requirements - Input voltage 115 to 127 VAC (+/- 10%), 60 Hz (+/- 2 Hz); 220 to 240 VAC (+/- 10%), 50 Hz (+/- 2 Hz).
- Operating humidity range - 15 to 80% RH.
- Recommended operating temperature range -15 to 35° C.
- Non-operating humidity - 15 to 90% RH.
- Recommended humidity operating range - 15 to 80% RH.
- Electromagnetic compatibility -EU (EMC Directive), USA (FCC Rules), Australia (ACA), New Zealand (MoC), Canada (DoC), China (Requirements for Class B Products), Korea (MIC), Taiwan (BSMI), Japan (VCCI)
- IEC 950-compliant, safety UL listed, EU LVD, EN 60950 compliant, NEMKO-GS approved, certified by Canada CSA, Mexico NOM-NYCE, Argentina IRAM-S, Russia GOST, Singapore PSB, China CCC, Korea KTL, Taiwan BSMI.
- Energy Star certified - Yes
[BREAK=Performance]
Performance
The printer performance was awesome. Unlike the cartridges are fitted to ink heads the cartridges in K550 are not. The supply of the ink is done through capillaries. Each print heads supports 2 cartridges. This feature is very useful in printing and hinders page jammed between cartridges. This makes a gr8 feature and gives you a speedy printing.
To test the capability of the printer I threw several types of prints through the printer. I put a 600 dpi image and print in an A4 size paper and for my revelation t print the page in just 2.5 minutes. I printed some of fonts with a size varying from 6-48 and the fonts at 6 size were easily identified. Wow what a print quality this shows that printer prints even minute details.
I also printed a photo in the HP Original photo paper same at 600 dpi and the picture was looking like it has been taken out from a photo jet printer. Skin tones and the mixture of colours were reproduced at a superior quality with no banding and colour mixing seeing on the paper.
[BREAK=Verdict]
Verdict
The K550 is a gr8 printer and sturdy built. The printer produce some excellent quality photo prints and is excellent in producing minute details of a document mainly which most of the printer cannot. The K550 introduces some various new features. But the point where it lags is today MFD’s are available in a much lesser price with a lot more feature so buying this printer for personal use does not make sense. But it depends mainly on the work out one do with the printerïŠ.
The cost of the printer is 7999 RS + Vat so I got the printer at Rs. 8299 which sounds a bit costly only for printer but the quality cannot be compared to an MFS falling in the same price segment. The per page cost vary from 50 paise to 1 rupees depending upon the quality of the prints. The printer gives a revival to the ink jet series and surely can withstand any laser printer available in colour of this type.
Note:- If you going for printing keeping in mind Laser the choice plz do a look at it cause good quality colour laser cost a bomb and this printer has almost as same speed as a laser printer available in market. Though the rated print speeds are not yet reached but still HP successfully released a Laser Nemesis
- Pros: - Speedy Prints, Quality Photo prints, Add on feature, Sturdy built, Laser type speed at just half the rate.
- Cons: - Looks gaudy, Pricey, Ink Cartridge costly, Tray unfoldable. Manual not up to the mark.
At last this is the best bang for the buck only if you need to print at a laser printer speed and only if you want to print documents and pictures. Today MFD's making their presence strong in the market it becomes difficult for printer like this to survive. But mind you the price you pay is worth it. And “Premium products do not come at less priceâ€.
Hope you like it
Darky :bleh:
Repped ya..
