( 5 reviews )
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( 3 of 4 found this review helpful ) Posted: Mar 21 2002
I own the HP-Color LaserJet 4500 ( Older Version Of The 4550 ). There are 2 primairy Differences bewtween the 4500 and 4550, They are as Follows, #1: The 4500 Comes with Half as much ram and #2: The 4500 has a little bit Slower CPU. The 4550 In Every Other Way Identical to the 4500. Both Printers use the same exact Consumable parts, the front control pannels function identicaly. I Paid Only [money] total for the 4500. This will probably be the last printer I need to buy for awhile. Prior to getting my HP 4500 Color Laser, I had owned the Epson Action Laser 1500 ( MonoChrome Laser ) for more then 10 years. I Feel that most hown users and home based business would be pretty well off with Either of the Color Laser Printer's. So far I have not had any Major problem with the operation of the printer. I am currently running a Personal Computer System besides Windows or Mac; I am using the AMIGA PC.
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( 17 of 21 found this review helpful ) Posted: Aug 4 2001
I'm a SOHO user, with an IT background. As a result I don't want to compromise on my computer equipment. I've only bought HP printers for the last 12 years, and I've been *very* satisfied ... UNTIL I bought this 4550 Color Printer two months ago. I bought this printer with the hope to do all my printing work myself, also in color (my 4050 satisfied my needs, except that is was Black & while only). Compared to the HP 4050 it replaces, the thing is *very* bulky, the duplex keeps having paper jam problems if I start to re-use paper which was already printed on (which I never had with the 4050) and the warming up time is TERRIBLE (even after a paper jam, it takes AGES to warm up again). Also, having used the 4050, which was a 1200dpi printer, the 600 dpi of the 4550 is rather disappointing. Finally, the large drawer only takes 250 pages, compared to 500 pages for the 4050 - this means refilling the printer twice as often (and waiting for warming up again).OK, my business cards coming out of the printer on 220 gr. look professional in color, but my pictures are less good than they would be on an Epson Deskjet with 1440 dpi.Finally, I was really disappointed by the worth my "old" 4050 had - I got only 33% of it's value for a printer that was as good as new - HP only offered 16% of the initial value. Conclusion?For SOHO users - don't buy a HP printer that is bigger than what you *really* need - if you would resell it "as good as new" it will have lost it's value. For other users: maybe you should spend a bit more to get a better color printer than this one.
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( 12 of 13 found this review helpful ) Posted: Jun 24 2001
I broke down and purchased an HP Color Laserjet 4550 in March (my yearly bonus paid out!). While it required my teenage son and myself to lug it into the house (it is rather lofty in size), setup was simple and the quality and durability of prints cannot even be compared to an inkjet printer.Prior to purchasing the 4550, I owned three color inkjet products and have never been satisfied with the final prints. Even if you could get the prints to look good right out of the printer, their durability (ink smears, color degradation, etc.) certainly suffered.How to justify a rather sizeable purchase? Save your money and don't buy the poor reliability from color ink jet printers not to even mention the cost of the cartridges (but note you will have to anticipate the costly replacement of the four toner cartridges used in the 4550 laserjet eventually). Also, purchase a nice card maker software package (I use Hallmark Card Studio 2) and some good laserjet photo paper, and you can easily justify the cost of this color laserjet.I wish I would have never bought into the color inkjets and waited for this nearly affordable color laserjet instead.
