The HP Photosmart 7550 Prints your Digital Photos without a Computer!
by surferdude7 - Written: Sep 09 '02 (Updated Jan 27 '03)
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Pros: Print your photos without a computer and view them on the LCD on the printer.
Cons: None, well maybe the cost!
The Bottom Line: A superb digital photo printer!
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| surferdude7's Full Review: Hewlett Packard PhotoSmart 7550 InkJet Printer |
The HP Photosmart 7550 is the top of the class for the new PhotoSmart series with a color LCD for viewing your photos and seven color printing. The 7550 gives you seven colors in three ink cartridges, one black, one tri-color and a three color photo cartridge.
The LCD
The LCD is nice and handy because you can see which photo you are looking at instead of a photo number. The LCD is located in the top center of the printer and the color quality is pretty good. Still for viewing a photo for quality you need to see it on a much larger scale. A small photo may look good on the LCD but on your monitor it tells a different story.
It is a small LCD of about 1.5 inches that folds back to the printer or folds forward for easy viewing.
You can preview, select, modify and print photos with the use of the tiny LCD.
Seven Colors
This is a step in the right direction, I reviewed their PhotoSmart 7350 and it can only hold two cartridges at a time, so with it you have a choice of using the photo cartridge or the black cartridge.
The seven colors are supposed to help on the skin tones and true life colors but I personally can’t see any difference in the skin tones. As far as I see all of the HP PhotoSmart series produce an excellent photo on quality photo paper.
Memory Card Slots
The Photosmart 7550 like the 7350 has four memory card slots for CompactFlash Type I or II cards including the IBM Microdrive, SecureDigital or MultiMediaCard, SmartMedia cards and Memory Sticks.
There is also a place to plug directly in a HP PhotoSmart Digital camera with the cable supplied with the camera.
Other Specifications
Print Technology - HP Thermal Inkjet
Color Technology - PhotoREt IV with more than 1.2 million colors
Print Resolution Black - 1200 x 600 dpi
Print Resolution Color - 4800 x 1200 optimized dpi
Media Types – plain paper, Inkjet, photo, glossy, transparencies, labels, cards, iron-on transfers and banner paper
Paper Handling - 100-sheet input tray and a 24-sheet 4 x 6 inch photo tray
Paper Output Capacity – 50 sheets
Duty Cycle - up to 5,000 pages per month
16 MB built-in RAM
Size - 20.2W x 15.2D x 6.5H inches
Weight – 14.3 pounds
One-year limited warranty
Energy Star Compliant
What you Get!
The HP PhotoSmart 7550 Printer
One HP # 56 Black Cartridge
One HP # 57 Tri Color Cartridge
One HP # 58 Photo Cartridge
A Power Cord
HP Media Assortment
CD with all software and drivers
A guide and setup placemat
Requirements to use the PhotoSmart 7550
For the PC
Windows 98, ME, 2000 Pro and XP
Pentium II or better (AMD K-6 or better)
64-128 MB RAM
400 MB free hard disk space for the software
CD or DVD ROM Drive
SVGA monitor with 800 x 600 16-bit color or better
USB port
For the Macintosh
Mac OS 9 or better
G3 processor or better
64-128 MB RAM
400 MB free hard disk space for the software
CD or DVD ROM Drive
SVGA monitor with 800 x 600 16-bit color or better
USB port
My Results
Comparing my printing speed test against the test I have done with the PhotoSmart 7350, the PhotoSmart 7550 comes out on top. Both printers have 16MB of memory but the PhotoSmart 7550 has that extra cartridge of black while the PhotoSmart 7350 has to produce black out of its colors.
Printing speeds on the PhotoSmart 7350 on 5 borderless prints was between 2 minutes and 15 seconds to two minutes and 46 seconds. The PhotoSmart 7550 out of 5 borderless prints were 1 minute and 56 seconds to two minutes and 18 seconds. Not much of an improvement but it did do better.
Now on the 8.5 x 11 inch bordered print the PhotoSmart 7350 it took 6 minutes and 57 seconds. I printed the exact same photo with the PhotoSmart 7550 and it took 5 minutes and 58 seconds, almost one minute faster.
As far as quality in the 8.5 x 11 inch print the black in it looked a little richer and nicer than the one printed by the PhotoSmart 7350. In the 4 x 6 inch prints a couple of them showed a slightly better black also.
Overall the PhotoSmart 7550 prints faster and does produce a noticeable better quality in the print. Without laying the same photo side by side it is hard to see any flaws in the black that the PhotoSmart 7350 produces.
Overall
I believe the PhotoSmart 7550 is the replacement for the PhotoSmart 1315.
The PhotoSmart 7550 is easy to use and very easy to hookup. The software that comes with it is great for printing but for editing I prefer something like Adobe PhotoShop. Windows ME picked up the printer but I did have to load the drivers for it to work properly.
The borderless print on the 4 x 6 inch photo paper with the tear off tab is what I really like, it seems like the photo is larger than when you have the border.
Overall this is a great digital photo printer with a retail listing of $399.
New price! HP dropped the price down to $299, this is a real deal!
Thank You for Reading my Review!
Read about some of my other Printer reviews.
Canon S 9000 Personal Printer
HP PhotoSmart 7350 Photo Printer
HP PhotoSmart 1315 Desktop Personal Printer
HP PhotoSmart 1215 Personal Printer
Hewlett-Packard HP PhotoSmart p1000
HP LaserJet 1000 Personal Printer
Hewlett-Packard HP LaserJet 4100n
Sony DPP-SV77 Digital Photo Printer
Sony Digital Photo Printer SV55 Desktop Printer
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 399
Operating System: Windows and Macintosh
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