HP Photosmart B8550 Inkjet Photo Printer

5 comments

1. 

   Harkanwar Anand on December 12, 2009 at 9:03 pm

   The Photosmart is not as easy to assemble and use on a daily basis as might appear on the small thumbnail picture. It takes forever to print and I’ve tried tweaking the printer. When you take a print out of a colored photograph, expect it to be limited because there was a greenish tinge to mine. It doesn’t come with a usb cable to attach to your computer so good luck with finding that small accessory. Also HP software takes forever to download..overall this is not a printer meant for an office and even for home use, I think it’s quite slow. The compartment for keeping the A4 sheets was slghtly comfortable. The best thing about it is the fact that I didn’t need to pay for it and that’s not saying a lot. This now rests in the corner of my apartment and collects dust and newspapers. Takes about a minute to start processing a print out.

2. 

   Terezed on December 12, 2009 at 11:25 pm

   My old HP printer (don’t remember the model) died but print quality was excellent. It used two cartridges (totaling 5 color + black) and it produced very high quality photo prints. It became time to replace the old HP and being familiar with HP quality and the reviews, I opted for the 8550 since it was positioned as a photo printer and had a large print format. It did not come with the USB cable and instructions hinted it might not be included (add $15) which means you can’t test it out upon receipt. But after getting through all that, the moment arrived to print a few photos previously printed on the old HP. WHAT A LET DOWN. I produced two prints from the same photo, both were dark and image quality was appreciably different between both prints. I felt pretty stupid when considering that the 8550 uses only three colors compared to five on the old HP. Bottom line: if you desire a high quality photo printer, the 8550 is really not a good candidate.

3. 

   Candace Mike N Elmo on December 13, 2009 at 2:13 am

   This is very user friendly for your average person

   1. prints 4×6 to 13×19 photos( and other material),has a viewer to help you see pics and correct or enhance etc. without a computer. My only complaint is I can not figure out how to make wallet size, but it is probably user error.

   2.The prints are great . We tried w/ plain paper, HP paper and a generic photo paper and ALL looked great. However, the HP paper w/ the HP printer dOES work best and they are DEFINITELY superior photos to the photos labs develop

   3. Has very intuitive and user friendly software that comes w/it to help you do whatever you want to, prints from iphoto and integrates w/photo shop and iphoto both very easily , make booklets, calendars and more, straight from the printer WITHOUT needing a computer and much more.

   4. having two paper trays is the ultimate in convenience !!

   5. We were able to print photos that came out great with this while a chain photo lab could not print them with good definition.

   6. it is very nice for business, for photos, to create calendars and cards.

   7. We have not had it long enough to know what the ink costs are but
   
   the photos have been excellent for us and we are using it a lot, so far no refills needed despite heavy usage.

   8. My K class materials print out just as nice as the extremely expensive school printer does.And this prints kids masks and other hard paper projects
   
   as well .I can do it all from home now.

   I can also print posters , fliers,play programs and all the really neat things kids and parents both love.

   I am impressed at how good a job it does for a much lower cost

   It’s the best we’ve had yet and it is great for those who like to be creative.

   great for those who want to really produce excellent quality creative artistic projects , as well as for everyday business items.
   
   We make colourful report cards for our clientele and they LOVE them, now we are making educational brochures , next will be business cards….

   This is why we are sold, there is just sooooooooo much we can create that
   
   is practical and creative.

   For the price, compared to other printers, this is a good buy.

4. 

   V. Pinkney on December 13, 2009 at 3:36 am

   I am very pleased with this printer. It prints exceptionally good photographs. I would have perferred it in black. I checked back later and it was 20 dollars less a week later. Overall I am pleased with the printer.

5. 

   D. Nelson on December 13, 2009 at 6:35 am

   This is a printer for the more serious photo enthusiasts. It has the ability to print up to 13×9 pictures, which honestly most people don’t need.

   The first major problem I had was with the size. It has a huge footprint, and trying to find someplace to put it was a bit of a problem. Of course if you’re the type to print a lot of 13×9 pictures, the size is needed.

   Also no USB cord is provided. That’s not really a fault of the printer. Most printers that I have purchased haven’t supplied them. So there was no surprise there.

   One major failing of the printer is with the printing of documents. It’s designed more for pictures, so documents are a little slow to print.

   Being able to print directly from the camera or memory card is a nice feature. Not sure how much I would use that since I like to move them all to my computer and do any editing and cropping before printing. You can, however, do limited corrections on the printer before printing such as red eye reduction.

   Overall I think it is a good printer, and if you’re a serious photo enthusiast it might be the right one for you. If on the other hand, you’re more the weekend photo taker, it will probably be more printer than you really need.