HP OfficeJet Pro K550

[Mercutio]

Duplex printing. 350 sheet tray. Builtin LAN. Photo-printing cartridges that aren't horribly expensive ($18 apiece).

It's a little louder than a personal photo printer, but it's a workgroup-type unit, so that's not entirely unexpected. It's also enormous, as big as two reasonably new HP 7500-series photo printers, but not as big as the Samsung CLP-510 that I originally wanted to purchase (which was rejected due to its size).

Print output is... about what you'd expect from an Inkjet. Seems nicer for photos than for text, but that's acceptable. The print tray and several places in the manual state that it doesn't print on photo paper; it's plain-paper only.

I paid $215 apiece for two of them. I'll be interested to find out whether they're good long-term solution for my company's occasional classroom printing needs.

The down side to this particular model: HP's minimal device driver is 100 megabytes! 100! Megabytes! For a printer!

I don't have any particular impressions or endorsements about this printer yet. Just think it's something that may be of interest to others here.

 

[sechs]

This actually has a market?

What workgroup needs to print photos and wants to do it with an inkjet?

 

[Mercutio]

It actually matches our needs pretty well.
We teach classes in things like Photoshop and some consumer photo-editing crap (I think Picture It!) where a photo printer is handy; a color laser isn't really right for that kind of printing - though that was my preference - and, expensive as they are, inkjet is going to be cheaper in every possible way compared to anything that uses a dye sublimation process.

 

[ddrueding]

dye sub is awesome; I used to have access to one, but the per page costs were extreme.

 

[sechs]

If people need help with using stuff like that, then you should probably get a stack of consumer inkjets, because they'll never figure out how to print it at home....

 

[Mercutio]

"Stack of consumer inkjets" cause us problems: Because all printers suck, they die. Then you have to buy a new one. One that doesn't use the same ink cartridge as the others. Now you're having to keep multiple cartridges on hand.

Different printers also have different capabilities. Why can his printer do edge-to-edge printing while mine has margins? Why does his have a builtin memory card reader? Why does he get (have) to use nicer paper?

Plus, in the network printing scenario, we've observed that people are a little less brazen about how much of our consumables they waste. Which is nice.

 

[P5-133XL]

I'm sorry, but when I give a recomendation for a printer to a business, I really try to stear them away from inkjets unless they really need low volume high quality color output. I try to be very upfront with them and basicly tell them to be expecting to replace the printer on a regular basis. It's a question of reliability. I have yet to ever see an inkjet with a reasonable amount of longevity built into it. They just don't last.

They really seem to be built (Even the so called business class inkjet printers) for personal usage and with a few pages per day they're fine. However, as soon as volume gets involved they can't handle it. The expectation of bussiness owners is that they are expecting their printers to last for years and they just plain don't when the volume goes up. Too many plastic parts where metal ones should be.

That's been my experiance

 

[ddrueding]

I had an Inkjet that held up for years; an HP Deskjet 550C. That sucker never died; it was finally replaced by something with more features, and that did die (so did the countless replacements).

 

[Mercutio]

I have an Deskjet 520 that's worked since I bought it, the day I graduated from High School; I see 500s and 520s to this day. It's everything NEWER than that which sucks.

Anyway, this is a workgroup printer. It has a monstrous 350-sheet feeder and obviously better construction than a $60 P.O.S. It's too early for me to say that it's any better in reality, but I am hopeful. It's not as big and doesn't make as much noise (or use as much power) as a full-blown laser, and obviously it's better at color printing. There are times when such a thing is justified.

 

[P5-133XL]

As a irrelevant side note.

If you really want to see printers that last look into the high-volume impact printers. From a technicians viewpoint they are beautiful in how well they are built to last.

And then there is the technicians horror story about a high volume impact printer under a service contract. The company, had decided to de-commission a printer and stored it outside for aprox 6-months. Then the powers that be, decided that they needed it again. I was called back every couple of weeks to repair a different problem each time. This continued for months untill they decided to replace the printer and thats when I found out its history... Hey we can look at it philosophically -- The more money for me...

 

[P5-133XL]

You are both quoting from your own personal knowledge of a personal printer. Again, for low-volume applications then there are injets that survive and thrive. As soon as you get into business level usage survivable inkjets don't seem to exist. I really don't care if they have large paper trays or sheet feeders: That's simply feature marketting. When you start taking them apart, you see plastic everything.

Like in so many things, you can roughly judge quality by weight. It almost seems like there is a linear relationship. The heavier it is, the longer it will last. Now tell me that the printer weighs 200+ lbs, now there is something to believe in...

 

[sechs]

Different printers also have different capabilities. Why can his printer do edge-to-edge printing while mine has margins? Why does his have a builtin memory card reader? Why does he get (have) to use nicer paper?

I think this is exactly the issue. You're only going to teach them how to use your printer, which they'll never, ever buy. They're going to get that $60 jobby to which you referred.

And it's not as if you have to stock a bunch of ink because the printers aren't going to last that long. Heck, offer to sell the printer to the person who you just taught to use it.