HP DeskJet 5550: The Star Of The New Season

Introduction

The new HP series, which takes the form of the Deskjet 5550, comes wreathed in goodies.

To start with, there's the technology. Away with PhotoRet III and in with PhotoRet IV! This means that you get six basic colors instead of four, giving you much better results in photo mode. The drop size has changed from five to four pico-liters and the PhotoRet IV has 1.2 million collors, instead of the 3500 colors available in the PhotoRet III mode. When we used it, we did notice a considerable gain in quality. The dots have gone and flesh tones and shading are much more faithful.

This may be a less important aspect in the end, but the design has been revised, as well. The new HP series sports a sleeker look than the previous one. It gives an overall impression of speed, which, the results show, is quite well deserved.

The last and most important point, at least in our opinion, is that the price of the cartridges has gone down. AT LONG LAST!

The downside is that they do not last as long, but costs per page have nonetheless dropped. The Deskjet 5550 should cost you about 15% less in ink than the last generation. But this drop will not benefit owners of earlier HP printers, because the cartridges are different: the new ones are smaller. The price drop was needed but is still inadequate. We are still waiting for proper good-value cartridges so we can use the printer more often. We explain it all later on in this article