HP LaserJet Enterprise 500 Color Printer (M551n)

What I offer here is more of a "first impression" after having printed only 545 pages on my new HP LaserJet 500 color M551n printer. I can say that so far, the HP has performed flawlessly. This is a very nice, very well constructed, solid (and heavy) color laser printer. So let me give you some specifics. Going from the box to your point-of-use is not going to be easy. This is a heavy printer (75 pounds but it feels heavier) and most people will want or need someone to help them move it. I helped the delivery driver take it off the truck and walk it into my garage. My wife then helped me get it out of the box and from there I slowly and laboriously carried the printer up to my office. Once in place though, you'll be printing in no time. Setting up, and connecting to, this printer was easy. I have it installed on my network. I use Windows 7 Home Premium. Between my operating system and the HP software the printer is recognized without any difficulty. The software that comes with the printer was not the most current which I found to be only mildly frustrating. But installing updated software from HP's website is straightforward. Image quality is much, much better than I anticipated. In fact, I'll say it's absolutely beautiful. Skin tones, for example, are perfect and there's no banding on a full-page image. And I'm just using plain paper at the printer's default setting of 600 × 600 dpi. I do a lot of PowerPoint presentations with graphs and images and the color/image quality is great. This printer is very fast. From sleep mode, when you send a print job, the first page is out in 18.5 seconds. If the printer is already awake, it prints the first page in 10.9 seconds. These speeds are based on my sending the print jobs from my notebook computer which is connected wirelessly to my network. I purchased this printer to replace a Xerox Phaser 8650 that simply could not print without regularly producing a paper jam. That was a huge and unacceptable aggravation for a new printer and it is my biggest "anticipated" though, as yet, unfounded fear with my new HP. Based on having owned two Xerox Phaser printers (the 8650 and an 8550 Phaser before that), both of which were highly rated, all I can say is that I will never buy a Xerox Phaser printer again. I'm now an advocate for HP laser printers. If I run into any problems I'll be sure to provide an update. Until then, I think you will be pleased with this printer.

The only good thing about this is that it prints fast. Other than that, the prints are never straight and the toner is extremely expensive.

This printer arrived two days ago, so I haven't had it very long, but I have to say I'm very impressed with the features and graphics and text output. The only qualm I have at this point is photo output. The colors of photos can be a bit overly saturated in the vivid/Adobe RGB color settings and not vivid enough if configured for a default or photo RGB setting (when allowing the printer to manage the color). The photos also come out quite dark, although I have managed to fix this to a degree by disabling HP EasyColor in the printer preferences. With HP EasyColor disabled, you can also change the RGB settings (color themes) for the various printer shortcuts. Of course, advanced users will know how to adjust all the settings to get what they want out of it, but I am just talking about a typical user who wants to print some quick photos. We have also set up the ePrint feature and can print from our Android tablets using the HP app or from anywhere by sending an e-mail with an attachment to the printer e-mail address. This has already been handy when I wanted to print one page of a large PDF from my tablet. I like the fact that you can set the printer to use only the black cartridge without the color cartridges, since I don't use color as often and would like to save on that expense, but I'm also looking forward to taking advantage of all the printer's features as often as I can. I hope it will prove to be the workhorse my last HP printer was. One word of caution: this printer is very heavy (around 75 lbs). They recommend two people lifting it, although I did it alone and it is a little more than half my weight. I don't plan on lifting it again!

Spent $700 on this printer used lightly at home (maybe 5-10 pgs printed per day). Completely went out and died after a little more than 24 months of use.

This "top of the line" printer will not handle the heavy weight stock that it is advertised to print on. On stock up to 28 lb. paper, it does a good job, Above that, after printing five or six impressions, it begins to smear. Since it cost over $700.000, we are disappointed in the result. From additional internet searches, it looks like the ability to do what we want will require a printer that costs twice as much. Still undecided what to do.

I use this printer at home. It produces excellent quality black and white and color prints, and produces them very quickly. Often friends come over when they want color printing for something special. This is an office grade printer. At home it will last almost forever. The printer uses large toner cartridges with long lives and low cost. For black and white printing it only uses the black toner cartridge which is available is a huge capacity at very low cost. I use Hammermill Laser Print Office Paper, 11 inch x 17 inch, 24lb, 98-Bright, 500ct HAM 104620. While regular paper works very well, a premium paper like this produces a superior result. Everyone is struck by the quality of the output on this paper. I would advise anyone who has children who are moving into computers to get a color laser printer such as this one for home use. The high initial cost versus an inkjet is very soon recovered due to the much lower costs of consumable such as ink. These printers aren't promoted for home use. In my opinion this is because the cost of the printer is lower than it might be because the manufacturer anticipates businesses will buy lots of toner when the printer is used in a business environment.

Works well, and is fast enough to get larger prints out in good time. Clear, clean and easy to use.