HP Color LaserJet 2550n

When it comes to an HP color and black and white printer that delivers printed output at a decent speed (up to 20 pages per minute in black-and-white), the LaserJet 2550n seems well suited to living up to that role. Color output, on a page per minute basis, comes out at about 4 pages. It's obvious, then, that the printer will be used more for regular black and white duties than for regular color print tasks.

There will be little to complain about when it comes to the quality of this model's print output, because every page will come out looking nice and sharp thanks to HP toner. This is because of its standard 600 dots per inch resolution, which is more than enough for the business needs of the workgroup to which it will be joined. Hewlett-Packard included one of its image enhancement technology programs to help keep everything looking good at all times.

"The printer is able to be joined to a workgroup through traditional wired technologies as well, with USB 2.0, parallel port and even a nice Ethernet 10/100 Base-TX input/output port available for the IT specialist to make use of when it comes to getting the printer up and running and in the workgroup quickly. All this connectivity capability is a nice selling point when it comes to an ultimate ""buy/no buy"" decision, one would say."

This HP printer also comes with 64 MB of random access memory (RAM), though that can be increased to 192 MB, if needed. Have the IT specialists assess the needs of the workgroup before spending the resources to increase memory if it isn't needed. Generally speaking, 64 MB is usually sufficient to meet the needs of most small workgroups. All of the print taskings are prioritized and handled by a 264 MHz processor too.

Total onboard paper storage capacity is 375 sheets, which is divided between a number of different trays of various sizes and purposes. Total paper handling capacity ranges all the way up to 875 sheets when optional paper trays are used. The printer's fairly durable too, with a 30,000 page-per-month duty cycle standard. It's recommended monthly range is between 1,000 and 4,000 pages, though, so keep that in mind.

This unit offered by Hewlett-Packard is a true laser jet machine, meaning it will require four separate printer cartridges (one black, a magenta, a yellow and a cyan). It's also able to be joined to a workgroup that makes use of Windows Vista, as well as a wide variety of other operating systems, including XP/Linux/UNIX and many different Mac OSs. It really is a very versatile printer, especially given its relatively low price.

All of these characteristics combine to make the HP Color LaserJet 2550n printer a nice value-priced business and workgroup machine that is sure to appeal. This is also because a refurbished unit can be found for around $350, while good-quality used versions with lots of life left in them go for about $250. This was a popular printer for Hewlett-Packard, which also means that plenty of parts and other accessories will be quite common.

The popularity of all Hewlett-Packard printers means finding replacement compatible toner cartridges won't be a problem.