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 For years we’ve wondered why Hewlett-Packard refused to see the light regarding its top photo-quality inkjet printers. While most other anufacturers promote the superior photographic image quality of their six-color inkjet printers (we’ve found that added light magenta and light cyan inks improve skin tones and color gradations), HP limited its Photosmart printers to the same four CMYK inks found in its business-oriented printers. So when the new 8x10-inch HP Photosmart 7550 printer arrived with its 4800x1200 dpi resolution and six color inks (street price: $289), we couldn’t wait to see how it fared.
HP’s biggest claim for this dye-based printer is that it produces superior prints that will outlast its competition by decades. Based on accelerated-aging tests performed by Wilhelm Imaging Research and duplicated by HP’s own engineers, HP is claiming a display lifespan (framed behind glass) of up to 65 years for prints made from the 7550 on HP’s Premium Plus Photo paper (glossy). That’s more than double the fade resistance of any other dye-based competitive printer, and closer to what you might expect from a $700 pigment-based printer. It’s also longer than most silver-halide color prints put to the same test. (We’re not endorsing these test results as foolproof indicators of how long a print will last in all display environments, but they may provide useful information for comparing how color prints fade when subjected to the controlled parameters of an accelerated-aging test. Go to www.wilhelmresearch.com for more info on accelerated testing.)
 HP designers also packed the 7550 with a plethora of mechanical features including four built-in memory card slots for CF Type I and II cards (plus IBM Microdrives), MultiMedia, Secure Digital, SmartMedia, and Sony Memory Sticks. When the printer is attached to a computer, it doubles as a multi-card reader via its USB 1.1 connector. Without a computer, both JPEG and TIFF files can be printed directly from the cards (but only one can be inserted at a time). A swiveling color LCD monitor located on top of the printer (usually a $99 option on several other printers) lets you preview photos, and easy-to-master buttons help you choose image quality and print options from various menus. The 7550 can make borderless prints up to 4x6, and even print double-sided documents on select papers (but not photo papers). You can also choose to make an index print (or prints) of all the images on a card, and supported HP Photosmart cameras can be hooked directly to the 7550 via a USB port on its front. To speed up the paper-switching process, the Photosmart 7550 includes an additional drawer for 4x6-inch photo paper. Nice touch! Some other features of note: The 7550 ships with the largest-capacity ink cartridges we’ve seen on an HP Photosmart printer (two color cartridges and one black) as well as a useful software bundle.
Setting up the Photosmart 7550 was a fairly easy task facilitated by an included step-by-step setup chart. The ink cart-ridges are easy to load and clearly marked, and the software setup went smoothly on our PC running Windows 2000, as well as on our Mac running both OS 9.2 and OS X v.10.2. Once setup is complete, inserting a card into one of the slots enables bi-directional transfer of files, albeit at USB 1.1 speeds of nearly 1MB/second.
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