The HP Color LaserJet 8500 and 8550 color laser printers are designed for small to medium work groups, deliver decent printing speeds and can be found for around $700.00 for the base models.

The HP 8500 and HP 8550 work group color laser printers are compatible with Windows systems, Apple Mac OS7.1 or later and IBM OS/2. The printers come standard with parallel ports but networking will need to be added; all of HP’s “n” models have networking standard although wireless print servers will need to be added as an extra feature which is common for most manufacturers. The HP Color LaserJet 8500 and 8550 color laser printers can expand their base memories of 32 MB through the use of 100 pin DIMM cards in the open EIO slots. In addition the printers are powered by the same 133 MHz processor and have duplex printing as an option much like their competitors. The HP 8550 has a 200 MHz processor and will cost slightly more but deliver quicker printing; unfortunately no hard disk option is available on these printer series, but a 3.2 GB hard disk is standard on the HP 8550gn model.

Text is presented well for these workgroup printers but a little banding is noticed in smaller font sizes. Image quality is acceptable and inline with their pricing, although it could use some improvements. Monthly volumes on these printers start at 17,000 for the base models and increase to 60,000 on the “n” models. The processors and memory help to push to prints out pages at 24 pages per minute for black and white and 6 pages per minute in color. It should be noted that some similarly priced printers are faster but have lower quality images. HP includes administrative utilities for the printer so you can monitor everything from the number of pages printed to how much color toner is being used for which project or by which user which helps to streamline the printing budget; color pages cost about $.12 per page and monochrome documents at $.01.

These HP Color LaserJet printers deliver acceptable color and text printing and some extra features for small to medium work groups; those looking for high end color prints should think about investing in a more advanced printer.

The HP Color LaserJet 8500 and 8550 color laser printers are designed for small to medium work groups, deliver decent printing speeds and can be found for around $700.00 for the base models.

The HP 8500 and HP 8550 work group color laser printers are compatible with Windows systems, Apple Mac OS7.1 or later and IBM OS/2. The printers come standard with parallel ports but networking will need to be added; all of HP’s “n” models have networking standard although wireless print servers will need to be added as an extra feature which is common for most manufacturers. The HP Color LaserJet 8500 and 8550 color laser printers can expand their base memories of 32 MB through the use of 100 pin DIMM cards in the open EIO slots. In addition the printers are powered by the same 133 MHz processor and have duplex printing as an option much like their competitors. The HP 8550 has a 200 MHz processor and will cost slightly more but deliver quicker printing; unfortunately no hard disk option is available on these printer series, but a 3.2 GB hard disk is standard on the HP 8550gn model.

Text is presented well for these workgroup printers but a little banding is noticed in smaller font sizes. Image quality is acceptable and inline with their pricing, although it could use some improvements. Monthly volumes on these printers start at 17,000 for the base models and increase to 60,000 on the “n” models. The processors and memory help to push to prints out pages at 24 pages per minute for black and white and 6 pages per minute in color. It should be noted that some similarly priced printers are faster but have lower quality images. HP includes administrative utilities for the printer so you can monitor everything from the number of pages printed to how much color toner is being used for which project or by which user which helps to streamline the printing budget; color pages cost about $.12 per page and monochrome documents at $.01.

These HP Color LaserJet printers deliver acceptable color and text printing and some extra features for small to medium work groups; those looking for high end color prints should think about investing in a more advanced printer.