Our office prints a small amount (50 pages/day/machine) but this printer lasted only two months before it started to produce spots in all colors all over the pages. We called HP and they said it was a firmware issue. Yeah, right. Stay away from this one. This is our 4th HP printer in <3 years (2 color lasers, 2 multifunction) all of which wound up in the trash. I am long longer an HP because they don't last even with light usage. We've got two Brothers now and we'll replace the 3550 with another Brother.

Well, maybe buy if all you are doing is printing from Office. This printer uses a host based driver that doesn't work well with non-Office products. I am trying to print from a financial program and it won't work. I contacted HP and was told politely "too bad". With host based drives, if it doesn't work, you're just stuck.

If you need it to be HP make sure it doesn't have a host based driver. The HP tech recommended a refurbed 2550 otherwise you'll have to go with the large printers starting with the 4700 series. One last time - stay away from anything with host based drivers.

I absolutely love this printer! Yes, it is big, but it is a work horse. As a business teacher, I print a lot of documents from a variety of applications. I have been using the printer heavily for the past month since the start of school and it has not jammed once!! I've printed labels, card stock, and used the manual duplex feature as well. I also love the HP software that activates as I attempt to use various features. It took me about one hour to have everything up and running smoothly when it arrived. I've read some reviews that indicate that printing is slow. Compared to the inkjet Lexmark that I had before, this printer is a dream. I highly recommend it for home use.

I was pleasantly surprised with this color laserjet. I previously had the HP 4550, which was (is) the most disappointing color laser printers (at 4ppm and outrageously expensive ink drum). I was a little skeptical about the capabilities of the 3550, but with a little research online and testing at local computer stores, I decided to go with the 3500 (actually, I got the 3550n with networking). It did not come with a network card (like the 4550), but it did come with a USB network print server (which I like better anyway).

It boasts 16ppm for color (which is faster than my old one), but only 16ppm for b&w text (which is slow compared to my HPLJ 2420 at 25ppm). Others boast a fast 25ppm color and b&w text (Lexmark C762) but for twice the price. The comparable Lexmark unit is the C510, which prints 30ppm text, but a slow 8ppm color. This is why I went for the HP.

I will have to say that my inkjet printers (HP and Epson) can print better photo-quality than this printer, but that is a given. The 3550 was not designed to print on photo paper.

I purchased the 3550 about 6 months ago for over $1K, but I think you can get it for about $800 nowadays.

Summary: Text printing is fine (but slow), and color printer is fast (but crummy). I've had some people either like or hate the printer for its capabilities, but everyone unanimously agreed it is a monster size. So, if you have the space, I highly recommend this color laserjet printer.

Pros:
-excellent text quality
-very fast color printer (though not the fastest, but can hold its own against lexmark)
-easy to use; html toolbox user interface

Cons:
-HUGE footprint; I had to get a separate printer table for it because it would have taken up my work desk
-relatively slow all-text printing
-manual duplexing (similar to my HP Laserjet 2420)
-some issues with the color graphics; though good enough for home printing, I would not use it for business printing

I am pretty impressed after a week. Only beef is this is one BIG printer. Weighs over 60 pounds and BIG. Very fast! Pictures are good on semi glossy. I am going to buy glossy and see what quality looks like.