Once mainly the purview of graphics professionals, color laser printers like the Hewlett-Packard Color LaserJet 2550L have dropped into the range of mere mortals in the past year or two.

In fact, prices are so reasonable you won't be prepared for the sticker shock you'll get when it's time to replace the cartridges (around $300 for all four cartridges). Still, it's difficult to resist the lure of color, particularly when the upfront cost isn't much higher than a standard black-and-white laser printer.

The HP 2550L laser printer supports parallel port and USB connections and is easy to set up. The LaserJet ships with 64MB RAM (expandable to 192MB) and a 125-sheet paper tray. If you tend to print large jobs or simply hate the chore of replacing paper, you can add a Hewlett-Packard 250-sheet paper tray for around $150 or a 500-sheet paper tray for around $300. A straight-through paper path can accommodate heavier paper stocks.

The Hewlett-Packard 2550L laser printer produces printing resolutions up to 600X600 dpi. The HP SureSupply feature lets you know when toner is getting low, so you don't have to worry about running out in the middle of printing an important job. The LaserJet's output quality is good for black and white and above average for color, with smooth, rich hues, crisp blacks, and sharp text, even at small type sizes.

If you want to share the printer, you can add an HP Jetdirect External Print server for $250 to $300.

The instant-on fuser technology reduces waiting time before the first print, which is a good thing, because the 2550L LaserJet isn't the speediest printer on the block. HP claims print speeds of up to 20 pages per minute for black and white and up to 4 pages per minute for color, but manufacturer claims are notoriously optimistic, based on ideal conditions and a good tailwind.

You'd expect a laser printer to leave an inkjet in the dust, but this printer is disappointingly slow. Still, if you're a patient person, the Hewlett-Packard 2550L LaserJet's selling price and print quality may make up for this HP laser printer's less-than-stellar speeds.

Pro:  Above-average color output quality. Good black-and-white output quality. Supports parallel port and USB connections. Expandable memory and paper capacity.
Con:  Ships with a paper tray rather than a standard cassette-style paper drawer. Small paper capacity for a laser printer. Slow print speeds. Networking options are expensive.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Hewlett-Packard
3000 Hanover Street
Palo Alto, CA 94304-1185
650-857-1501
http://www.hp.com

Warranty
1 year limited