The HP Color LaserJet 2550L printer began production in 2004. It offered a low cost laser printer using 2550L replacement toners that had a high output. HP has discontinued the production of this machine and it is no longer available for purchase new.

The HP Color LaserJet 2550L printer is a two-tone gray printer. It is lightweight and easy to move. It owes its compact size to the fact that the four-HP Color LaserJet printer toner cartridge are arranged in a space saving carousel.

This printer helped to make color laser printers available to home users and small businesses. When sold new from HP, it was less expensive than most other laser printers at the time. To cut costs, the printer was designed so that adjustments were made from the computer and not an LCD screen on the printer itself.

Many consumers were not happy with this printer on a couple of counts, however. The printer does not come equipped with a paper tray unless purchased separately. In addition, the consumables for the machine can become expensive very quickly.

Without the optional paper tray, paper must be fed through a slot located behind a front panel on the machine. This panel must be kept open to keep paper loaded. Some purchasers felt that this exposed the inner workings of the printer to too much dust. In addition, consumers often find it difficult to locate the optional paper tray.

The Laser Jet 2550l uses a separate drum that needs to be replaced regularly. With this machine, it is not uncommon to have to replace the drum every five to six months. Cost of the replacement drum is about one third of the cost of the printer when new.

Consumers find that toner cartridges must often be replaced before empty. The printer employs a technique that uses print count to determine when a toner cartridge needs to be replaced. Thus, even when using the printer in the black print setting, the counter for the color cartridges counts down with every print made. Once the counter reaches the zero mark, the toner cartridge must be replaced for the printer to work. This has consumers replacing toner cartridges that may be over half full.

Prints on this machine also seem to be mediocre. Additionally, the speed seems very slow by the standards of today. The fastest speed, for black letter sized prints is 12.1 ppm. Color prints are only done a t 3.1 ppm. In addition, color often needs adjustment to get true color for the pictures. The machine does shine at black prints. It consistently produces clean and crisp text.

The HP Color LaserJet 2550L set a standard that brought the prices of both black and color laser printers into the range of ink jet printers so that they could be affordable for many home computer users. While consumers may find many of these used machines being offered at low prices they should be warned that the cost of consumables and the fact that they must be replaced even when not empty makes this a less than desirable printer. It is also important to always have HP Color LaserJet printer toner cartridge on hand. Replacement toner is the ink that the printer uses to print your documents. You can purchase HP Color LaserJet 2550L compatible toner online or in stores.