HP SCANJET FLATBED SCANNER 5500CXI 2400DPI 48BIT USB TMA APF (HP (Hewlett-Packard)-C9928A)
| Scan quality (color/monochrome) | Good/Very good |
| Performance | Outstanding |
| Average 1200-dpi color scan speed | 21 seconds per document |
| Average 300-dpi black-and-white scan speed | 17 seconds per document |
| Features | Very good |
| Maximum optical resolution | 2400 by 2400 |
| Scan area (inches) | 8.5 by 11.7 |
| Color depth | 48 bits internal; 48 bits external |
| Connection interface(s) | USB 2.0 |
| Removable lid | Yes |
| Transparency adapter | Included; up to 6 by 1.75 inches |
| Automatic document feeder | None offered |
| Bundled software | HP Photo and Imaging software |
| Overall ease of use | Very good |
| Installation | Outstanding |
| Design | Outstanding |
| Documentation | Very good |
| Support quality score | Very good |
| Support policies | One-year parts-and-labor warranty; 16-hour toll-call support weekdays and Saturdays |

HP Scanjet 5500c
SCANJET FLATBED SCANNER 5500CXI 2400DPI 48BIT USB TMA APF (HP (Hewlett-Packard)-C9928A) Review, by Richard Jantz October 18, 2002

WHAT'S HOT: With its automatic photo feeder (APF), a transparency adapter, and a bevy of push buttons, the HP Scanjet 5500c is one of the most versatile, easy-to-use scanners we've seen lately. The unique APF, which is built into the scanner lid itself, works much like an automatic document feeder except that it handles stacks of photo prints (as big as 4 by 6 inches) instead of paper sheets. Place a pile of up to 24 prints in the APF's feeder tray, push the Scan button on the front panel, and the Scanjet 5500c will automatically scan each print, generating a separate file for each one. In informal tests using the APF, it took roughly 4.5 minutes to process a pile of 15 3-by-5-inch photos, or approximately 18 seconds per print, at 200 dpi (the APF's default setting). We found that the APF operated very smoothly and didn't cause any damage to our prints as they passed through its transport mechanism.
Tested using its USB 2.0 interface (like all USB 2.0 devices, it's backward-compatible with USB 1.1 ports), the 5500c earned the highest overall performance score among all the small-office scanners we've tested in recent months. For example, it scanned a 2-by-2-inch photo at 1200 dpi in 21.23 seconds, a little more than half the time the Epson Perfection 1660 Photo took (40.83 seconds), which we also tested using USB 2.0. To be fair, though, these two scanners posted times within a couple of seconds of each other on many of our other tests.
In our image-quality tests, the 2400-dpi 5500c earned high ratings for its line-art scans, which showed accurate test patterns and letters. Its black-and-white photo scans also scored well, with excellent brightness, contrast, and details in shadows and highlights. Its color scans looked sharp and bright overall, but some colors appeared more saturated than in the original photos. Skin tones, for example, had a somewhat more reddish cast than they should have. However, the color accuracy was easily improved by changing the scanner's Color Adjustment setting from the default Enhanced Color to Original Color.
WHAT'S NOT: Although the 5500c is rich with features, it also comes with a rich price. At $300, it's one of the most expensive scanners on the small-office chart. And it isn't a good choice for buyers interested in heavy document processing: You can't get an automatic document feeder for it, so you can't run through stacks of letter-size sheets or legal-size documents. And this model's power supply adapter is bulkier than most: It takes up substantial space on a wall plug or power strip, so it may obstruct other outlets.
WHAT ELSE: Like its predecessor (the HP Scanjet 5400c), the 5500c's front panel features ten shortcut buttons for various scanning tasks. In addition to common quick-start buttons such as Scan, E-mail, and Share-To-Web, it also offers photocopier-like controls for scanning directly to your printer: You can choose color or black-and-white, plus the number of copies (via a two-character LCD). The 5500c also comes with a separate transparency adapter that neatly fits over the scanner glass and holds as many as three 35mm slides (or a single strip of negatives). The software lets you scan only one slide or frame at a time, though--it doesn't let you select and scan multiple images, as you can with some models (such as the Epson Perfection 1660 Photo).
This Scanjet's bundled software includes HP Photo and Imaging, an integrated suite of tools for editing images, creating photo galleries, archiving images on CD, and printing photos in a variety of predesigned templates. The image editor provides only basic tools, and lacks the more advanced features (such as photo composite tools and special effects filters) found in most standard image editors, such as Adobe Photoshop Elements. HP's scanning software also includes a built-in OCR engine from IRIS. HP's TWAIN driver (called HP Scanning) provides a streamlined basic interface for beginners and casual users, and improved access to advanced features, such as color and tonal adjustments.
UPSHOT: The 5500c's novel photo feeder is a truly useful innovation, and the scanner is a speed demon that produces above-average images. But its price will dissuade many potential buyers.
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Review Now! Already own it? Tell us What You Think
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Reviewed by: kkwright2
Strengths: fast auto scanning/ beats doing it one pic at a time
Weaknesses: none
Overall: i purchased this scanner to copy 2000 photos and 35 boxes of slides that i lost in a divorce. the autofeed worked great only 4 times in 2000 pics did it jam. now i'm working on the slides and so far so good.
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Reviewed by: NLHovik
Strengths: Features
Weaknesses: Functionality
Overall: The features on the HP Scanjet 5500C are great. The automatic photo feeder and the automatic document feeder work well. I have encountered some problems with the software but have worked through them. Overall I am very satisfied with this product.
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Reviewed by: amolm
Strengths: Looks nice
Weaknesses: The APF (which is its main feature) is useless.
Overall: The main reason people go to buy this product is the Automatic Photo Feeder. When I took it out of the box and scanned a few pics, they jammed. And, the default resolution is 200dpi. I changed the resolution and tried again and the APF BROKE. It makes a clattering noice and then the scanner tries to scan what's under the cover. This is a piece of JUNK. Do not waste your time and money on this.
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Reviewed by: Razorman
Strengths: If your primary concern is scanning photos, this machine is hard to beat for the price.
Weaknesses: It does not do legal size. This is more important to me than all the idiot buttons most new scanners have.
Overall: Easy setup, and the Automatic Photo Feeder works great. If your primary concern is scanning photos, this machine is hard to beat for the price. No lifting the lid and smearing the glass. Just load up the APF, click scan photo and let it work. I am running Windows 2K Pro SP4 on a P4 1.8 512m.
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Reviewed by: jdorris657
Strengths: Looks Nice-Does a nice job on the Auto Feed for certain size photo's.
Weaknesses: Doesn't live up to the HP name!
Overall: I am still using the very first HP4C scanner and so far they have yet to beat it. I was really let down after purchasing the 5500C. The auto-crop feature did not work at all. I sent emails to HP and got no response there. I really wanted to keep it but just had no other choice except to return it. It did a really poor job on negatives which was another let down. HP who dropped the ball on this one?
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