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HP Scanjet 5550c

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  • Scanjet 5550c
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HP Scanjet 5550c Review

by Richard Jantz

- WHAT'S HOT: The HP Scanjet 5550c is made to order for small-office users who want to scan multiple-page documents. We don't see many small-office scanners that offer even an optional automatic document feeder, but the 5550c comes with one that can handle up to 35 pages at a time. Assembling and installing the ADF is fairly straightforward--it's ready for work in only a few minutes. When we tried out the ADF, it took about 4.5 minutes total to scan a 15-page text document and to use optical character recognition to turn the scan into editable text. (We used the Iris OCR engine that's built into HP's Photo and Imaging software.) Of course, you can also scan photos by placing them on the glass manually. Tested using its USB 2.0 interface (also compatible with USB 1.1 ports), the 5550c earned very good scores for its performance overall, ranking third among small-office scanners behind the HP Scanjet 5500c and the Epson Perfection 1660 Photo. It scanned a full-page black-and-white document at 300 dpi in 19 seconds; the Scanjet 5500c (17 seconds) and the Perfection 1660 (14 seconds) outpaced it, but it came in ahead of all other competing models (which took from 21 to 43 seconds to complete the same test) on our small-office chart.

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User Reviews for HP Scanjet 5550c

  • Reviewed by: parvathysunil

    Duration of ownership:

    Strengths: None

    Weaknesses: Frequent Jams, non compatibility with Windows XP Home

    Overall Evaluation: We bought this scanner for office use; Could not use it even once. The set up was very difficult, though it said OK, it would never scan. Then there was the paper jams which would crash the whole computer system..the list goes on. I have a networked office - so thought it was a problem with the network - but all other systems work beautifully, just this scanner!

  • Reviewed by: bcole56

    Duration of ownership:

    Strengths: Automatic Document Feeder that works well and rarely jams

    Weaknesses: HP Scanning software is SLOW and poorly integrated with 3rd party programs.

    Overall Evaluation: The HP Scanjet 5550c is solidly-constructed. The 35-page Automatic Document Feeder (ADF) works well, it rarely jams, and it's able to feed up to legal-size paper. Unlike most other scanners, the 5550c ADF/lid opens from the side of the scanner, which makes it more convenient. The ADF hinges also look fairly sturdy, so it seems like the scanner would survive the thousands of pages that I anticipate I'll be putting through the scanner. There are various hardware buttons on the front panel, the most useful of which are "scan," "scan to disk (CD-R or hard disk," and "copy" (which prints to the printer of your choice, including your PDF printer). The "copy" feature even has an LCD screen and extra buttons to control how many copies you want and whether you want the copies B&W or color. There are also useless buttons, including "scan to webpage" and "scan to email." The scans are fast from the ADF: 300 dpi greyscale pages take 10 sec each and 300 dpi color scans take 15 sec. Note: the Scanjet 5550c is really just a Scanjet 4500 with the ADF. You may choose to buy the 4500 and ADF separately, but you'd save money if you just buy the 5550c. SOFTWARE: Unfortunately, he HP scanning software, while it gets the job done, is SLOW and inefficient--with splash screens for everything and too many separate scanning mini-programs. I run a P3 WinXP 256 MB, and the various canning modules of the software take up to 10 sec to load. Plus, the software takes up huge amounts of HD space...nearl

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