QualityLogic Performance Report

HP Color LaserJet 5550n vs. Laser Competitors

QualityLogic Inc., a leading independent test firm, recently conducted tests to compare the print throughput performance of the HP Color LaserJet 5550n with a selection of competitive products from various manufacturers. The testing demonstrated that the HP Color LaserJet 5550n printed documents similar to those found in a business environment faster than the competition when each printer was configured to achieve the best print quality possible. In addition, a sampling of print quality from each of the printers in the test shows that the HP Color LaserJet 5550n achieves equivalent or better print quality than the other printers tested. Some of the print quality samples are included later in this report.

A printer’s primary speed specification (the “up to” PPM rating) is based on the speed of the printer in the fastest mode available, often not the best print quality mode. Speed capabilities for printing in the best print quality modes are often not provided. Five of the six printers in the test had multiple print quality modes in their drivers that were evaluated. Of those five printers, four printed slower in their best print quality mode than in their default print mode.⁴ The Lexmark printer had no measurable difference in performance between its two modes.

Printers were initially configured to print in their best print quality mode. QualityLogic’s PageSense Business Suite 2003 was used, which consists of test files from several desktop applications that average six to seven pages in length. The entire test suite has a total of 352 pages. Total print times to print the entire suite are provided in the graphs and table that follow.

Graph 1: Comparison of all printers in their best print quality modes. (Six applications, 52 documents and 352 total pages.)

The above graph shows the cumulative time in minutes to print the complete test suite on each of the printers in the test, when the printers were configured to their best print quality mode. The HP Color LaserJet 5550n printed the suite faster than the other printers tested.

The test was repeated using the default mode for those printers with higher speed default settings. The graph below compares the time for those printers to print the same test suite in their default modes (maroon bars) with the time to print the test suite in their best quality modes (blue bars). For the HP Color LaserJet 5550n there is only a single bar since this printer only had one mode of printing, the best print quality mode. ^{2, 4}

Under these default test conditions, the HP Color LaserJet 5550n outperformed the competitors with the exception of the Xerox Phaser 7400N and the Epson Aculaser C9100.

Graph 2: Comparison of all printers in best print quality and default modes. (Six applications, 52 documents and 352 total pages.) ²

The following table shows the printers tested, their manufacturer-specified print speed, and the tested performance achieved in both best print quality and default modes during testing by QualityLogic:

Six of the test pages from different applications in the test suite were chosen and used to judge print quality of the six printers. In all cases pages that were printed in the best quality mode were used for the comparison. A forced ranking system was used to rank the pages from 1-7 for the six printers in the study. The pages printed by the HP Color LaserJet 5550n had the highest average ranking in this comparison. Following are samples from one of those test pages for each of the printers.

Notes:

Print Samples

HP Color LaserJet 5550n Actual Size	Compare
Epson Aculaser C9100 Actual Size
	Click for an enlarged side-by-side comparison of Epson Aculaser C9100 and HP Color LaserJet 5550n
Oki C9600n Actual Size
	Click for an enlarged side-by-side comparison of Oki C9600n and HP Color LaserJet 5550n
Lexmark C920 Actual Size
	Click for an enlarged side-by-side comparison of Lexmark C920 and HP Color LaserJet 5550n
Xerox Phaser 7400N Actual Size
	Click for an enlarged side-by-side comparison of Xerox Phaser 7400N and HP Color LaserJet 5550n
Ricoh CL7200 Actual Size
	Click for an enlarged side-by-side comparison of Ricoh CL7200 and HP Color LaserJet 5550n

Test Platform

Testing was performed using the QualityLogic PageSense 4.2 automated performance test tool, connected to a desktop personal computer with an Intel P4 3.2GHz processor with 2GB of memory, using the Microsoft Windows XP Professional Edition operating system with Service Pack 2. All printers were connected to the test computer using a high speed isolated network connection.

Test Approach

All print drivers were installed using the Plug-n-Play method and tested using the default printer language. The only exception to this rule was when the information provided by the manufacturer indicated that the best print quality was obtained when using a different language. In addition, default settings were used with the exception of those required to obtain the best print quality from the printer under test. All products were selected by HP and purchased by QualityLogic from various vendors.

For all printers, each test file was printed after having ensured that the printer was warm and not in a power-save state. PageSense was used to automate the testing and provide consistent timing between tests. All files were printed twice. Any files logging a five percent deviation between test runs were retested.

QualityLogic selected PageSense Business Suite 2003 test files that it considers similar to those found in a business environment for this test. The test included files from Adobe Acrobat Reader 6, Adobe PhotoShop 7, Microsoft Internet Explorer 6, Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint and Word 2003. The test suite is composed of 52 documents from these applications with a total of 352 pages.

PageSense uses application test files and an automated process for printing and recording time measurements using a smart paper sensing unit. Performance data is logged into a database automatically. Many industry publications, such as PC Magazine, use PageSense to automate testing and provide comparable results between printers. PageSense is a standardized, automated approach to performance testing.

This study was commissioned by HP.

About QualityLogic

QualityLogic is a leading Software Quality Services Company offering a variety of testing services and related tools focused on the conformance, performance, and interoperability testing needs, from low level firmware testing, to high level multi-tier application testing. QualityLogic has over 18 years' experience, both in developing specialized test tools and providing comprehensive testing services for top industry manufacturers.

Test results provided by QualityLogic. Tests were performed under laboratory conditions and your results may vary.