HP DeskJet 5650 Color Inkjet Printer

Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: Looking a new printer since my elderly Epson blew up I came across an ad in the paper for PC World in Dublin offering the 5650 at a voucher price of €99.99 or about $85. Reviews here were good so I took the plunge (not much of a risk at that price!). Glad I did because it's a fantastic printer. I'd agree with the comments on lack of documentation, I'm not a total newbie to printers but it took a while to figure out how to insert the ink and the installation CD froze my laptop, I had to unplug the battery to get going again but all was fine after that. Also had to buy a cable but an extra €9 was OK.
It's fast, the colours are fantastic and it even looks well! For home or a quiet office I'd be very doubtful if there'a better value for money anywhere!

Rating:
Summary: Good printer ... terrible drivers
Review: My deskjet used to work. Then my hard drive went out and HP replaced it. When they sent the CPU back, I had to take the back off because they didn't seat the modem back correctly. So after 4 hours with the HP phone support, we got it to work. Now the printer will not work. Some problem with XP and the drivers. I have spent more than 4 hours at this and still no luck. I suspect the USB is the problem. Now I have to go out and buy a parallel cable.

Rating:
Summary: It worked for a while....
Review: My husband and I purchased this printer last Christmas. It worked wonderfully at first and we were very happy with the high quality printing (especially photo printing).

After three months, we encountered a recurring error message. The printer had a paper jam in the duplexer (WE DID NOT HAVE THE DUPLEXER ATTACHMENT). Shaking it vigorously and cursing at it worked for a while, but it eventually stopped working all together.

After over an hour online with the HP help center (they were very nice, by the way), we found it was a "hardware problem" and that our warranty had expired (no surprise).

Rating:
Summary: Bought a substitute, Got exactly what I wanted
Review: My old HP 970cxi with parallel connection and automatic reverse mechanism died of old age and abuse. I went to Circuit City and Office Max looking for a replacement. None of the idiot printer experts at either store were aware that they carried a printer under $250 that had a parallel port and an available auto reversing mechanism. They also were all under the impression that each model of HP DeskJet that could use a auto reversing mechanism had its own special mechanism, so that I could not use my old one. Finally I decided that I would bite the bullet and get USB connection printer +/- $150.00, a USB hub +/- $30.00, and a USB cable $15-30, and just forget about the auto reversing aspect. Before purchasing the approximately $200.00 worth, I went to Sams Club just to check their prices. (Just before Christmas â€" Super long lines)
I found they had the same 5650 printer as Circuit City and Office Max. It was only $10 cheaper, and I almost went back, until I noticed that Sam Clubs printer had a big yellow sticker indicating it included a USB cable. All of a sudden it was at least $25.00 cheaper. They also had a hub for only $10.00. Wow, $45.00 cheaper â€" worth the long line after all. Still not what I really wanted, but it would do.
Imagine my surprise on getting home, and discovering the parallel interface. Then a few minutes later discovering that it would accept an auto reversing mechanism. The final surprise â€" My old auto reversing mechanism fit perfectly. Well it’s not the same color, but who cares. It’s in back and out of site anyway.
I thought I came home with a substitute printer that I could live with, and I actually came home with the exact printer that I wanted. It seems to be faster than my old 970cxi, and the color photo quality on HP photographic (High Gloss) paper seems to be even better even without using the optional 6 color cartridge. I loved that old 970cxi, but the 5650 is smaller, sleeker, faster and quieter.
Great value â€" Great printer

Rating:
Summary: HP 5650
Review: Ordered the printer as the specs and the reviews seemed fine. First of all the printer was larger and heavier than expected. The real issues started when I wanted to install the software which I still have not managed to - plug and play... The customer service for Mac is at its best to be rated with 2 stars... Hope I'll get it to work, otherwise I'll return it.

Rating:
Summary: Fast Shipping -- Good product
Review: Ordered this on Wednesday night. Had it installed by Friday at noon. 10 minute install. It's hard to find a personal printer to work well with NT. This one does, for a good price.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent printer!!!
Review: Simply put, this is one excellent printer and I'm glad I bought one. I don't understand some of the complaints I've read in this review section--one in particular saying something about a quality issue. I couldn't disagree more--It looks and performs like a "well-oiled machine." I finally gave away my old HP (which also served me very well) and have been using this 5650 for about six months now. No problems whatsoever. I have it hooked up to a six-year-old laptop and do mostly black and white printing in "best" mode. I am continually impressed with the quality. The color printing is equally impressive to me even without the photo cartridge. Also, the black ink cartridges are comparatively inexpensive--I believe at about $20, and last a good long time. No complaints at all here.

Rating:
Summary: A Must Buy
Review: This printer is one that caught my eye in the store. The price was fairly low and in my budget range. I liked the sleek look of it and there was only one left so it was either now or never. I went for it and brought it home. I had that printer running in like 10 min. Some people were complaining about there being no instruction manual. It is pretty simple, 1)plug in 2)insert ink 3)Insert cd and follow directions, it's easy!. The picture quality is awesome and so is the text quality. If the picture is important you can just make the quality right on the printer better! My computer isn't the best, I must say I have the lowest reccomended computer windows 98 but it still works fine. This thing is 1000 times better than my old crummy cannon color bubble jet (from like 1800's, don't ask). Ive had no problems so far and think I will not have any to come, good luck with your printer shopping!

Rating:
Summary: Hp 5650 color printer
Review: This printer is replacing a HP 1100 photosmart and I must say I am very impressed with the ease of use and the trouble free installation on a win98se system. The color spectrum is as good as the hp 1100 if not better, and thats not using the photo print cartridge. Using USB 2.0 this printer does output what it states, of course I know of no printer that can print a 8x10 photo in under a min.at high res.at this price.The only drawback is that this printer did not come with a USB cable or the hp58 photo print cartridge, but these were minor problems since my old hp 1100 had the USB cable I needed. The packaged software is also very good and user friendly. I would recommend this printer to the entry level or even the intermediate user.

Rating:
Summary: Problem with Win XP Prof Installation
Review: This printer worked nicely with Win 2000. It indeed gave very good prints, beautiful color. However, the driver installation got stuck and could not finish once my computer was upgraded to Win XP Professional. I tried many times and eventually gave up.