16 out of 16 people found this review helpful.
Works well, but may need refinement
Date of Review: Jun 15, 2007
The Bottom Line: After owning this product for 1.5 years, I still use it everyday and enjoy it. Kodak has done fine in my book.
I bought the EasyShare 5500 for home and home office use. I needed the auto-duplexer and fax features and was frankly tired of paying $60 for ink on my old HP every few months. I took Kodak up on their claims of low cost ink after doing a decent amount of research. When you're new in the market, though, it's hard to find a lot of information. So, maybe you could call me an early-adopter.
I haven't put the printer through its paces yet, but I have already printed a couple dozen pictures, which is quite literally 23 more than I dared print with the HP because I was concerned about blowing through the ink. I am pleased with the operation of the copier with its upper auto feed tray. The fax works as you'd expect, and the pages it (re)produces are extremely clean and crisp.
My only beef - and it's a small one - is that there was noticible banding and missing print in some images. I ran the deep-clean function for the printhead, after which the print quality was much better. Interestingly, I noticed no such problems when printing photos. I don't think it should be necessary to run a cleaning feature on a brand new printer! Hopefully the cleaning cycle didn't burn through too much ink. It was a very short cycle, however, so I don't think too much was wasted.
Things I like:
The 4x6 photo paper tray. You don't have to move your letter paper to print photos. The 4x6 tray slides backwards to engage "photo printing mode" and a green LED illuminates. It automatically configures the take-up mechanism to grab the 4x6 paper!
Auto-Duplexing. I've had several duplexing models, all which required some modification to the paper path before printing. The 5500 requires none of this and changes the path based on printer property selection.
Weight. I don't know how relevant weight is to the overall performance of a printer, but I'd like to think that Kodak didn't skimp on the internals of the printer. It feels like there is some metal in there!
Things I don't like:
It's huge. Hugely huge. I don't know why it has to be so tall. There are four inches between the top of the printer and the glass in the scanner. Its width is also a bit excessive, with about four inches on either side of the paper tray. It doesn't fit where the old HP went, so it straddles the IKEA file cabinet.
The buttons look like they belong on a low budget phone or a Speak-n-Spell. I don't like flat buttons but these look like someone spilled M&Ms on the control panel. A little ridiculous, in my opinion. They also don't really match each other. The START button is a nice, glassy-topped button, while the rest are plain old black lettering. Some of the buttons are backlit, while the POWER button has a light beside it! Just strange.
Up to this point, I've been buying a new printer every year for the past four years because of reliability issues. Overall, I am happy with my purchase. I really hope the upfront cost of the printer means that I've made a good purchase decision when it comes to buying ink over the life of the printer.
***UPDATE***
I've owned this printer for about 1.5 years and I still use it and it still works very well. However! I have had to replace the print head twice, with each lasting about six months. Disappointing and inconvenient, but there is a bright point in this experience...
Kodak's customer service is an experience to behold - simply amazing response times and exceptional service! Both times I experienced problems printing, it was with the black ink output. And, both times I contacted Kodak, I received a replacement print head - even outside of the warranty period!
I've owned Canon, HP and Epson printers and not one of those companies ever presented such apititude and grace when it came to printer service. While I am not opposed to purchasing replacement parts and service, I was delighted with Kodak's policy of not only replacing the print head but also delivering a new set of black and color ink cartridges. Wow! Come to think of it...this is how I run my business and I couldn't be happier with the experience.
Secondly, and less ethusiastically, I was disappointed with the printer's complete lack of interoperability with wireless print servers. That is, until Kodak announced a product called the Silex Wireless USB Server. For $80 (less than the cost of a Wi-Fi-equipped model), I will be able to get wireless printing from any machine in the house.
Unconventionally, Kodak has continued to actively support their first flagship model printer with updates in hardware and accessories. For that I am thankful and frankly quite overwhelmed by their service. I wish them well in their continued efforts of delivering a good quality product and excellent support.
