KODAK EASYSHARE 5500 All-In-One. - FastSilicon.com

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KODAK EASYSHARE 5500 All-In-One.

Article Index
KODAK EASYSHARE 5500 All-In-One.
Specifications
Inside The Box
Software And Drivers
Printing Capabilities
Conclusions

Page 3 of 6

Inside The Box

Upon recieving the printer we noticed an obvious similarity to the last model we reviewed, the 5300. That being its weight. Weighing in at a little over 26 pounds, you won't ever mistake this printer for a Lexmark. Or even several Lexmarks. After taking some backache medication, we were able to unpack the box and take a peek inside.

To say the printer is large is a bit of an understatement. Still, its not unduly large, and has a "footprint" similar to other AIO printers in its price and feature range. Along with the printer itself you will find a fold-out easy set up guide made of laminated card stock. Additionally you'll find its power brick, two ink cartridges, the print head, a phone cable, and the print duplexer attachment. The power brick has a seperate standard outlet plug which is welcome, allowing you to avoid the power-brick- wont-fit fiasco's oftentimes encountered with standard power strips and UPS units. It is also somewhat ironic that the printer includes a phone cable, yet fails to include a USB cable.

We feel this is obviously indicative of some widespread industry conspiracy as almost no manufacturers of USB connected printers ever give you a USB cable. Sigh...

It is important to note that the print duplexer attachment, which comes standard on the 5500, is an option on Kodak's other two printers, the 5300 and 5100, available direct from Kodak. It essentially replaces the printers standard rear hatch which exists to allow clearing of document jams. Installation is a simple matter of pulling out the standard rear hatch and installing the duplexer. As you'll note in the photos, the printers USB, power, and telephone line connections are also located on the back.

One obvious difference between the 5300 and the 5500 is the 5500's included powered document feeder. You'll note from the rear angle picture that Kodak opted for an external cable to link the document feeder to the printer base. Given the nature of the top platen's complex hinge mechanism, this was probably the safest and most rugged way to connect the two, though they could have implemented a hidden ribbon cable. Still, the likelihood of snagging this cable on something is very low to non-existent. Believe us you won't feel inclined to move this printer around very much unless you want a good workout. The document feeder itself allows feeding of 35 sheets at a time all the way up to legal sizes. One thing we noted with the actual scanning surface itself is that it is backwards from the orientation of the one in the 5300. This is done to accomodate the layout of the document feeder itself. It offers the same sort of compound hinge mechanism of the 5300 and 5100, allowing thick materials such as books to be accomodated.

Moving around to the front we find the printers controls panel. It is a little more complex than the one on the 5300 or 5100, owing to the 5500's integration of fax capabilities. Like the 5300, the 5500 features a flip up LCD screen for accessing control panel menu's as well as photos via the printers integrated card readers and PictBridge compatible USB ports located on the front. It is worthy to note that these ports also support standard and EDR Bluetooth dongles for wireless printing capabilities from most any device that supports bluetooth communications.

Basically from the scanner down when it comes to printing, you're dealing with the same printer as the 5300 and 5100. Paper handling is identical to its lower priced breathren with a 100sheet main tray supporting up to legal sized paper, a 20sheet photo tray for 4x6 photo paper, and a handy extensible paper-catch. Likewise installing the printers print head and ink cartridges is identical to the other Easyshare models.

One of the first tasks your required to do with Kodak's Easyshare printers is to calibrate the printers scanner mechanism, and the printers all come with a sample pack of 4x6 photo paper just for this purpose. It is an entirely automated process that prints out a 4x6 reference color and registration print and then prompts you to scan it on the scanner platen to properly calibrate the color levels of the scanner.

Next, we'll examine the performance of the printer itself.

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