In most of the reviews on this site, we make note of the fact that there is a big difference between the pages per minute that printer manufacturers claim and what you will actually get. When reviewing a printer, we refer to it as the “advertised” speed, just to add our own little disclaimer. By now most people probably know that their inkjet printer is going to print 20 pages in one minute. So, that means that the advertised speeds are really only useful for comparing different models and trying to get a general idea of what is fast and what is adequate.

One other factor is the actual connection between the printer and your computer. Someone wrote in to The Mac Guy at the San Antonio Express-News and asked about their new HP Deskjet 5150 being slower than their old standard HP Deskjet. He explains that if they are using a USB 1.1 connection, that could be the problem. USB 2.0 can be up to 40 times faster than 1.1, and that can make a huge difference if the memory-intensive photos you are printing are what’s slowing down your printer.

A new USB 2.0 cable might not be the cheapest thing ever, so if your local stores only carry $20 cables it might not make sense to upgrade. If you have a Fry’s in your area, you can find a USB 2.0 cable for about $8 and it will work exactly the same as the expensive name brand ones that Staples and CompUSA carry. If you are buying a new printer, that would be a good time to go with 2.0 since you are going to have to buy some kind of cable anyways. This is one of the rare times that a new cable will actually make a very noticeable difference. These aren’t those useless $100 gold-plated Monster cables that the TV salesman at Best Buy is trying to get you to add.

The Mac Guy: Ink jet printers pose tradeoff between speed and photo quality [MYSA.com]