Printers.............

Canon Pixma MP560 Wireless Photo All-in-One Offers Cheap Ink and Plentiful Features for the Price

The Canon Pixma MP560 Wireless Photo All-in-One color inkjet multifunction printer is priced to appeal to students and home users ($150 as of November 24, 2009). Compared with the like-pricedEpson Stylus NX515 and HP Photosmart Plus, it offers better paper handling and ink costs--but slower performance.

In our tests, the unit's performance was generally middling, but sometimes better. The unit printed plain text at a rate of 6.4 pages per minute; graphics averaged about 2.6 ppm. Its scanning speeds were the fastest among our test group, while its copying speed was average. On plain paper, black text and copies looked just slightly fuzzy, while line art and halftones looked detailed. Flesh tones appeared artificially pink on plain paper but improved on Canon's own photo stock.

HP Photosmart Plus Prints Great-Looking Output Quickly and Cheaply

The HP Photosmart Plus color inkjet multifunction printer is well priced for student and home users ($150 as of December 9, 2009). It also pumps out great-looking output quickly--something that few other models in its price class can achieve.

HP makes things easy from the get-go. The installation wizard includes a library of animated instructions for setup and basic operation. The control panel features a 2.3-inch color LCD, surrounded by touch-sensitive LED buttons that light only when needed. Menu items include how-to animations, as well as troubleshooting instructions for clearing paper jams, replacing cartridges, and other everyday tasks.

Epson Artisan 810 Has Speed and Features Galore, but Output Quality Is Disappointing

The Epson Artisan 810 color inkjet multifunction printer has speed and versatility to spare. Considering the price ($300 as of November 24, 2009), however, we expected better overall output quality.

Though the Artisan 810's text-printing speed was just average at about 7.3 pages per minute, it finished at or near the top in all of our other print, scan, and copy speed tests. The output quality was less stellar. On Epson's own photo paper, flesh tones looked warm and natural. On plain paper, all photos had a filmy look. Plain text looked fuzzy and dim. Scans and copies were acceptable despite some general fuzziness; a photo enlargement looked murky.