Printing without compromises.(Special Home-Computing Section)(Hardware Review)(Product/Service Evaluation)

Publication: Consumer Reports

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COPYRIGHT 2002 Consumers Union of the United States, Inc.

If you're starting to get into digital photography or your old inkjet is beginning to show its age, it may be time to shop for a new printer. Most major-brand inkjets we've tested recently produce high-quality color photos and cost no more than $200. The two CR Best Buys in the Ratings (page 28) cost just $100 each. And they don't compromise on text quality. Those two CR Best Buys, along with other models, print text rivaling a laser printer's. Most inkjets still won't print as quickly as a laser, but one inkjet's text-printing speed actually came within striking distance of the lasers'.

If you're looking for an inkjet from Hewlett-Packard, the leading brand, you'll notice that the company's newest models aren't in the Ratings. As we went to press, in the wake of its merger with Compaq, Hewlett-Packard discontinued several models we had tested, then launched new ones too late for us to test. We'll cover those in a future report. Meanwhile, Compaq-brand printers have been discontinued altogether. (If you already own a Compaq inkjet, you can still find equivalent replacement cartridges under the Lexmark brand.) This report includes six newly tested inkjet printers and five from our last report that are still available, plus three multifunction models that can scan and photocopy as well as print.

WHAT WE FOUND

We assessed the quality of text, graphics, and photos that each printer could produce. Whether inkjet or laser, we've found, a printer with higher resolution--stated in dots per inch (dpi)--doesn't necessarily have higher print quality. Inkjet models scoring excellent in color-photo quality produced photographs with the richest, most accurate color. The best-quality text had the crispest detail, with no extraneous markings.

Using the right paper can improve photos, graphics, and text. While general-use, 20-pound bond paper can yield good results, heavier inkjet-specific paper--usually 24-pound--provided better-quality text and graphics for several printers. For photos, the printer manufacturer's photo paper is a good bet for that company's printers.

Laser printers are about twice as fast as most inkjets at printing text. The slowest inkjets we tested were really slow at text, about two pages per minute, though the slowest Epsons and one sluggish Canon are marketed primarily as photo printers. The Lexmark Z65 printed text nearly as fast as a laser printer--6.2 pages per minute--but at double the cost of...

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