Lab

Inkjet all-in-ones

Today's properly equipped home or office needs a printer and a copier. All-in-one devices (sometimes called multi-function printers, or MFPs) combine both in one unit, and the scanner that allows you to copy documents can also be used to store and edit them on your PC. So you get the functionality of a printer, scanner and photocopier in one box, connected to your PC with a single cable. Or, in the case of one of these models, by the magic of WiFi.

Five of the printers on test also have memory card slots, so you can print photos directly from memory cards. If your PC doesn't already have a card reader, this also provides a way to transfer data to your PC. A few all-in-ones incorporate fax machines, but we haven't included any of these models, which tend to be more expensive. If you do need fax, consider Brother's £158 MFC-680CN (search for 125444 at www.computerbuyer.co.uk), though its other features aren't the best around.

Jet engine

At the heart of these all-in-ones is an inkjet printer. Inkjets build up a printed page from thousands of dots of ink, drawn from reservoirs in the cartridge and squirted out of tiny nozzles in the print head as it moves across the page. The quality of the resulting image is partly determined by its resolution, the number of dots the printer can place across and down a square inch on the page, measured in dots per inch (dpi).

Most consumer all-in-ones are capable photo printers. Some, such as the Lexmarks here, can take additional photo ink cartridges which provide two extra colours, light cyan and light magenta. These help to create the more subtle shades called for in high-quality photo printing, but in fact the best photo printer in this group uses the standard four colours to create exceptional prints.

Whichever model you choose, you'll spend a lot more on ink over its lifetime than you did buying it in the first place. Ink costs vary widely between printers, even from the same manufacturer. We've calculated the typical cost per page so you can take running costs into account. This is worked out by dividing the typical cost of ink cartridges by the number of pages they'll print, as claimed by their manufacturers. If you print a lot of photos, as opposed to mixed pages where much of the area remains unprinted, costs will be higher, but the comparison between models should still hold true.

'High yield' cartridges are available for some printers, and are generally better value. Where available, we've based our figures on these. It's worth buying an extra set of cartridges at the same time as your printer, as ink can run out surprisingly quickly, and some devices only come with lower-capacity 'starter' cartridges. Do shop around, though: some dealers offer good prices on hardware, but charge top whack for consumables.

Scan and deliver

Scanning resolution is again measured in dpi. Ignore 'interpolated' figures; the actual amount of data a scanner can capture is the 'optical' resolution. All these offer at least 600x1200dpi, which is plenty for general document scanning, but not enough to scan photo prints for big enlargements or handle small originals such as 35mm slides. The highest resolution scanner here, the HP's, goes up to 4800x4800dpi. High resolution scans take longer to make and use a lot of disk space, and remember the quality still won't be comparable to a serious image scanner, regardless of resolution.

Although it can be handy, the copying function of many all-in-ones seems little more than an afterthought. Quality is often sacrificed to churn out copies at a reasonable speed, and these machines still aren't suited to bulk copying. You can always scan manually to your PC and print the resulting file at higher quality, but that's more hassle again.

A good all-in-one should offer as near as possible to the best of all worlds, even on a budget. Our reviews detail the strengths and weaknesses of each in tests that cover the speed, quality, and ease of use of every function.