Product Reviews

At first glance, the two-tone grey and beige CX3200 seemed like a sturdy all-in-one. Then we turned it on. Unfortunately, it's by far the noisiest unit on test - almost a minute of high-pitched whirring after pushing the power button wasn't a good start. Things weren't helped by the curved input tray, which was prone to misfeeds when more than 80 sheets were inserted. On the plus side, the fascia is smart, intuitive and well featured, and it incorporates a two-line LCD.

Unlike the more expensive CX5200, the CX3200 is based on the Stylus C62 engine so uses just two separate ink tanks: tricolour and black. In our print tests, images were more impressive than text, but in spite of the slightly spidery characters quality was certainly acceptable and was produced quickly. Draft mode turned text very light, indicating more of an ink-saving mode than a speed-gain mode,

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although it was still readable.

The CX3200 moved up the quality charts - and was far quieter - when dealing with images. Our A4 test photo was only bettered by the three HPs, with washed-out reds being its sole downfall. A bonus for those intending to print lots of photos is the CX3200's ability to produce borderless A4 and 6 x 4in prints - something none of the HPs can claim. Its DTP document rendition was bettered only by the HP 6110 and 7130, and was printed significantly faster. Blacks were deep, with the only dampener being some slightly washed-out colours in the photos.

Scanning saw the CX3200 surge towards the head of the pack, with overall quality coming second only to the HP 6110. It consistently captured detail accurately, with only slightly undersaturated colours - a problem easily fixed in editing software - and the 600ppi optical resolution is enough for blowing up small areas of images. In terms of speed, the CX3200 was third fastest overall.

Copying isn't a strength, though. While our photo of people was sharp and well detailed, there was a noticeable green cast, which spoiled our overall opinion. Mono text copies were a touch light, but passable.

Overall, the CX3200 is a better choice than its more expensive Lexmark rivals, if not able to keep up with the HP psc1205 for value. The noise factor is another reason to avoid the Epson, although if you place a high weighting on scan quality it's a good budget choice.