Sharp AJ-2100

Photo printers are not renowned for their ability to print plain text, and the AJ-2100 is no exception. Our 25-page plain-text document took an exhausting 24 minutes, 39 seconds to print at the normal setting. Unfortunately, the print quality was equally uninspiring, with shaky text printed in a washed-out dull shade of grey. This is probably due to the AJ-2100's composite C, M, Y black production when printing below the Best quality setting. Dropping down to the printer's draft setting resulted in a marked speed increase, with 25-pages returned in six minutes, 38 seconds at 3.8ppm (pages per minute), which is still slower than Sharp's quoted 8ppm for this setting. Text remained shaky though, and the contrast dropped even further, making it suitable for rough or informal printouts only.

It was a similar story with our five-page DTP test, which took 32 minutes, 31 seconds - almost three times as long as HP's Photosmart 1218 (see Labs, issue 77, p106). Quality was better due to the higher print-quality setting for this test, but the AJ-2100 was still inferior to the DeskJet 990Cxi.

At a price of £169, the AJ-2100 is slightly cheaper than most photo printers, such as the £247 HP Photosmart 1218, which gives it a notable price advantage. However, HP's superb DeskJet 990Cxi outperforms the AJ-2100 in every department while costing only £20 more. Even discounting the competition, the AJ-2100 is a disappointing photo printer and the six-colour print engine clearly needs further refinement before it can truly challenge the existing competition.

Author: Gareth Ogden