Canon S900

The Canon S820D (see Reviews, issue 91, p124) amazed us with its fantastic photo quality, range of features and fast print speeds, and the S900 aims to take this a step further. While it doesn't come with a PC Card reader, the S900 takes the borderless printing from the S820D and improves on the S800's engine with faster print speeds. And it's certainly a speed demon on photo printing, taking just 143 seconds for a full-size A4 photo, compared to the Epson Stylus Photo 895's 285 seconds.

This print speed is incredible, and it's not as if the S900 compromises by skimping on quality. In fact, the S900's photo prints were easily on a par with the 895's, producing smooth colour blending and dithering, no discernible grain or banding and amazing detail. What's more, Canon's PR-101 Photo Paper Pro has a natural sheen that looks and feels like a genuine glossy photo, and with no stickiness either.

With these results, you might expect the S900 to fall down on other tasks, but it still held its head up remarkably well. It was superb in our colour fade tests and, while there was occasional stepping between colours, there was again no uneven dithering or grain. Plus, the greyscales came out completely grey, with no brown or green tinge as sometimes found on six-colour printers.

The DTP test was also impressive, with incredibly sharp and even text, smooth photos and clear graphics, and Canon's HR-101 High Resolution paper enhances the look and feel further. The only tests it didn't cope with brilliantly were the plain paper report and black text tests. These showed spidery text, especially on small font sizes where the HP PhotoSmart 1315 coped much better. However, the S900 managed to churn our speed test out at 5.1ppm, just edging ahead of the HP's 5ppm. Of course, these tests are irrelevant if you're just looking for the ultimate photo printer, and the S900 fits that bill perfectly.

There's only one feature that prevents us liking the S900 more, and it's the price. At £255, it's the most expensive printer on test and it doesn't even come with extras like a TFT screen or media reader, although the individually replaceable ink tanks make it more economical. As such, the cheaper Epson is very attractive. But if you want the best, and you want it fast, the S900 makes a great choice. And don't forget the S820D if you want the bonus of a PC Card reader.