Labs

We first reviewed Epson's PictureMate 240 in Shopper 228, when it received five stars and our Best Buy award. Since then, its price has dropped by over £40, making it even better value. Print costs are also affordable at 16.6p a photo from a £25 ink and paper pack.

The PictureMate 240 has a combined four-colour ink cartridge. Most of the printers here, inkjet and dye-sub, use only three colours and create black by combining them. The addition of black ink means dark backgrounds and black-and-white photos have better contrast than those produced by most of the other printers here. Colour reproduction was rich and vivid, and the accurate, natural-looking

ADVERTISEMENT

skin tones were among the best here.

The PictureMate 240 looks more like a car battery than a printer, and is heavier than ultra-compact printers such as HP's Photosmart A526. It's unlikely to win any awards for style, but it feels sturdier than most, with a lid that folds down to protect a 2.5in screen. Its boxy shape leaves room for an optional rechargeable battery pack, which means you can use it on the move if you don't mind lugging it around.

There are plenty of options available if you want to print directly from a memory card. A display button allows you to switch between viewing groups of thumbnail images or larger previews of individual photos. The menu system is easy to use. A few editing options let you add frames and colourful clip art.

The 240 is fairly slow at the default image-quality setting, taking 10 minutes and 22 seconds to print six photos, but they looked great. The best quality is only available when printing from a PC, by selecting Enhance Fine Detail. In this mode, photos took over twice as long to print, but their quality was outstanding.

The PictureMate 240 may well have been around longer than other printers, but its great quality and low price make it our Best Buy once again.