Labs

Sony's dye-sub DPP-FP90 is similar to the cheaper DPP-FP70, with one notable exception: this has a larger screen, measuring 3.6in, compared to the DPP-FP70's 2.5in display. This is an advantage for using the range of built-in image customisation options to alter photos saved on a memory card.

You can't make major changes to your photos, but you can alter their colour balance, print multiple images on a single 6x4in sheet, create calendars or choose from a number of default captions. These creative activities are good fun, and you can save the results as a new file on the memory card.

The DPP-FP90 costs £30 more than the DPP-FP70, but the only difference

ADVERTISEMENT

between the printers is in their screen size. The large screen can be tilted into a variety of display positions, which makes the most of the printer's slideshow feature and also makes it easier to view your photos before you print.

The DPP-FP90 produced high-quality photos with very smooth shading, bright, vivid colours and accurate pale shades. However, low-contrast images with a lot of dark tones looked flat, and some large areas of subtle shading weren't as smooth as we'd have liked. Black-and-white photos looked striking, but darker shades of grey blended into each other, making it hard to distinguish some details. The DPP-FP90's photos look identical and print in almost the same amount of time as the DPP-FP70's, making it one of the fastest printers here.

This is the best of the dye-sub printers in the group for overall image quality and, thanks to its large screen, ease of use. We liked the creative printing options, while photos looked good and stood up to close examination. However, pictures didn't look quite as sharp and bright as those that we got from Epson's PictureMate 240 inkjet, which is £60 cheaper, and HP's A826 is only £8 more and can print 7x5in photos. Ultimately, there aren't enough reasons to buy the DPP-FP90.