HP Officejet H470 Mobile Printer:



Most people don't need portable printers, which helps explain why the category is so sparsely populated. But for those who do need to print on the go, a portable printer like the HP Officejet H470 Mobile Printer ($249.99 direct) is essential. It would come in handy in situations such as printing a PowerPoint handout on the spot for a newly updated presentation, or printing a proposal for a potential customer at his or her kitchen table.
Most people don't need portable printers, which helps explain why the category is so sparsely populated. But for those who do need to print on the go, a portable printer like the HP Officejet H470 Mobile Printer ($249.99 direct) is essential. It would come in handy in situations such as printing a PowerPoint handout on the spot for a newly updated presentation, or printing a proposal for a potential customer at his or her kitchen table.
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The H470 offers lots of print capability in a small package. It's a little bigger and heavier than some notebook computers, but far smaller and lighter than most desktop ink jet printers, at 3.3 by 13.4 by 6.5 inches (HWD). It weighs 4.5 pounds, or 5.3 pounds with the AC adapter. More important, it's comparable with desktop printers in speed and quality, although you can find those much bigger printers at a much lower price.
As with the HP Deskjet 460 models that the H470 replaces, the H470 is available in several versions. In addition to the base model H470 that I tested, the choices are the H470b ($299.99), with a half-pound rechargeable battery, and the H470wbt ($349.99), with a battery, a Bluetooth adapter, and a soft carrying case.
Those accessories are also available as individual options at $39.99 for the carrying case, $39.99 for Bluetooth, and $79.99 for the battery or $139.99 for a battery plus charger. HP says that a fully charged battery can print 480 pages. Two other options worth mentioning are a 12-volt car adapter ($79.99) and a Wi-Fi adapter ($79.99). The Wi-Fi and Bluetooth adapters are each fully contained in highly portable USB keys.
The H470 is nothing if not flexible. In addition to letting you connect by way of the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth options and over a USB connection, it can print from memory cards and PictBridge cameras.
Setup is typical for an ink jet, requiring little more than snapping in the color and black ink cartridges, running the automated installation routine from a disc, and plugging in the supplied USB cable. I tested using Windows XP, but the disc includes drivers for Vista and Windows 2000 as well.
The H470 turned in reasonable times on our business applications suite (timed with QualityLogic's hardware and software, www.qualitylogic.com). Its total time (19 minutes 2 seconds) is sluggish by today's standards, but not intolerably so. It's also notably faster than the H470's most direct competition, the Canon Pixma iP90, now available as the essentially identical iP90v. The iP90's total time on our business applications suite was 25:14.
As with many ink jet printers, the H470 offers a choice of printing photos with four ink colors or replacing the black cartridge with a photo cartridge to print with six colors, for better quality. With the photo cartridge, print speed averaged 2:45 for each 4-by-6 and 6:13 for each 8-by-10. The iP90 was a lot faster at 2:10 and 4:52, respectively, but its photo quality was a touch lower.
Photos printed on the H470 qualify as true photo quality—at least as good as you would expect from a local drugstore. Unfortunately, they aren't water-resistant, so you must handle them with care. If you manage to avoid smudging them, however, HP claims that they'll last 200 years if kept in dark storage, as in an album, 80 years mounted behind glass, or 40 years exposed to air.
Text quality is a touch subpar for an ink jet but good enough for most business purposes. One highly stylized font with heavy strokes couldn't pass the threshold for well-formed characters even at 20 points, but more than half of our test fonts qualified as both well formed and easily readable at 6 points. Unless you have an unusual need for small fonts, the H470 output should be acceptable.
Graphics quality was typical for an ink jet, making it easily good enough for most business purposes. The only notable issues were banding in some output in default mode (though not in highest-quality mode) and a tendency to lose thin lines. As long as you stay away from thin lines, the output is easily good enough to hand over to an important client or customer.
Also very important is that HP hasn't skimped on paper capacity and cartridge yield, two areas that historically have been a problem for portable printers. The H470 offers an ample 50-sheet input capacity. By comparison, the Canon iP90 holds only 30 pages. Similarly, the H470 claims a yield of 330 pages for the color cartridge and 440 pages for the black, while the iP90 claims only 100 pages for the color cartridge and 185 text pages for the black.
Canon and HP have a history of leapfrogging each other with each new portable printer they release. That may well happen again with Canon's next model, whenever it comes out. Yet for the moment, the H470 is clearly out in front, with faster speed and better overall print quality. If you need a portable printer, it's the one that competing units will have to beat.
HP Photosmart A716 Compact Photo Printer:



When I reviewed the ink jet–based HP Photosmart 475 GoGo Photo Printer last year, I basically said it was a nearly ideal small-format printer with all the features you could want. Except one. The output wasn't even slightly water resistant. Pass a photo around on a hot, humid day and it would likely come back smudged. Now the 475 has a sibling—the HP Photosmart A716 Compact Photo Printer ($249 direct)—and HP has not only improved the features that won me over the first time, but added nearly waterproof output too. In short, HP's taken a printer that was close to ideal and made it better.
When I reviewed the ink jet–based HP Photosmart 475 GoGo Photo Printer last year, I basically said it was a nearly ideal small-format printer with all the features you could want. Except one. The output wasn't even slightly water resistant. Pass a photo around on a hot, humid day and it would likely come back smudged. Now the 475 has a sibling—the HP Photosmart A716 Compact Photo Printer ($249 direct)—and HP has not only improved the features that won me over the first time, but added nearly waterproof output too. In short, HP's taken a printer that was close to ideal and made it better.
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Despite a change in HP's numbering system, the A716 is a direct descendant of the 475 GoGo, with all the same core features. It can print from a computer, PictBridge-enabled camera, or memory card, or by way of an optional Bluetooth adapter ($59.99 direct). It can print photos as large as 5 by 7 inches, as well as panoramas at 4 by 12 inches. Its internal hard drive can hold hundreds, if not thousands, of photos that you can organize into slide shows. It even lets you preview and edit photos both on its own 2.5-inch color LCD and—thanks to a video-output port and a supplied cable—on a TV.
One big difference between the 475 and the A716 is that the A716 boosts the hard drive capacity from 1.5GB to 4GB, almost tripling the number of photos you can store. As with the 475, when you use the A716's video connection to view stored photos on a TV, you can use the printer's remote control to move through the photos, edit them, and create and view slide shows, almost as if there's a photo album on your TV. But unlike an album, if a friend or relative likes a particular photo you're looking at, you can press a button on the remote and print a copy.
Of course, the key question to ask of any photo printer is, "Does it print good photos?" In my tests the A716 hit true photo quality on every photo, from snowscapes to landscapes to close-ups of faces. I saw a slight loss of detail in light areas on one photo, but the quality was at least as good as you'll get from a local drugstore. Just as important, the photos are essentially waterproof. You may get water stains if you leave drops of water to dry on the surface, but I took one just-printed photo, held it under running water while rubbing it, and wiped it dry without leaving any visible marks.
The A716's print speed is a touch on the slow side, but still well within the range of a typical small-format printer. For 4-by-6 output, it averaged 1 minute 46 seconds on our standard test photos printed from a computer, and took 1:51 to 2:20 (depending on the photo) when printing from a CompactFlash card, a Canon PowerShot S60 camera, or its own hard drive. The Epson PictureMate Deluxe Viewer Edition, our most recent Editors' Choice, was a bit faster, averaging 1:32 on our standard 4-by-6s from a computer and 1:30 to 1:45 printing from a memory card and camera. Printing 5-by-7 photos on the A716 took only a little longer than printing 4-by-6s, at 2:21 to 3:01.
The A716's cost per print is higher than I'd like, but not unusually high. For $34.99 (direct), you can get a pack with enough ink and paper for 120 4-by-6 photos, which works out to 29.2 cents per print. Unfortunately, there's no equivalent pack for 5-by-7s, and HP does not make a cost-per-photo claim for that format.
When I reviewed the 475, I said it had so many strengths that if it weren't for the lack of water resistance, it would be a runaway pick for Editors' Choice. With the HP Photosmart A716 Compact Photo Printer, the company retains the strong features and performance of the 475 and adds water resistance, too. That's enough for it to replace the Epson PictureMate Deluxe Viewer Edition as our Editors' Choice for a high-end, small-format photo printer.
Canon Pixma iP100 Photo Printer:



Mobile printers are a bit like ultraportable laptops. They're noticeably smaller and easier to carry around than their standard-size cousins, and you're charged a premium price for the small size. If you need to print on the go—say, an updated PowerPoint presentation or a last-minute personalized proposal before a meeting—a mobile printer like the Canon Pixma iP100 Photo Printer ($249.99 direct) is well worth the price.
Mobile printers are a bit like ultraportable laptops. They're noticeably smaller and easier to carry around than their standard-size cousins, and you're charged a premium price for the small size. If you need to print on the go—say, an updated PowerPoint presentation or a last-minute personalized proposal before a meeting—a mobile printer like the Canon Pixma iP100 Photo Printer ($249.99 direct) is well worth the price.
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The iP100 is Canon's latest and greatest version of a portable printer, physically similar to the Pixma iP90v, which it replaces. (The iP90v was essentially identical to the Pixma iP90, which I reviewed in early 2005). The iP100 is an impressively better printer than its prececessor, however, with faster speed and better paper handling. It also delivers somewhat better page yields from its cartridges, so you won't run out of ink as often. More important, perhaps, the iP100 compares favorably in most ways with its most direct competition
Weighing in at 4.4 pounds by itself, or 5.1 pounds with its AC adapter and power cord, the iP100 is heavier than some notebooks and also a little larger, at 2.4 by 12.7 by 7.2 inches (HWD). Still, it's a lot smaller and lighter than a desktop printer. It's even a little smaller overall than the H470, although both are about the same weight. Despite its diminutive size, however, it can go pretty much toe to toe with desktop inkjets for speed and output quality. It even includes a PictBridge connector for direct printing from cameras.Setup is straightforward, and typical for a Canon inkjet. You install the print head, snap in the black and tricolor cartridges, run the automated installation program from the disc, and connect the printer by USB cable when the program tells you to. I tested the printer under Windows XP. According to Canon, it also comes with drivers for Vista, Windows 2000, and Mac OS X versions 10.2.8 to 10.5.x.
The iP100's print speed is astounding for a portable printer. On our business applications suite (timed with QualityLogic's hardware and software, www.qualitylogic.com), the iP100 took a total of just 14 minutes 35 seconds. To put that in context, when I tested the H470, it set a new record for mobile printers, at 19:02. The iP100 not only shatters that record, but its speed counts as reasonably fast for any inkjet, not just for a mobile printer. The speeds for photo printing were also reasonably fast, averaging 1:45 for each 4-by-6 and 4:11 for each 8-by-10.
Text quality is just below par for an inkjet, but good enough for almost any business need. More than half of our test fonts were both easily readable and well formed at 6 points. Two highly stylized fonts with thick strokes needed 20 points to pass both thresholds, but these aren't fonts you would typically use in a business document. Unless you have an unusual need for small font sizes, as with the small text in a legal document, the iP100 should be able to handle any text you need to print.
Graphics quality was also just a bit below par. I saw some banding on fills in default mode, but not in high-quality mode, and a tendency for thin lines to disappear, a common problem with printers. I also saw a tendency for full page graphics to curl the multipurpose paper we use for testing. I'd hesitate to hand the graphics to someone I was trying to impress with my professionalism, but the quality is certainly acceptable for internal business use, or for something that you've printed with the recipient watching, so they can see firsthand that it was printed on a portable printer. If you print a lot of full-page graphics, however, you may want to invest in a more expensive paper that's less susceptible to curling.
Most of the photos I printed on the iP100 are easily true photo quality, at the level you would expect from a local drugstore. Black-and-white photos are the exception, with different shades of gray showing different color tints. If you print color photos only, however, that won't be an issue.
The photos are reasonably water resistant but not particularly scratch resistant. I noticed a number of surface scratches caused simply from sliding photos over each other while looking through them. If you want to retain the prints' quality, you'll have to handle them carefully or protect them by, say, framing them behind glass.
One of the nicer surprises in the iP100 is its paper handling. The top cover opens up to become an ample 50-sheet input tray, which is a significant jump up from the somewhat miserly 30-page input for Canon's previous models.
Cartridge yield is also higher than in earlier Canon models, at a claimed 191 pages for the black cartridge and 249 pages for the color cartridge. Even so, this is one area in which the H470 has a clear advantage, with a claimed 440 pages for its black cartridge and 330 pages for the color cartridge. As a practical matter, that means you'll be running out of ink more often with the iP100 than you would with the H470, and will need to carry more ink with you.
Also very much worth mentioning are an assortment of options, including a Bluetooth adapter ($49.99 direct) for printing directly from cell phones and other Bluetooth devices; a car power adapter ($89.99 direct); and a rechargeable battery and recharger ($99.99). Canon says the battery is good for 290 pages.
When I reviewed the H470, I mentioned that Canon and HP have a history of leapfrogging each other with each new model of their portable printers, and suggested that it could well happen again with Canon's next model. Now, with the iP100 in hand, I would say that the leapfrog attempt was only partially successful. The iP100 has a strong edge on speed, but the H470 has its own advantages, notably the higher cartridge yields. Both printers are good choices, but given their strengths in different areas, make sure to take a careful look at each before committing to either.
Canon Pixma MX7600 All-In-One:

The PIXMA MX7600 All-In-One features high-performance versatility and exceptional reproduction. Thanks to its patented print head technology and 5-color ink system, you can produce superb photos with 4800 x 1200 color dpi resolution (max.), and fast, too: A 4" x 6" borderless print takes only about 43 seconds. Canon's new PgR ink system uses a higher-intensity black pigment ink along with a clear ink and specially formulated color pigment inks. You'll see superior results on photos and graphics even when using plain paper, along with laser-quality text - perfect for business use. It's networkable via an Ethernet connection, and allows you to print from memory cards, digital cameras, and even camera phones.
The PIXMA MX7600 All-In-One features high-performance versatility and exceptional reproduction. Thanks to its patented print head technology and 5-color ink system, you can produce superb photos with 4800 x 1200 color dpi resolution (max.), and fast, too: A 4" x 6" borderless print takes only about 43 seconds. Canon's new PgR ink system uses a higher-intensity black pigment ink along with a clear ink and specially formulated color pigment inks. You'll see superior results on photos and graphics even when using plain paper, along with laser-quality text - perfect for business use. It's networkable via an Ethernet connection, and allows you to print from memory cards, digital cameras, and even camera phones
HP Photosmart Pro B8850 Photo Printer:



File the HP Photosmart Pro B8850 Photo Printer ($549.99 direct) under pleasant surprises. In theory, it's the next-generation replacement for the Photosmart 8750 Professional Photo Printer, a model that printed good, but not great, photos and suffered from several limitations. In reality, it has much more in common with the pricier HP Photosmart Pro B9180 Photo Printer, our Editors' Choice for high-end photo printers. In particular, the B8850 matches the B9180's superb output quality, which is enough by itself to make the B8850 worth a look. But the resemblance runs deeper.
File the HP Photosmart Pro B8850 Photo Printer ($549.99 direct) under pleasant surprises. In theory, it's the next-generation replacement for the Photosmart 8750 Professional Photo Printer, a model that printed good, but not great, photos and suffered from several limitations. In reality, it has much more in common with the pricier HP Photosmart Pro B9180 Photo Printer, our Editors' Choice for high-end photo printers. In particular, the B8850 matches the B9180's superb output quality, which is enough by itself to make the B8850 worth a look. But the resemblance runs deeper.
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When I reviewed the B9180, I pointed to several features that helped make it one of the best sub-$1,000 photo printers available. The B8850 includes many of the same pluses, most notably fully automated self-calibration and a pigment-based ink system for long-lived photos. The combination makes it, too, an impressive choice among sub-$1,000 photo printers. In fact, other than price, the key difference between the two models is that the B8850 doesn't include a network connector. (There are a few other differences, but these will be of interest primarily to professional photographers. The B9180 can print on thicker paper, for example.)
The B8850's ink system is a far cry from the version in the 8750. The 8750 used three cartridges at a time and gave you a choice of cartridge types, so you had to swap out cartridges to get the right mix of inks for the job at hand. The B8850 doesn't so much improve on this system as throw it out altogether, replacing it with that of the B9180, complete with the same cartridges and print heads.The new (or borrowed) ink system uses eight inks, with a separate cartridge for each color: cyan, yellow, magenta, light cyan, light magenta, gray, and both a matte black and photo black. As you might guess from the names, the matte black is primarily for matte paper and the photo black for glossy paper, but HP says you can also use the photo black on non-glossy paper at some quality settings to get deeper blacks and smoother transitions. Also very much worth mention is that the inks are pigment-based rather than dye-based, which goes hand in hand with better longevity for prints. HP claims that photos printed on HP's advanced photo paper or any HP fine art paper will last more than 200 years in dark storage, as in an album, or framed behind glass. It also claims a 100-year lifetime for photos exposed to air.
Finding a spot for the B8850 can be a challenge. The printer weighs a hefty 37.7 pounds and measures a relatively large 9.5 by 26.5 by 16.9 inches (HWD). More important, in addition to the relatively large footprint, you need extra room in front and in back for printing. This isn't unusual: The same is true of most photo printers that print on 13- by 19-inch paper, including, for example, the directly competitive Canon Pixma Pro9000, the current Editors' Choice for low-cost prosumer photo printers.
In the front, besides a standard input tray, the B8850 has a second paper feed in the form of a slot. To print on 13-by-19-inch fine art paper, you insert the sheet through the slot far enough for it to come out from another slot in the back, in a completely flat path. The printer moves the paper all the way to the back until the leading edge is under the printheads, then feeds it forward again to print.
Although there's no tray in the rear, you need roughly 14 inches of clear space for the paper. The front tray also needs about 11 inches. Altogether, that works out to a total footprint of 26.5 by 42 inches, or somewhat less, if you have room in back or front to extend beyond the edge of the desk or table that the printer is sitting on.
Once you've found a spot for the printer, you simply remove the packing materials, plug it in, turn it on, and install the eight ink cartridges and four printheads—with each printhead handling two ink colors. HP says the printheads are meant to last the life of the printer, but you can buy replacements if necessary ($59.99 each).
The next step, also borrowed from the B9180, is the closed-loop self-calibration, a one-time process that can take as long as 40 minutes. The B8850 prints a stored target image, using a built-in densitometer to measure the printed colors, and compares them to the colors it expects to print. If measurements don't match expectations, the printer recalibrates to ensure that it will print the right colors. HP supplies a pack of paper meant specifically for calibration. You simply load it in the standard tray, and let the printer do everything else for itself.
After the calibration, all that remains is to run the automated installation routine and plug in a USB cable when the program tells you to. I tested the printer using Windows XP, but it also comes with drivers for Windows Vista; 2000; XP Professional x64; and for Mac OS 10.3, 10.4, and later.
Although the B8850 is meant primarily for printing photos, and the default driver settings assume you'll want to use photo paper, it can also print on plain paper in a pinch. For the sake of completeness, I tested it with our business applications suite using plain paper. The B8850's total time on the business applications suite was 15 minutes 30 seconds (timed with QualityLogic's hardware and software, www.qualitylogic.com), the same total as the B9180—although there were a few seconds' difference between the two for individual files. As another point of reference, the Canon Pixma Pro9000 took 25:58.
On our photo suite, the B8850 averaged 1:49 for each 4-by-6 and 3:53 for each 8-by-10. By comparison, the B9180 was a little slower on 4-by-6s, at 2:13, and about the same speed for 8-by-10s. The Pixma Pro9000, on the other hand, was faster on both photo sizes, at 1:06 and 2:05.
Keep in mind that for this class of printers, photo quality is a lot more important than speed. And whatever points the B8850 loses on speed compared with the Pixma Pro9000, it more than makes up for on quality. The Pixma Pro9000's photo quality is easily in the right range for a serious amateur or professional on a budget. The B8850's quality is even better.
I printed an assortment of photos on a selection of papers, including HP's advanced photo paper and several fine art papers. The results for both color and monochrome output were as good as those of any printer I've tested, with photorealistic color, appropriately subtle shading, and impressively smooth gradients. Graphics and text output on photo paper is similarly high-quality, which makes the B8850 worthy of graphic artists' interest as well.
As with most printers optimized for printing on photo paper, the B8850 didn't do a particularly good job on plain paper. Text was acceptable for most business needs but noticeably less crisp than you'd want in a document that needs to look truly professional. Graphics were good enough for internal business use, but colors were dulled down, and I saw minor banding at the default quality setting. Count the fact that you can use the B8850 to print standard business documents on plain paper as a small plus, but don't expect too much from using it that way.
In many ways, the HP Photosmart Pro B8850 Photo Printer is a less expensive version of the B9180, without the network connector but with the same—or very similar—high-quality output at a bargain price for this class of printer. Although it costs a bit more than the Canon Pixma Pro9000, it offers enough extras over and above the Canon to make it the new Editors' Choice for low-end prosumer photo printers.
Epson Stylus NX400:




Most all-in-ones (AIOs) at the $100 level are studies in compromise on virtually every feature. The Epson Stylus NX400 ($99 direct) makes compromises too, but it's better understood as leaving out a few features altogether so it can concentrate on doing some things—notably, photo printing—very well indeed.
Most all-in-ones (AIOs) at the $100 level are studies in compromise on virtually every feature. The Epson Stylus NX400 ($99 direct) makes compromises too, but it's better understood as leaving out a few features altogether so it can concentrate on doing some things—notably, photo printing—very well indeed.
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The NX400 is aimed squarely at home use, so it lacks obviously office-centric features like a fax modem and an automatic document feeder (ADF). But it goes further than some home AIOs by leaving out even such conveniences as a front-panel menu choice or a software utility to let you scan and e-mail or scan and fax using your computer's fax modem. (You can scan and then e-mail or fax the scanned file, and can scan and fax from most fax programs, but that's a function of your e-mail or fax program, not the NX400.)
The other side of the coin is that the NX400 delivers big-time on features that matter for home use, notably high-quality photo output and scans. You can also print from PictBridge cameras and memory cards, with a 2.5-inch color LCD letting you preview photos that are on memory cards before printing.The NX400 also offers some features you might not expect in a home AIO. The pigment inks help make photo output highly water-resistant and lightfast, with a claimed 105-year lifetime framed behind glass. They also make text and graphics (as well as photos) on plain paper highly smear-resistant.
The smear-resistant ink not only promises to keep pages readable after accidental spills, but it lets you use highlighter without smearing text—something that you can't do with the output from many ink jets. I managed to get black text to smear slightly by wetting it thoroughly and then rubbing it, but the key word here is slightly. And even that took effort.
Setup is mostly standard for an ink jet AIO. Find a place for the 7.2-by-17.7-by-13.5-inch (HWD) unit, remove the packing materials, plug it in, and load the ink cartridges and paper. Then connect a USB cable, and run the automated installation routine. I tested using Windows XP, but the disc that ships with the printer also includes drivers for Vista, 2000, XP64, and Mac OS 10.3.9 through 10.5.x.
One minor difference in setup from most inexpensive ink jets is that the NX400 uses four ink cartridges rather than the usual two. Another is that there's no alignment needed. As with all current Epson printers, the printhead is permanently installed and aligned before shipping. Should it somehow become misaligned, however, the driver includes an alignment option that you can run.
My first real surprise with the NX400 was how fast it completed our business applications suite (timed with QualityLogic's hardware and software, www.qualitylogic.com): in a total of 15 minutes 20 seconds. To put that in context, the somewhat-more-expensive Kodak ESP 3 All-In-One Printer took 21:03, and the Dell 948 All-In-One Printer took 26:37. Photo speeds in highest-quality mode were less impressive, averaging 2:41 for 4-by-6s and 6:11 for 8-by-10s, but the high quality makes them well worth waiting for.
The NX400's photo quality gave me a second pleasant surprise. Not only is it among the best for any consumer-oriented ink jet, it's a match for photocentric ink jets that cost $500 and up. Most ink jets today offer photos as good as you would expect from a local drugstore or photo shop. The NX400's photos are much closer to what a serious photographer would demand from a professional photo lab. Even the monochrome output in my tests was notable for its smooth gradients and lack of any visible tint over the entire range from white to black.
Text and graphics on plain paper weren't at the same rarefied quality level, but they were still more than good enough for home, school, or even printing something at home to take into work. All but one of our test fonts that you might use for business or school work were easily readable and well formed at 8 points, and only one highly stylized font with thick strokes needed more than 12 points to pass both thresholds. The text lacks the laser-sharp quality that I'd want in, say, a résumé. But unless you need to print at sizes smaller than 8 points, it's good enough for most purposes.
Graphics quality is a strong point. I saw some banding in default mode, but not in highest-quality mode. I also saw some dithering in the form of relatively subtle graininess, but that's more than balanced by the NX400's ability to print thin lines that other printers lose entirely.
Overall, the graphics are easily adequate for home projects like printing party invitations or calendars as well as business output like PowerPoint handouts to bring into the office. Depending on how much of a perfectionist you are, you may even consider the graphics good enough for printing output meant for a potential customer whom you need to impress with your professionalism.
I ran into one potentially bothersome design choice. In addition to a Copy mode, the front panel includes a Photo mode, which lets you place up to two 4-by-6 photos or one 5-by-7 on the flatbed, pre-scan to let the NX400 find the photos or photo, and then scan and print copies, with the option of scaling them up to as large as letter size. The feature also worked in my tests with a 4-by-6 and a 3-by-4 at the same time, and it could scale photos up to letter size. It doesn't work at all, however, with any originals larger than 5 by 7.
According to Epson, the maximum size for the originals is limited by the amount of memory. The company chose the memory size by balancing the cost of memory against its understanding of which photo sizes its customers are most interested in copying. Well, okay, file that under it's not a bug, it's a feature. But the bottom line is that the Photo mode won't work for large originals. Instead, you have to scan to a file and then print the file, which yielded great-looking prints in my tests, but takes more work. Alternatively, you can use the standard Copy mode, but that depends on a less sophisticated dithering scheme than the Photo mode, and the difference shows in the form of graininess. It also lacks the Photo mode's color-restore feature for faded photos.
I'd argue that Epson should at least offer a memory upgrade to get past this limitation for those who want to, but this is a minor issue at worst. Even as it stands, the NX400 has far more going for it than against it, to the point where if it had only slightly better text quality it would be awarded an Editors' Choice—which would make it the first in the category of low-end home AIOs. No other AIO at this price offers a comparable balance of speed and overall output quality; few at any price can beat it for photo quality; and features like smear resistance on plain paper are valuable extras. That makes the NX400 easy to recommend, particularly for anyone who wants to print high-quality photos.
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