High Technology Product Reviews | Trends and News

The Epson Stylus NX625 continues the tradition of Epson's NX line's tradition as a modestly priced multifunction printer geared mostly to home use. It has some big shoes to fill, as the model it's replacing—the Epson Stylus NX515—is an Editors' Choice. Although the NX625's text quality doesn't match the NX515's, the new model is even faster (and more well-rounded) than its notoriously speedy predecessor, making it the new Editors' Choice for a home MFP in its price range. The NX625 measures 6.7 by 22.2 by 17 inches (HWD) and weighs 13.7 pounds. A 2.5-inch color LCD anchors its tilt-up front panel. It has a 150-sheet internal paper tray and an automatic duplexer for printing on both sides of a sheet of paper. Both should add to its home-office cred. (The NX515 only offered a 100-sheet paper tray, and lacked the auto-duplexer.) The new model does lose a port for printing from PictBridge-enabled cameras or USB thumb drives, though it has slots that suppor...

Many small businesses could use the ability to print documents on larger than legal-size paper, but few affordable options have existed, particularly in multifunction printers (MFPs). The HP Officejet 7500A Wide Format e-All-in-One joins the Editors' Choice Brother MFC-6490CW in this small niche. Moreover, the 7500A's combination of supertabloid printing (up to 13 by 19 inches), fast print speeds, and a wealth of all-in-one and ePrint features edge it past the Brother (which is restricted to tabloid (11 by 17) format) as the new Editors' Choice for a wide-format inkjet MFP. Specifications Printer Category Ink Jet Type All-In-One Color or Monochrome 4-pass color Ink Jet Type Standard All-Purpose Connection Type USB, Ethernet, Wireless Maximum Standard Paper Size Wide Format Direct Printing from Cameras No Standalone Copier and Fax Copier, Fax Duplexing No The 7500 builds on the HP Officejet 7000 Wide Format Printer ($229 direct, 4 stars), one of several w...

Manufacturers tend to label low-end home inkjet printers such as Canon Pixma iP2702 Photo Printer ($49.99 direct) as photo printers, and these tend to print decent to very good photos (by consumer standards, at least), often to the neglect of text quality. In our testing, the iP2702 stood that model on its head. Its photos were rather disappointing, and it did surprisingly well in printing text. A bit different with my last reviews about Canon Pixma . The iP2702 is a handsome yet Spartan device. Matte-black with rounded corners, it is compact: 5.2 by 17.6 by 9.8 inches (HWD), weighing 12.1 pounds. Its interface is minimalist: just two buttons—one the on-off switch, the other labeled with a sheet of paper plus a puzzling icon; the on-screen user manual reveals it to be a resume/cancel button. There's no LCD or viewscreen of any sort. The exposed, top-feeding paper tray can fit up to 100 sheets. It lacks an auto-duplexer or any optional paper-handling features. Specifications Pr...

Some multi-function printers (MFPs, aka all-in-ones or AIOs) deliver lots of features. Others emphasize high-quality print output. The Brother MFC-9320CW ($500 street) focuses squarely on speed, with the fastest overall time on our tests for its price class. If print speed is one of your key concerns, this may be just the color MFP you're looking for. The MFC-9320CW is an LED printer, a category that's usually grouped with lasers, because it's basically a variation on the same technology. The difference is that instead of using lasers, LED printers use LEDs to draw the image of each page as the first step in printing. Specifications Printer Category Laser Type All-In-One Color or Monochrome 1-pass color Technology (for laser category only) LED Connection Type USB, Ethernet, Wireless Maximum Standard Paper Size Legal Direct Printing from Cameras Yes Rated speed at Default Resolution (Mono) 17 ppm Rated Speed at Default Resolution (Color) 17 ppm Standal...

The Canon Pixma iX7000 Inkjet Business Printer is the third inkjet printer I've seen in the past several months that can print on tabloid (11- by 17-inch) or larger-size paper and is aimed tightly at small offices—particularly micro and home offices. Together with the Epson Work, it represents a newfound interest on the part of these three manufacturers in offering budget tabloid printers suitable for a small office on a tight budget. The Canon printer is the most expensive of the three, but also the one with the fewest compromises. It's second to the HP printer for speed, and second to the Epson printer for output quality, but not by much in either case. On the plus side, it offers an Ethernet connector, which the Epson printer lacks, and it outshines both the HP and Epson printers when it comes to paper handling. Specifications Printer Category Ink Jet Type Printer Only Color or Monochrome 1-pass color Ink Jet Type Standard All-Purpose Connection Type USB, Ether...

The Dell 3330dn Laser Printer ($599.99 direct) is the kind of workhorse mono laser that's easy to like. It offers fast speed, a low running cost, and reasonably good paper handling. Its text quality is a touch subpar for a mono laser, but perfectly acceptable for the vast majority of small offices and workgroups. Most important, it delivers a more than reasonable balance of features for the price. Specifications Printer Category Laser Type Printer Only Color or Monochrome Monochrome Technology (for laser category only) Laser Connection Type USB, Parallel, Ethernet Maximum Standard Paper Size Legal Direct Printing from Cameras No Rated speed at Default Resolution (Mono) 40 ppm Duplexing Yes Like the Editor's Choice Lexmark E462dtn ($749 direct, 4 stars) that I reviewed a few months ago, the 3330dn is aimed primarily at micro and small offices. The default paper handling features include an automatic duplexer for printing on both sides of a page and a 300-shee...

The Samsung SCX-5635FN ($500 street) is a serious monochrome laser multifunction printer (MFP) for a small office or a workgroup. It provides good print speed and paper handling, and a low cost per printed page. But though it provides an abundant range of all-in-one features, setting the printer up to take full advantage of them is unwieldy at best. The boxy (18.4- by 17.1- by 18-inch), two-toned gray MFP weighs 41.5 pounds. Among its all-in-one features are printing, copying, faxing, and scanning—it copies, faxes, and scans either standalone or through a PC. It can scan to a computer, to e-mail, to an FTP or SMB server, or to a USB key. Specifications Printer Category Laser Type All-In-One Color or Monochrome Monochrome Technology (for laser category only) Laser Connection Type USB, Ethernet, Wireless Maximum Standard Paper Size Legal Direct Printing from Cameras No Rated speed at Default Resolution (Mono) 35 ppm Standalone Copier and Fax Copier, Fax Duplexing ...