VIEW FROM THE LABS
While the quality and speed of printers has shot up over the past two decades, it’s still too easy to buy the wrong model for your needs
Halfway through this Labs, I hit the frightening realisation that I’ve been testing and reviewing printers for a little over 20 years. I know all technologies have undergone huge transformation in that time, but with printers the development has been remarkable. I used to be amazed when an inkjet pulled off smooth colour graduations in a very basic illustration of a train. Even some lasers couldn’t produce decent-quality black text. I clearly remember the whole Labs team watching, gobsmacked, as photo prints from one of the first true photo-quality printers inched, line-by-line, into the out tray.
Now we take all that for granted. The print quality of every printer I tested here – even the supermarket models – is actually pretty good. All can dish out decent-looking black text on plain paper; even black text on a tint in a chart won’t phase them. Photo quality varies, particularly with the lasers, but an affordable home or office model can still output a solid-looking print. And while not all models are speed demons, most can print out 20 pages of text within two minutes, or a full-colour A4 photo within three. The office models, of course, can produce far more in even less time.
So, what separates the average from the good or the good from the great? Partly, it’s flexibility and all-round versatility. Both the Brother MFC-J5330DW and the Epson EcoTank ET-2600 can print, copy and scan across a range of media, but the Brother is faster and more consistent in its quality, making it a stronger all-rounder. What’s more, it also offers the option of A3 printing; something that many of us, not to mention many businesses, would benefit from, even if we don’t want to splash out on a “proper” A3 printer.
The overall experience matters, too. Brother, Canon, Epson and, particularly, HP have all done a fantastic job of making the initial setup and configuration easy, both on their home and office models. Oki’s C542dn printer has some fantastic features for hard-working IT managers – or whoever in the business is responsible for IT – but was noticeably harder to get up and running. Kyocera hit a sensible middle-ground, providing an interface and a driver that offers a great set of features and serious control, but still taking the pain out of connecting to the network and getting the printer prepared to fill its role.
Most of all, though, I’ve been impressed by the strides some manufacturers are making in driving down both costs and environmental impact down. From printers that offer to switch on duplex printing by default to Epson’s cartridge-less EcoTank system and a range of toner-saving, engine-silencing features, we’re getting printers that are better equipped for life in the home or office, and that might not hit you or your company so hard in the wallet over their lifespan.
No printer yet offers the perfect balance between performance, quality, features and low running costs, but the compromises being made are less significant and we’re headed in the right direction. Buy any of our winning printers – see our buyer’s guide on p80 to ensure it’s the model that best fits your needs – and you’ll be amazed at how well it works and what it can do.
“I’ve been impressed by the strides some manufacturers are making in driving down both costs and environmental impact”