Issue #0710/1 - An at-a-glance roundup of the major features and benefits, disadvantages and nightmares of the five inkjet All-in-One machines.
Having used and tested all five of the printers, there were a number of characteristics and features that really stood out as being of value but also a number of flaws that would, or should, be an obstruction to purchase. The following tables list the major positives and negatives for each of the printers.
Brother DCP-330C
| Positives | Negatives |
|---|---|
| Best Cost of Printing – Office and Photo | Some paper feed issues |
| Only four inks with no cartridge-swapping for photo printing | Colour fill can be a little insipid during office document printing |
| High capacity tanks need changing less often | Colour balance in photo copying was inaccurate |
| Independent ink tanks contribute to very little wastage | No photo management and printing software |
| Favourite photo image quality |
Brother DCP-330C Canon PIXMA MP-450 |
| Most natural-looking photos | |
| Very consistent dot sizes and clean printing | |
| Fast office printing – not quite fastest, except … | |
| … fastest printing of mixed multi-page documents | |
| Fastest colour copying | |
| Fastest photo copying | |
| Ships with Nuance PaperPort Document Management software |
Canon PIXMA MP-450
| Positives | Negatives |
|---|---|
| Good cost of printing – Office and Photo | Horrendously noisy in printing, particularly paper pick mechanism |
| Very fast office mono printing | Disappointingly slow at printing office colour documents |
| Very fast photo printing | Disappointing, oversaturated photos |
Epson Stylus Photo RX620
| Positives | Negatives |
|---|---|
| Photo copying most closely resembles contone image | Least favourite photo image quality |
| Strong and pleasing colours in office colour document | Uses photo inks for office colour printing |
| Very consistent drop shapes and clean printing | Wasteful cleaning cycles use a lot of ink |
 Epson Stylus Photo RX620
|
Ragged black text caused by large ink droplets |
| Yellow printing contaminated with Cyan and Magenta ink drops | |
| Slow office printing with slow first page out |
Hewlett-Packard Photosmart C4180
| Positives | Negatives |
|---|---|
| Low Cost of Printing - Office | High Cost of Printing - Photo |
| Consistently fastest at printing | Photo cartridge can waste a lot of ink |
| Blazingly fast for office mono copying | Print heads suffer from considerable ink splatter |
| Best office copy quality | Prints pages smaller than real size |
| Complicated control panel that has to be viewed from above |
Lexmark P4350
| Positives | Negatives |
|---|---|
| Best overall photo image print quality | Highest Cost of Printing – Office and Photo |
| Effective media type recognition | Firmware actually crashed the printer on two occasions |
Hewlett-Packard Photosmart C4180 Lexmark P4350
|
Colour fill in office documents demonstrates severe striping |
| Colour office printing unacceptably slow | |
| Very high level of ink splattert | |
| Very flimsy and fragile | |
| Very unreliable (paper feed) |
Brother DCP-330C
Brother’s new generation print engine, housed in a casing that strongly follows the brand identity of the previous generations, presents a multifunction device that is compact, attractive, functional, cost-effective and well-built, presenting a good combination of speed and print quality output - all-in-all, a joy to use.Technically, this device is not quite the smallest of the machines tested. It is 56% smaller than the Epson RX620 – the largest machine in the group – but the Hewlett-Packard comes in just a little smaller still.
However, it is working size that really matters and this is where the DCP-330C really scores. Even though it is not the efficient brick-shape of the Hewlett-Packard, it is essentially self-contained. The paper feeds from the front, like the majority of laser printers and like the Hewlett-Packard C4180 but, unlike the C4180, the paper tray is fully contained within the device. After printing, the paper does protrude a few centimetres out of the front of the machine, held by a catch flap, but, with no serious paper tray at desk level to the front, the printer can be used in space conscious environments.
Likewise, with its height at only 150mm, and no paper feed tray at the top, the device can be used at a high level and on shelving with limited height availability. This is the bonus of an intelligent design that places all controls on the bevelled front edge, an LCD display that pivots up, cartridge access through a front-opening door, memory card slots on the front, thus enabling full operation without the scan lid needing to be fully open.
In fact, the only occasion that the device may need to be moved, is if it needs to be moved – physically! There is a section of the device that lifts up to provide access to the internal USB or network (network models) sockets, but this lid does not need to be lifted at all after installation and under normal operating conditions.
One of the primary features of this machine is its photo print quality. Brother has designed the photo algorithms to present a realism in the colour balance and saturation that makes the prints instantly attractive while other printers over-saturate the photo media to give unrealistic images. The downside is that the prints are produced very slowly but at least the user can choose between having the best photos in the group or increasing print speed by reducing the quality a little.
No machine is perfect though, and the DCP-330C does have certain flaws that may or may not be addressed in future refresh products and printer generations. One of these is the fact that the printed photo set was considered to be too insipid by the same number of participants in the psychometric testing as had rated it as ‘best quality’ – it was a love it or hate it situation.
During testing, this was the only machine that suffered a paper jam. This happened twice but paper was easily removed and printing restarted automatically. This is actually the one instance when access to the rear and top of the machine is necessary.
Part of this problem is down to the fact that this is such a slim-line and compact machine with paper feed and output both at the front. It means that there is a very tight 180 degree bend for the paper to be pushed around at the rear of the machine. If any thicker material is used, including labels and some envelopes, there is the probability of that material catching on the feed guides as it comes out of the bend.
Also a paper feed issue, some difficulty was experienced in the feeding of photo paper from the 10×15 photo tray. Some sheets were slightly skewed, leaving an unprinted strip on one edge when printing borderless photos. This issue was actually easily overcome by feeding the paper from the main paper tray.
But, scoring high on the Cost of Printing front, partly due to its four, independent ink tanks, ensures that the Brother DCP-330C has to be considered to be a key contender.
Canon PIXMA MP-450
Another reasonably compact machine, about two-thirds of the size of the Epson RX620, the MP-450 is an attractive and well-designed machine that handled well in operation. All controls are on the front, making it reasonably easy to use at shelf level.However, Canon uses a rear-feed paper path with paper stacked nearly vertically at the back of the machine. At the front, there is a flap that folds down to reveal the paper output area, the flap doubling as a paper catch tray. The printer has a safeguard against printing with the flap in the closed position but the combination of rear feed and front expulsion means that the printer needs additional operating space at the rear, top and front, making it unsuitable for shelf operation.
In addition, the whole top half of the machine lifts for access to the cartridges. So, although the controls are all on the front, high level operation (top of a filing cabinet) would be difficult but not impossible.
Blindingly fast at printing mono office documents and colour photographs, the MP-450 fell down badly when it came to colour office documents where it was only one step from being the slowest machine.
Although not matching the low cost of office printing of the Hewlett-Packard and Brother machines, Canon’s MP-450 sat closer to that competitive end of the scale than the expensive end held by Epson and Lexmark. When printing photographs, the Canon actually competed very closely with Brother, largely because both machines are 4-ink. This was something of a surprise considering that the photos emerged from the printer with a distinct look of over-saturation about them.
With ink usage toned down, there is potential for the MP-450 to produce good quality photos and a blinding speed and, potentially, the lowest print cost.
A combination of competitive Cost of Printing and fast print speeds make the MP-450 a reasonably attractive option but photo print quality was disappointing with heavy over-saturation. Overall though, it would be a ready contender at a reasonable price if it weren’t for the awful noise coming from the paper pick and transport mechanism. This machine is very, very noisy in operation.
Epson Stylus Photo RX620
Epson’s RX620 falls into a somewhat different category from the other machines in terms of specification and purchase price. Costing more than 50% more to buy than the others, there is some compensation to be found in the specification (but probably not worth an extra 50% on the purchase price).For instance, this is the only machine in this group to feature a transparency adapter for the scanner and it comes with a pre-fitted USB cable (may seem like a small item but can typically be worth £12 / €16 / $15 to the user).
With the cheapest ink in the group (per millilitre), this machine would fall into the category of ‘paying a little more for the machine in order to reduce running costs’. Unfortunately, this does not really stack up because it uses all six inks whatever it is printing. Thus, although mono printing is the cheapest in the group (despite use of colour inks during regular cleaning cycles), colour printing is second only to Lexmark in its expense. Combine this with the high purchase price and the user is not benefiting from the low ink cost. In all probability, an Epson 4-ink printer with a photo capability would be a better option and better all-rounder than this 6-ink machine.
Claiming to be ‘designed specifically with the photographer in mind’, the Epson RX-620 disappointed in the long run. Not only were the ink costs high on office printing but the print quality of photographs left something to be desired. It was not surprising that this printer brought up the rear in psychometric tests.
This is the bulkiest printer in the group by a long way. For instance, it is 50% bulkier than the next largest (Canon MP-450) and three times the bulk of the Hewlett-Packard C4180. When the fact that room for the fresh paper (fed from the rear)) needs to be left at the rear and top, the RX620 is a machine that needs lots of desk space and is not suitable for use in space conscious environments.
On paper, the RX620 is also the slowest machine in the group, a fact born out in practice with some of the slowest printing in the group. Its best performance was printing colour office documents, where it actually beat both Canon and Lexmark printers.
Hewlett-Packard Photosmart C4180
Following the design strategy of several years, Hewlett-Packard’s brick-shaped consumer inkjet All-in-One printers are very compact and space-efficient. This is the smallest device in the group and is slim enough to be placed on a shelf – with both paper feed and exit at the front so that no rear access is required. Even cartridge access is from the front, meaning that the only lid to lift is the platen cover for scanning and copying.In its brick shape lies a fundamental flaw, however – there is no choice but to place all controls on the top of the device. This is fine as long as the machine is used at desktop level (or lower) or if it is a low-end machine with just a few, basic controls.
But, as a high-end and sophisticated Photosmart machine, although a tilting LCD panel is provided on the C4180, enabling high level viewing, it is totally impossible to operate unless the user is looking down on the top of the machine.
In addition, operation is further complicated by a maze of buttons and a menu structure that is not very intuitive, requiring a lot of button presses to set or check a configuration.
Even though this printer did not obtain the highest scores in the psychometric testing, there can be no doubt that the visual appearance of the photographs is utterly acceptable and it is only when direct visual comparisons are made that other printers rate more highly. Its low scores are definitely not a reason for avoiding the machine. More likely to be off-putting to prospective buyers is the relatively high cost of photo printing.
Print speeds however, are consistently high and, even if not highest in every category, the consistency and obvious willingness to do the job quickly and at a high quality is very endearing to the user. And, the cost of office printing is very competitive.
Lexmark P4350
The opposite to almost every positive comment made of the other four printers is true of the Lexmark P4350. Having operated and tested it, there is little that can be said in its favour and there would be no prospect of the P4350 being selected as a machine of choice.Photo print quality is the only redeeming factor of this machine. In the psychometric tests, the P4350 received the overall highest score even though the largest number of participants selected prints from the Brother DCP-330C as their favourites. There is no doubt that this good result is justified and the correspondingly slow photo print speed would be an acceptable price to pay for that quality.
However, the various faults and failings of the P4350 render it almost unusable in certain situations.
Flimsy and fragile, the P4350 oozes poor build quality and it has serious design flaws. For instance, paper handling is noisy (but not as noisy as the Canon) but the worst problem is that it snatches the paper from the paper tray using a roller placed so far to one side that the paper is regularly and frequently skewed.
In copy testing the machine, this was so serious that of a 10-copy colour test run, attempted five times, only between three and five pages of each run were acceptable and usable. In several instances, the paper was so crooked as it ran through the printer that the printed image ran off the edge of the paper, the corner of the paper was scrumpled by the print head, the paper slightly torn and the printer very nearly jammed.
Print quality was suspect in an office environment when handling colour documents. Colour fill areas (e.g. pie chart) were insipid and displayed severe striping that would have made any company reluctant to send the document to a client.
Almost worse than this though, the whole printing process was a painful one. The voice alerts are annoying in the extreme and the job-handling process reduces colour printing from MS Excel to an unacceptable crawl.
Giving the initial appearance of being a small device, we find that looks are very deceptive. When paper feed support and paper catch tray are both folded out, with paper inserted and sitting in the output catch tray, this printer is the worst in the group for space consumption – especially unnecessary space consumption.
Furthermore, even though the controls and memory slots are on the front of the machine, the LCD display does not swivel and the steep angle makes it very difficult to operate ‘unless’ the machine is placed at a high level. Operating it on a desktop while standing, is surprisingly difficult, resulting in the need to stoop on occasions.
This leads straight into another problem – the machine cannot be used at a high level because paper feed is at the top rear and to allow enough space in front of the machine to prevent the output being deposited on the floor, it would need to be placed so far back on the surface that users would not be able to reach the paper input tray.
Finally, the Cost of Printing on the P4350 was the highest in the group by a large margin.
~End~
