WHAT'S HOT: The Stylus C62 demonstrates impressive print speed considering its modest $99 price. Lexmark's Z55se Color Jetprinter and Canon's I850 Photo Printer beat its text speed of 6.2 pages per minute--but both cost more. The C62's 1.6-ppm speed for printing graphics is the fastest time of all the general-purpose printers we tested.

Our print-quality jury liked the C62's glossy photo prints, which looked detailed and realistic. Epson provides a clear set-up poster, a good manual for using the printer, a detailed on-screen reference guide, and some on-screen animations that show how to maintain the unit. In addition, as you choose settings in the driver, you can open a window that displays a summary of all the settings you've selected.

WHAT'S NOT: Though the C62 costs only $99, you'll pay a lot to keep it running: Black ink costs approximately 7.1 cents per page of text. And color ink runs 17.1 cents for a page of graphics. Color and black cartridges are $30 each.

The C62's prints--except for photos--don't look great. Text appeared slightly grayish and rough around the edges; in our line tests, narrow parallel lines overlapped to give the appearance of wide stripes; and color graphics looked dotted.

WHAT ELSE: Epson's one-year warranty is reasonable--longer than some competitors' warranties. The C62 installed painlessly, with each step going exactly as the instructions said it would.

UPSHOT: The Stylus C62 provides zippy printing for an affordable price, but home users might be wary of its steep ink prices and mediocre text quality.

SUMMARY

Epson Stylus C62 Rated 14 ppm for text/10 ppm for color, 5760-by-720-dpi maximum resolution, 100 sheets input, 30 output $99 800/463-7766 www.epson.com