Canon BJC-6000

Canon BJC-6000

WHAT'S HOT: For a competitive $199, Canon's BJC-6000 provides the fastest performance of any ink jet in its price range. In fact, at 4.4 ppm on text, it's speedier than all but two other models here--the $399 Epson Stylus Color 900 and the $299 HP DeskJet 895Cse. Similarly, the BJC-6000's 1.1-ppm graphics speed puts it ahead of all but the Epson. Text quality is impressive, with a strong, solid black and clear letterforms, even on italic, bold, and small type. Similarly, the BJC-6000 did an impressive job on our color photographic output test. Printing on high-quality paper with the photo cartridges in place yielded lifelike, photo-realistic images and terrific colors.

WHAT'S NOT: Narrow parallel lines overlap, color graphics wash out and lack detail, and gray-scale images display a coarse dot texture. Even printing in high-resolution mode on ink jet paper doesn't help much. The software driver is packed with features, but poor design makes navigating them a challenge.

WHAT ELSE: The BJC-6000's design is unusually sturdy for an ink jet, with tough yet flexible paper trays. Unlike any other model in this review, the Canon has separately replaceable ink tanks, so you don't have to discard all the color ink when one tank runs out (a great design that other printers should emulate). This efficiency contributes to the BJC-6000's low total cost of ownership--it's far and away the most affordable in this roundup. An ethernet adapter is available for about $130.

BEST USE: Small-office users who need clean, quick text output and have limited graphics demands will like this printer.