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Top Multifunction Printers

The print speeds of both inkjet and laser MFPs impressed us, but copy and scan speeds--as well as output quality--were mixed.

Eric Butterfield

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Canon MultiPass MP390 PCW Rating: 4.5PCW Rating: 4.5PCW Rating: 4.5

Last Rated: August 26, 2004

Canon MultiPass MP390

Rated 18 pages per minute monochrome, 12 ppm color, standard print mode, 4800-by-1200-dpi maximum color print resolution, 1200-by-2400-dpi maximum optical scan resolution, 100 sheets input, 100 sheets output, Stand-alone fax, sends in color, Street price when ranked: $200,

Bottom Line: Of the inkjet models, the MP390 made the sharpest copies. Can fax documents in color, includes a multiformat media card reader, and prints on legal-size paper.

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Dell All-in-One Photo Printer 922 PCW Rating: 3.0PCW Rating: 3.0PCW Rating: 3.0

Last Rated: April 20, 2005

Dell All-in-One Photo Printer 922

Rated 19 pages per minute monochrome, 14 ppm color, standard print mode, 4800-by-1200-dpi maximum color print resolution, 600-by-2400-dpi maximum optical scan resolution, 100 sheets input, 50 sheets output, , Street price when ranked: $119,

Bottom Line: Fast scanning speeds, but poor color scan quality. Print quality overall was below average; printouts of line art looked unattractive. Maximum paper size is 8.5 by 19 inches.

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Epson Stylus CX6600 PCW Rating: 76.0PCW Rating: 76.0PCW Rating: 76.0

Last Rated: April 20, 2005

Epson Stylus CX6600

Rated 22 pages per minute monochrome, 11 ppm color, standard print mode, 5760-by-1440-dpi maximum color print resolution, 1200-by-2400-dpi maximum optical scan resolution, 100 sheets input, 30 sheets output, , Street price when ranked: $199,

Bottom Line: Made excellent scans of color photos; printouts of line art, however, were unappealing. Has a multiformat media card reader.

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HP PSC 1315 All-in-One PCW Rating: 3.0PCW Rating: 3.0PCW Rating: 3.0

Last Rated: August 26, 2004

HP PSC 1315 All-in-One

Rated 17 pages per minute monochrome, 12 ppm color, standard print mode, 4800-by-1200-dpi maximum color print resolution, 600-by-2400-dpi maximum optical scan resolution, 100 sheets input, 50 sheets output, , Street price when ranked: $130,

Bottom Line: Produced impressive prints overall and the best-looking monochrome scans from an inkjet, but copies were the least attractive among tested models. Prints on legal-size paper.

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Lexmark X5270 All-in-One PCW Rating: 3.0PCW Rating: 3.0PCW Rating: 3.0

Last Rated: August 26, 2004

Lexmark X5270 All-in-One

Rated 22 pages per minute monochrome, 15 ppm color, standard print mode, 4800-by-1200-dpi maximum color print resolution, 600-by-2400-dpi maximum optical scan resolution, 100 sheets input, 25 sheets output, , Street price when ranked: $130,

Bottom Line: Fast at printing text and scanning, but prints of line art showed lots of banding. Prints banners up to 8.5 by 17 inches.

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Brother MFC-8840DN PCW Rating: 4.0PCW Rating: 4.0PCW Rating: 4.0

Last Rated: May 27, 2005

Brother MFC-8840DN

Rated 21 pages per minute monochrome, standard print mode, 2400-by-600-dpi maximum print resolution, 600-by-2400-dpi maximum optical scan resolution, 250 sheets input, 100 sheets output, Stand-alone fax, sends in color, Street price when ranked: $650,

Bottom Line: Produced the highest-quality prints overall of the laser MFPs tested, and printed quickly, though scanning speeds were slow. Duplexer included.

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Dell Multifunction Laser Printer 1600n PCW Rating: 3.0PCW Rating: 3.0PCW Rating: 3.0

Last Rated: August 27, 2004

Dell Multifunction Laser Printer 1600n

Rated 22 pages per minute monochrome, standard print mode, 1200-by-1200-dpi maximum print resolution, 600-by-1200-dpi maximum optical scan resolution, 250 sheets input, 150 sheets output, Stand-alone fax, sends in color, Street price when ranked: $399,

Bottom Line: Printed text and scanned quickly, but scan and copy quality were lower than those of other, more expensive laser models. Can fax documents in color.

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HP LaserJet 3380 PCW Rating: 78.0PCW Rating: 78.0PCW Rating: 78.0

Last Rated: August 27, 2004

HP LaserJet 3380

Rated 20 pages per minute monochrome, standard print mode, 1200-by-1200-dpi maximum print resolution, 600-by-600-dpi maximum optical scan resolution, 250 sheets input, 125 sheets output, Stand-alone fax, Street price when ranked: $699,

Bottom Line: Color scans looked very attractive, though scanning speeds were slow; has a legal-size scanning area.

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IBM Infoprint 1410 MFP PCW Rating: 3.5PCW Rating: 3.5PCW Rating: 3.5

Last Rated: August 27, 2004

IBM Infoprint 1410 MFP

Rated 22 pages per minute monochrome, standard print mode, 1200-by-1200-dpi maximum print resolution, 600-by-600-dpi maximum optical scan resolution, 350 sheets input, 150 sheets output, Stand-alone fax, Street price when ranked: $1596,

Bottom Line: Nearly identical to the Lexmark X422: Fast at printing graphics, but scan quality is about average. Includes a duplexer and has a legal-size scan area.

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Lexmark X422 MFP PCW Rating: 3.5PCW Rating: 3.5PCW Rating: 3.5

Last Rated: August 27, 2004

Lexmark X422 MFP

Rated 22 pages per minute monochrome, standard print mode, 1200-by-1200-dpi maximum print resolution, 600-by-600-dpi maximum optical scan resolution, 350 sheets input, 150 sheets output, Stand-alone fax, Street price when ranked: $1479,

Bottom Line: Fast scanning, copying, and graphics printing, much like the IBM 1410. Duplexer included; legal-size scan area.

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All multifunction printers were tested in the PC World Test Center for print, scan, and copy speed and quality. The printer tests included generating a two-page black-and-white newsletter, a 10-page black-and-white text document, a color JPEG photo at 300 dpi, an HTML page with text and color images at 100 dpi, and a color TIFF photo at highest resolution. The scanner tests consisted of scanning a 2-by-2-inch color photo at maximum resolution and maximum bit depth; a 2-by-2-inch color photo at 1200 dpi and 24 bits; a 4-by-5-inch color photo at 100 dpi and 24 bits, a one-page, black-and-white text document at 300 dpi and 1 bit; and a 7.5-by-10.5-inch black-and-white line-art image at maximum resolution and 1 bit. The copier tests involved copying a single black-and-white page. A panel of judges rated the quality of each MFP's output using criteria adapted from PC World's printer and scanner tests. Printer times are measured from the execution of the command until the print job is completed. Scanner times include both the preview time and the scan time for a total time for a scan job. When printing the TIFF image on an ink jet-based MFP, we used vendor-specified optimal-quality settings and vendor-specified paper. For the laser printer-based MFP, we used vendor-specified settings and then printed the TIFF image on stock paper. The JPEG and TIFF images were opened and printed using Photoshop 7. The text documents were printed using Microsoft Word 10 with default settings. The HTML document was printed using Netscape Navigator 7 with default settings. For the scan function on each MFP, our ink jet printer used high-quality settings and glossy paper. For our black-and-white printing, our laser printer-based MFP used "best print quality" settings. The images were opened and printed using Photoshop 6.01. Printer functions were tested on a pair of identically configured 1.6-GHz Gateway Pentium 4 PCs with 256MB of RAM. Scanning functions were tested using a 2-GHz Dell Dimension Pentium 4 with 512MB of RAM. All of the multifunction printers were connected to the PC via a USB 2.0 port. Scanned color and black-and-white images were printed on an HP CP1160 ink jet printer and an HP LaserJet 1200 printer, respectively. Scanned images were viewed on-screen on a pair of Panasonic PanaSync Pro P110i 21-inch CRT monitors. --Dennis O'Reilly

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