Eye-catching color LCD screens have become increasingly common on photo printers. Our Best Buy, the $199 Canon Pixma iP6600D, has the largest such screen we've seen on an inkjet; the 3.5-inch swiveling display seems enormous compared with the more common 2.5-inch size. The additional on-screen real estate makes adjusting images and navigating menus easier.
The large LCD isn't the only extra the iP6600D offers. Like most other models on the chart, it has removable-media slots that handle multiple card formats, and it supports PictBridge for printing directly from a digital camera via a USB cable. The iP6600D also includes a duplexer for making two-sided prints on either regular or glossy paper--a feature that not long ago would have increased the printer's price significantly. Another plus is the unit's two full-size paper trays, which allow you to keep two paper types loaded.
By contrast, the second tray on the HP Photosmart 8250 holds only 4-by-6-inch photo paper. The HP Photosmart 8050 comes with a cassette that holds 4-by-6-inch photo paper, but you must empty the main tray before inserting it. The Epson Stylus Photo R340 has just one paper tray.
Photo printers are getting faster, too. The iP6600D printed photos almost three times faster than the average speed managed by the models we tested a year ago, and HP's Photosmart 8250 was even quicker. The iP6600D took 45 seconds to print our 5-by-7-inch test photo, while the 8250 took just 29 seconds. The Epson Stylus Photo R340 was the slowest on the chart, requiring 82 seconds to print.
For pure speed, the HP Photosmart 8250 remains your best bet. Besides printing photos lightning-fast, it delivered impressive print times on text and color graphics. However, its print quality fell short of the other printers'. Its photos looked too dark overall, and some colors seemed oversaturated. Color graphics had a very cloudy appearance.
The photo print quality of Epson's Stylus Photo R340 and $99 Stylus Photo R220 (which missed the chart) matched that of our Best Buy, but subpar prints of text and graphics on plain paper hurt their overall score, as did the vendor's lack of toll-free tech support. In contrast, HP offers 24-hour daily toll-free phone support; Canon limits support to 16 hours on weekdays and to 10 hours on Saturdays.
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CHART NOTES: Ratings and prices as of 12/28/05. Data based on tests designed and conducted by the
Eric Butterfield
