Canon Pixma iP1900 is as simple printer as it gets. This is no surprise given this printer’s low price. The PictBridge, a memory card slot and an LCD are all missing from this printer. The lack of a output tray is probably not so predictable though, so you’d better be sure there’s a lot of space before the printer to stop finished pages from falling to the floor.

Inkjet technology hasn’t advanced much in the past 12 months. This is a plus for the Canon Pixma iP1900 as it means there’s no problem with it keeping up with the specifications of other printers.

The 4800 x 1200 dpi resolution is more than you’d ever really need, and the 2-picolitre ink droplet matches that of more expensive competitors of Canon Pixma iP1900.

Thanks to the use of Canon’s ChromaLife100 system, photo prints are guaranteed to last a good century if stored in an album. The software assortment is not so rich, but Canon’s Easy-PhotoPrint EX suite is enough for most printing situations.

As for the quality, don’t expect high-end text printing from the Canon Pixma iP1900. Even in the finest mode (at about 1.9 pages per minute), text is rather fuzzy and poorly defined. However, the results are legible, and the middle mode (with a ppm of 6.3) produces readable results at a reasonable rate.

Color graphics are never fast though. On paper the printer is stated to produce 17 color pages per minute, but the reality is not so bright — the speed is about 10 times slower even in the fastest mode. The Canon Pixma iP1900’s gamut is a touch light, and certain colors are reproduced inaccurately. The results are OK, but brooding intensity certainly isn’t a virtue of the Canon Pixma iP1900’s output.

The SCX-4300 has a neat footprint for an office all-in-one machine, a little wider than a typical personal laser printer, but with very similar depth and height. The sides of the machine flare slightly at the top to accommodate the A4 scanner mechanism which, unlike the SCX-4500’s, sits across the laser engine from left to right, rather than from front to back.

The software supplied with the machine is Samsung’s standard coupling of its SmarThru 4 and Dr. Printer utilities. The first deals with scanning, copying and printing, as well as sharing images, while the second is a diagnostic website. The driver itself handles watermarks, overlays and various print quality settings, laid out in a logical and easy-to-navigate panel.

The SCX-4300 is quite a nippy little printer, completing our five-page text document in just 30 seconds, or 10 ppm. The text and graphics pages (five of them again) are even quicker at 11.54 ppm and when we printed our 20-page document, it took 1:21, increasing the speed again to 14.81 ppm. Samsung’s claimed top speed is 18 ppm, so for a printer maker that’s almost obscenely accurate.

A single page photocopy finished in 11 seconds, so you could get six or so pages per minute from the machine and a 6 x 4 in. photo took little more, at 13 seconds. Both these speeds are impressive, particularly for a machine being sold at around $200 – less minus delivery.

Print quality in most areas is good. Although the maximum resolution of the machine is just 600dpi, there’s little visible sign of jagged diagonals or curves in text. When you add greyscale graphics, the quality isn’t quite so good, with some striping apparent and not many visible grey shades.

The SCX-4300 uses an integrated drum and Samsung toner, capable of printing 2,000 ISO pages. With a typical cost of just under $80, this gives a cost per page of 5.4 cents including paper costs. This is a fairly typical cost for a mono laser device and for black print from a colour one, too, so you’re not paying extra because of the comparatively low purchase price of the all-in-one itself.

This is a good, straightforward multifunction printer which would be very at home in a typical SOHO environment. It’s quite quick, produces good text and passable graphics, though copies of graphics, particularly of grayscale shades, can be very patchy. Running costs are reasonable and if your budget is tight this looks like a good way of providing yourself with the main office print, scan and copy functions at reasonable cost.

The X9575 is the flagman ship of Lexmark’s Professional series of inkjet multifunctions designed to serve business needs. (The unit has a range of connection options and a number of PC-less features that make it a suitable addition to the home or small office. However, the printing speeds and photo quality leave a bit to be desired.)

The X9575 is rich in connectivity options: you can connect it using USB, Ethernet and 802.11g Wi-Fi.

The front control panel of the multifunction features a color LCD for previewing photos and navigating the menu. Next to the display is a PictBridge port for direct printing and a multi-card reader. The printer has an automatic duplexing feature, allowing businesses to save money through double-sided printing.

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While being just another low-cost color inkjet printer, Lexmark Z2420 Wireless stands out for its integrated 802.11b/g wireless connectivity, which makes it as flexible as only few other printers in this price range. Unfortunately, that’s all there is, because its performance is moderate, according to, discovers Melissa Riofrio, in PC World review of Lexmark Z2420.

In tests the Z2420 performed fairly well. It produced 10 pages of text in 1 minute, which is slightly above average for this category. As for color graphics printing, here Z2420 rates slowest among the likes.

It was noticed that the Z2420’s print quality greatly depends on the type of paper. On the plain paper, the black ink produced slightly faded and fuzzy-looking letters. Color photos also looked faded and grainy. On Lexmark’s own photo paper, the same images brightened and showed improved, crisper details.

Lexmark calculates its ink yields using a suite of typical documents. The cartridges that came along with the Z2420 printer ran out fast, after 175 “black” pages and 150 “tricolor” pages. A higher yield, yet more pricy cartridges are available; black cartridge costs $25 and lasts 500 pages or 4.9 cents per page. A tricolor cartridge lasts same 500 pages, but costs $35, which makes 7.2 cents per page.

The printer is easy to install via USB or wireless, thanks to the helpful installation process. The overall design is of the printe is described as simple, too.

The printer can hold up to 100 sheets through rear-loading input area and has a 25-sheet output tray. The cartridges are hidden behind a top panel and have easy-release latches. There are only 2 buttons on the control panel that perform all, but this is a common site for a budget printer like that.

In conclusion Melissa finds Lexmark Z2420 Wireless rather disappointing as main printer. However, as a cheap secondary device for occasional photo printing, Z2420 is a good choice. Besides it has a wireless connection, something that other low-cost printers don’t.