Kodak’s latest all in one printer, copier and scanner is a compact, attractive looking, machine that combines a scanner, copier and photo quality printer combining low ink costs with good photo output and nice scans if you just need relatively small sized scans of your flat originals.

The ESP 5250 sits between Kodak’s ESP 5 and ESP 7 all-in-one models, in the range. It also continues Kodak’s policy of charging that little bit more for the machine and less for the ink, with Kodak claiming the overall cost of ownership, over a year, can enable a saving on ink of around ?75.

The 5250 is a neat and compact, black liveried device featuring a nice 2.4-inch LCD screen and a large, clearly buttoned control panel graces the top. The 100-sheet paper feed tray sits in the front of the device, so paper must be loaded upside down; it is fed into and back out on top of the unprinted, waiting paper.

Paper guides can be moved to adjust for paper of varying sizes easily, though if you put photo paper on top of plain paper, the 5250 had a tendency to drag in the plain paper along with the photo paper, which is very frustrating indeed, so only one type of paper at a time.

The print head and dual, single black and combined five-colour pigment based inks slot home easily into a removable print head carriage, which sits beneath the scanner/copier platen. Once in place, the 5250 primes the ink and will print an automatic head alignment sheet.

The software’s easy to install (I tested the printer on my G5 Intel Mac laptop) and once up and running, connecting to my Wi-Fi network proved a simple case of selecting the connection method on the 5250’s colour screen, entering the password and that was it. Almost as easy as connecting via the USB connection, and like the other ESPs I’ve tested in the range, this makes for a refreshing change.

The direct print control panel is simply laid out and the menus are clear and easy to follow on the colour screen allowing copying, printing and scanning as a standalone device, or you can control the device from your computer.

The ESP 5250’s supplied software drivers are simple enough to follow, the print dialogues for the printer are easy to understand and the 5250 can automatically select the print quality depending on the paper type used. This makes the machine undoubtedly easy to use for the less technical minded users out there, but you do have manual controls over print quality too, within the printer’s advanced driver options.

Kodak’s Ultra Premium Photo Paper being the best quality paper for best photo prints but you can “force” the printer to use the higher quality settings, though more ink will be used and it may not provide the best result depending on the exact media types.

As with other ESPs in the range, Kodak’s Dot Replacement print mode allows for better quality output on specific paper types, that is providing you don’t want to print borderless, as disappointingly and like the other ESPs, Dot Replacement does not support borderless printing. However, print quality on the better quality papers is superb, Dot Replacement or not, but it’s a shame you cannot access this setting for borderless prints.

One frustration of that Dot Replacement mode is where I could select to use the Dot Replacement technology, even with the incorrect paper setting (borderless) and it is only as the paper was fed into the printer that the error was picked up by the machine’s paper sensors and print driver. At this point it would alert you to the incorrect paper selection and abort the print process spitting the paper out untouched.

However, print quality on other, lesser, photo papers drops quickly and even the Premium Photo paper prints with distracting visible dots, akin to blotchy white coloured noise, within the plain paper prints. Printing text documents or graphics is excellent though, text looking very "laser-like" and graphics packing a colour punch.

Copy quality left something to be desired as copied images are copied with blocky looking darker areas, such as shadows. Text is well copied though but scanning photos, at photo quality settings provides prints that are full of filed in detail and odd, magenta-looking colour casts.

In terms of print times, the claimed print speeds of 29 colour pages per minute or a 6 x 4-inch photo in around 29-seconds are only possible at the lower quality settings on offer. An A4 borderless photo print took 13-minutes while a 6 x 4-inch photo, also borderless, took 2 minutes and 39 seconds. Use the Dot Replacement technology, and the print length for a 6 x 4-inch print leaps to 7 minutes and an A4 top quality print to around 17-minutes.

Scan speed and quality, like all the timings here, will be dependent on the system you are using. However I was pleasantly surprised by the scanning which took just over 6 minutes to scan (using Wi-Fi) an A4 photo at 600ppi creating a 89MB file. Scan quality is good (up to optical 2400ppi) with faithful colours and good detail.

The scanner and copier is also very quiet as is the printing, though the printing getting ready to do its stuff, prior to a print say, is a tad noisier.

But there is one more possible clincher, the cost of ownership. The ESP 5250 costs a penny shy of ?130, so not particularly cheap compared with some similar Lexmark models on the market. But the inks are ?6.99 for the black cartridge and ?9.99 for the five-colour ink tank, which is where Kodak claims you’ll get the savings it claims.

Kodak claims this provides the "lowest ink replacement costs in the industry" and can save you around "?75 a year" compared with similar products from other manufacturers. Allowing the printer’s systems to control the print quality help these savings but you get inferior prints. Set-up the printer manually you use more ink than Kodak’s figures would suggest. So the cost of ownership varies on how satisfied you are with the 5250’s print quality on lower specified papers and all auto settings. Kodak’s figures show a black document will cost 1.6p per page, a 6 x 4-inch photo will cost 6.4p per print and colour document will cost 4.8p per page.

Verdict:

The Kodak ESP 5250 is a nicely made and easy to use all-in-one device, the low ink cost is important in your purchase consideration, even if you see cheaper machines on the market, compare ink costs as well. Some manufacturers' devices cost less than a new set of inks for the same machine.

Print quality is good and so is the scan quality, copies are just okay though. The ease of set-up impressed me, particularly the wireless printing which took only a few minutes. It’s a shame the printer is much slower than the claimed speeds Kodak use, at least for a reasonable photo print and it is also frustrating you can’t use Dot Replacement on borderless prints. Nevertheless, this is a reasonably accomplished all-in-one device worthy of close consideration.

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Tags: Printers All-in-one printers Kodak Kodak ESP 5250

Kodak ESP 5250 all-in-one printer originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Tue, 24 Nov 2009 09:04:12 +0000

"Oh that's a nice picture" you hear one of your family or mates say when they are around your house looking at a photo on your mantle piece. "Can I have a copy?"

You've then got the hassle of finding that picture, printing it out and then probably sending it to them as the whole process has taken so long they've given up and gone home. Sony is hoping to cut out the waiting with the launch of a digital photo frame with a built-in printer, so you can create and deliver the print there and then.

Sounds great, but is it?

The DPP-F700 sports a 7-inch, 16:10 WVGA screen with a resolution 800 x 480 and can print 4 x 6-inch, 300 x 300 dpi photos in 45 seconds.

The frame, which features a large black boarder offers touch-sensitive controls, that like other frames on the market, appear only on touch, however for some reason Sony has opted to use a different non-gloss material - a matt plastic it seems, which doesn't work.

Controls allow you to navigate through the basic menu system and here you can edit images before printing with options including enlarge, reduce, crop, date stamp on/off, border/borderless as well as brightness, contrast, hue, and sharpness adjustment.

Images can be transferred onto the frame via USB from a PC, and there is an array of memory card slots around the side including support for SD, MMC, Compact Flash and xD.

Failing that, there is 1GB of on-board storage. Storage levels will vary, with Sony boasting 2000 images as a headline grabbing number, but as this is only at a 2-megapixel resolution, expect this number to be around 200 if you're using a 7-megapixel or higher camera.

The DPP-F700 uses dye-sublimation as the printing technology, the print quality was good, not amazing, however they were able to be handled straight away when we played with the printer at a trade show.

The concept is perfect, unfortunately the realisation isn’t. The biggest problem isn't the quality of prints, or the software interface, it's the form factor.

As you might imagine adding a printer into a photo frame will add some bulk to a photo frame. Sony has surprisingly done a pretty good job of hiding this underneath the frame (see pictures) and the end result therefore is that it looks like you've perched a regular digital photo frame on to a box, no problem there.

The problem, however, is that rather than then put the photo paper tray within this box or to the side, it sits rather awkwardly out the front giving the game away that there is a printer hiding inside.

Yes it is detachable, but that's not the point. There is no way you could place it anywhere like a window ledge or mantle piece because of the width of the overall footprint. So you might as well give up on the idea altogether and use a small compact printer.

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Verdict:

In the future, if we are still printing photos, all digital photo frames will have a printer built in. It makes sense, it's a nice idea and we can see why someone at Sony approved the making of the DPP-F700.

However, it seems that "approving person" walked away after they were pitched the idea, as the end result neither looks good or has a form factor that would make it suitable (from our brief play) for where it should live in the living room.

This really is one of those moments where the end result could have been so much better.

The DPP-F700 digital photo frame-printer will be available in the States for about $200 in January.

Tags: Cameras Sony Digital photo frames Printers Photo printers Sony S-Frame DPP-F700

Sony S-Frame DPP-F700 digital photo frame - First Look originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Tue, 27 Oct 2009 12:00:00 +0000

The Dell 1320C is a personal colour laser printer with USB and networking connections. It's just ?204, which is impressive given the decent specification. A personal laser printer is a great alternative to an inkjet-based equivalent as it will produce a higher number of pages for your money. If you don't print many photographs and find yourself doing more business type documents this might be the printer for you.

The 1320C is a basic beast having just the two buttons and a selection of flashing lights, but to be honest there's not really much more you need. The design is simple too, however the Dell feels well built. The paper tray only holds 250 sheets of A4 at a time it does have a manual feed for envelopes though. Our only minor gripe with the design of the Dell is that the paper tray extends a couple of inches past the rear of the machine, but it's not a major issue.

It's not too large for a laser printer, but you will have to make extra room on your desk if you're replacing an inkjet. The toner cartridges are held in a single caddy-style arrangement, which is removed in one piece. We've seen more elegant approaches, but it does the job.

Where it really matters the Dell is a very capable performer. Print quality is impressive across the board; it's fast too with just 8 seconds needed to print 1 page of text and 57 for 10 sheets. Characters are well defined and we were impressed by just how sharp the output was from this ?200 printer. Colour output was just as good; we tested the 1320C with a business document that included the usual graphs images and multi-coloured backgrounds you'd expect. Each page was sharp and colour accuracy really impressive. Even the images, which are usually a weak spot for laser printers were excellent. Again, it took the Dell just under 1 minute for 10 pages. One other aspect of the Dell we were impressed by was noise or more appropriately a lack of it. A small thing, but the 1320C is pretty quite in operation.

When it comes to consumables the laser clearly outdoes the inkjet on the number of pages produced front. However, it should be noted that a set of replacement cartridges for the Dell will set you back ?220. That's ?20 more than the cost of a new printer. Of course, the replacement toner capacity is higher than the ones shipped with the Dell, but it's worth considering. Also, it's unlikely you'll be able to pop down to PC World or other high street retailer and pick up toner for the Dell in same way you could for an inkjet.

Verdict:

The 1320C is a great little printer, not only does it produce fantastic quality colour documents it includes network connectivity in the price. The speed, price and unfussy design combine to make the Dell a great choice. The toner replacement could be a little less fiddly and we'd have liked the paper tray to sit flush with the back of the printer, but these are very minor gripes. If you find your inkjet is proving too costly then perhaps it’s time to investigate a small home laser such as the 1320C.

Tags: Printers Laser printers Dell Dell 1320C Dell 1320C

Dell 1320C printer originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Mon, 12 Oct 2009 16:00:00 +0100

The Canon Pixma MX330 is a inkjet all-in-one printer that's designed for the small home office and business. There's no separate ink tanks on this all-in-one, simply two cartridges, one colour and one black.

The black tank contains a pigment-based ink while the colour tank is dye-based, in an attempt to give you the best of both worlds; pigment for better text quality, dye for improved photo quality. Page yields are given by Canon as 220 for the black tank and 244 for the colour.

The MX330 has a 1200 x 2400 dpi scanner a well as an automatic document feeder for batch scanning and copying, it can hold 30 sheets of A4. It's also capable of collated copies so you can put 2 or 4 on to one page. You can put a memory stick into the front USB port and scan directly to that if you;d like too.

There's a 1.8-inch LCD screen to help navigate the menus and use the device: it's smaller than many you'll find on modern all-in-ones, but it does the job. To add to the business aspect of the Canon there's a 33.6kpps fax too.

In terms of design the Canon is inoffensive enough with a grey and black finish. The build quality is up to the usual Canon standard and the MX330 feels like it will survive the rough and tumble of office life.

The lack of separate ink tanks and the auto document feeder plus the fax, single the MX330 out as a machine aimed at people who do more with business documents than photos. The test results reflected this too. Text quality is very good for an ink-based device - it's up there with some laser quality prints we've seen. Sharp and solid text blocks are in evidence in normal and best modes and even draft quality was very impressive. A page of draft text was out and ready to go in 9 seconds, which isn't too bad, however a page of best text was a touch sluggish at 1 minute 37 seconds. Hardly an age, but slower than some of Canon's other all-in-ones.

Ten pages of graphics and text was slow too at 6 minutes, though the quality more than made up for the time taken. The quality of the mixed text and graphics output was exceptional and it's clear where this printer's strengths lie.

Photographic performance was less impressive, but by no means terrible. An A4 image took just 1 minute and 42 seconds, which is impressive, but the quality was more middle of the road. There was a lack of detail in darker areas, however, colour was accurate and overall the tone was good. If you only print out the odd shot then the Canon will more than likely be fine, but that's as far as we'd go.

The Canon Pixma MX330 is clearly aimed at people who are printing out more text and PDF documents than photos and it's very good at this. At ?100 it's excellent value for money, the lack of individual tanks might scare some off though the cartridges are available for about ?15 each so it's not expensive to replace the inks.

Verdict:
Overall we we're impressed by the Canon as it performs well, though photos aren't great, it is not designed for that so we can let it go. For a small office all-in-one with a fax and auto document feeder, the Canon offers excellent features and performance for the price.

However, unless you really want an inkjet a small laser printer might be a better alternative or one of the other Canon all-in-ones that have separate inktanks and much better photo quality for around the same price.

Tags: Printers All-in-one printers Canon Canon Pixma MX330 Canon Pixma MX330

Canon Pixma MX330 printer originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Mon, 05 Oct 2009 14:09:30 +0100

The Canon MX320 is a multi-function printer, copier, scanner and fax with an impressively low price point. At just ?75 it packs in a lot of features for the cash.

The MX320 eschews single inktanks and uses a single black and tri-colour arrangement. The tanks are about ?15 each and Canon claims that they provide laser quality and speed. The MX320 has an automatic document feeder for automated scanning and copying, it can hold 30 sheets at a time.

There's a LCD display, but it's just a text display. The scanner has a decent 1200 x 2400 optical resolution and an automatic mode, which selects the best options for the documents without you having change the settings.

You can scan directly to a USB stick via the front USB port, which is also a PictBridge connection for connecting cameras. Though perhaps a little outdated, there is a fax included with the MX320, which has a 50 page memory and 20 number speed dial. You can use the ADF to fax multiple page documents more easily.

The construction is up to the usual Canon standards with a reassuring sturdy quality to the flaps and doors. The two-tone black and grey plastic finish might not appeal to all tastes, but overall it's ok. The MX320 has the very useful automatic opening feature that extends the output tray as soon as you press print. It might sound like an insignificant feature, but we've found it incredibly useful over the years.

The buttons could be a bit fiddly if you've got big fingers as they are flush to the top of the device, but we found them responsive enough.

Print quality is good especially text, which lives up to the claims Canon makes about laser quality. In draft mode the text is clear and sharp, it's not a deep shade of black, but more than acceptable for everyday use. The best quality text takes things up a notch and although a single page of best text took 1 minute 37 seconds it's worth the wait.

A 10 page mixed text and graphics document took a hefty 6 minutes though the standard of the output was good. We didn't expect much from the photo quality, but in the end we were impressed. There's no way the output comes close to the similarly priced Canon photo all-in-ones available, but the pictures the MX320 produces are passable. There's much less detail especially in darker areas of an image, but for the occasional print the performance is decent enough.

Verdict:
The MX320 is an decent enough machine, offering great text quality and passable photo quality. The two ink tank setup makes it much more of a small office device, but the page yields aren't all that impressive. A cheap laser printer would give much the same text quality, however you do get the scanner and fax included with the Canon.

The results and build-quality from the MX320 are unlikely to disappoint, but as you can get a photo quality Canon printer that has a very similar specification, for around the same price, that gives better photo quality there aren't that many arguments in favour of the MX320. It's not a poor product, but unless you need a fax machine the MX320 doesn't really stand out.

Tags: Printers All-in-one printers Canon Canon Pixma MX320

Canon Pixma MX320 printer originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Tue, 29 Sep 2009 16:05:33 +0100