Comparative Tests: General-Purpose Inkjet Printers

Just four major manufacturers share nearly 90% of the world market in inkjet printers, and the competition couldn't be hotter. Punches are pulled via the ongoing enhancement of features and the development of new technologies that are designed to deliver ink droplets that are smaller, more colorful and deposited faster than ever on the paper that result in true photographic quality. It has to be said that huge strides have been made over the last few years, and it would be a bit too easy to say that Epson is always the leader of the pack. Likewise, the preconceived notion that only HP printers can print office documents properly properly in color needs to be revised. And we're a bit inclined to think that separate cartridges are bound to be cheaper for consumers in the end, but this is really a marketing ploy which is only holds true if the manufacturer has a low pricing policy. There again, this is not always the case. In fact, far from it.

So preconceived ideas abound, though it should be remembered that reputations are built up, only to be undone again.

The printers that follow are being updated all the time, which can be very infuriating - the life cycle of Canon products, for instance, is less than 6 months. But there's no point in waiting. The photos printed on the models we tested were often comparable to prints on photographic paper. As for speed, the new generation of printers claim a rate of 10 to 20 pages per minute. If these figures are exact, then they leave a good number of laser printers in the dust.