Dell continues to place its faith in Lexmark's inkjet technology, both for its multifunction printers and its conventional models. The result is an AIO 944 Photo unit that is very sober in design terms. It also, unfortunately, suffers from a few drawbacks in terms of speed of printing in photo mode, as well as cost per page.

Ergonomics And Design

No one could say that Dell has tried to show off with the design of its AIO 944 Photo! With the exception of making it white, which is rather original, the design is very restrained. Admittedly, it provides the basic features: a 2.5 inch tilting LCD screen, memory card slots and PictBridge connectors are all there. But, on the other hand, the function keys have been reduced to the absolute minimum. Four directional arrows and an OK button and that's about it! We're well away from the profusion of the control panels found on Epson and HP models here. Still, in the end, this modesty is rather attractive. With the large, high-quality LCD screen, you can navigate very easily through the menus; the opening menu offers a convenient immediate choice between printing, scanning and copying.

The software is a little less impressive, though. The user options are not that clear, and the application Print Studio is rather short on functionality.