Multifunction Inkjet Printers: Are You Ready for a Printer that Does More?

Copying An A4 Document

The copy function is a favorite of users of multifunctions. Since the scanner and printer are included, these units can copy documents totally without the computer, though speeds vary.

* The Stylus Photo RX425 has no enlargement functions on its control panel; you have to use a special Windows software application.

Combining two functions doesn't necessarily mean you get results equal to the sum of those functions - at least, that's what our copy tests seemed to show. For example, while the Stylus Photo RX620 is brilliant for scanning and far from a laggard at printing, it is disappointing in copy mode. At approximately 45 seconds in color and in black and white, it was barely average. We got the impression that management of the scanning and printing phases is far from optimal on this model.

But the Pixma MP780 and AIO 962 seemed perfectly at ease in this area; their performance was on a par with their very professional looks. We also noted that many models have the same performance in monochrome and in color. This is not at all a positive point, since it tends to mean that they use the color cartridges even when printing black and white, which doesn't optimize the process. In our tests, the prize for sloth went to the HP PSC 2355, which is not really surprising. On the other hand, we might have expected the Lexmark P6250 and Brother DCP-110C not to do as well, given their results for scanning. But in fact they did quite well, at least in terms of speed - though where quality is concerned, both models left visible dottiness on the copy.