In the end, the RX610 is worth its $299 price tag. Its photo reproduction is sharp as a blade, it's versatile (it'll print, copy and scan) and easy to use.

This printer may well lead the colour printing revolution, with rapid colour output at an affordable price.

The very stylish Samsung ML-1630 flouts the monochrome laser printer's reputation for dull efficiency. It's a decent machine whose low-capacity input tray and pricey toner restrict it to individuals or small offices that wouldn't mind sacrificing some usefulness for style.

The HP Photosmart A826 is a great choice for beginning photographers who want to print their digital photos as easily as possible. The printer's case design could use some improvement for greater ease of handling, and dark prints appear a little dull; but overall, the A826 is an attractive, fun device made just for its intended consumer group, hobbyists and scrapbookers. At $399, the A826 isn't cheap, but its innovative, user-friendly interface makes this printer a worthy investment, and you can use it as a photo and slideshow viewer.

If you are a professional photographer or serious amateur looking to reproduce your work at large sizes and with extremely high quality, the Epson Stylus Pro 3800 Standard Model is a great printer. You get speed, quality, and efficiency at a good price, even when you factor in the swapping of the matte and photo black inks. While some people will view the printer's primary flaw as a fatal one, it's hard to argue with the end result: large, beautiful prints on almost any media type.

At its price point we feel an LCD interface should have been a given. However, the Brother MFC-9440CN is a robust and durable machine that delivers quality output at good speeds.

One of the better budget inkjet printers, the Canon Pixma iP3500 hits the spot offering above average performance and a decent amount of features for a fair price.

The Canon Pixma iP4500 offers excellent speed, sharp print quality, and useful features for a good price. If your colour output tends more toward photos and graphics than charts and memos, it could be a good alternative to an entry-level colour laser.

The Lexmark X6570 isn't particularly cheap, and there is obviously the question of whether the text output would really be good enough for business work -- in many cases, a cheap mono laser would be a better bet. However, you do get good fax facilities and colour printing, and if the wireless facilities are of interest then this makes a very decent buy.

Large volume colour printing is very affordable with this unit. It's compact and easy to physically set-up and use, and it's very fast, but its print quality in colour mode is by no means perfect.

Oki's B4400n deserves credit for its performance and its sturdy design. Even the seemingly ho-hum monochrome printer category has hot competition, though, and other printers offer as many or more features for less money.

The MFC-685CW is a burger with the lot, with wireless connectivity thrown in for good measure. Its print quality for documents is adequate, and its scanning capability is good, but it's not a good choice for photo prints.