One of the slowest printers we've reviewed, it took over half an hour to print a photo-quality shot. Great image quality doesn't make up for its design flaws.

At a bargain basement price the TX200 provides surprising quality and performance, making this multifunction hard to pass up. There are inherent flaws in such a cheap printer, but for families and occasional printing needs the TX200 is a decent purchase.

For its price, this unit is worth a look, especially if you need faxing capabilities.

The Stylus Office TX300F is slow and poorly built, but for its price it’s certainly appealing. The unit provides a slight compromise between dirt cheap and acceptable quality, and the automatic document feeder is a welcome feature.

Epson's AcuLaser CX11NF rolls the functions of a scanner, copier, fax machine and printer into a single device. Good output quality and ease of use help make it attractive to small businesses, and make it easier to overlook the lack of memory card slot and limited paper tray.

The Epson Stylus Photo RX590 looks nice and is easy to use, and its CD-printing feature is unique. Still, its limited paper handling and slow, poor-quality printing on plain paper limit its value as a general-purpose device.

Epson's Stylus Photo RX430 offers excellent--if slightly slow--four-colour printing.

A multifunction device that has lots of features, unfortunately none of them are very good

The WorkCentre C2424 is a full-featured colour laser multifunction printer that can handle the traffic of a big office, but it produces mediocre output.

Fuji Xerox's Phaser 8560MFP has a multitude of features to aid small office productivity. With the addition of a competent built-in Web server, this multifunction is a good addition to the office.

The media card slots and the extensive image software make the 2840 attractive for offices that print lots of photos, but its slowness and mediocre image quality will incline many prospective buyers to steer clear.

The LaserJet 3015 is a capable entry-level multifunction laser device for a small business or demanding home. HP has cut a few corners to save cost and desk space, but this won’t be an issue unless you need to scan books or magazines.