If you need a cheap combination of printer, scanner, fax, and copier for a home office in which speed and quality are of no concern, the Lexmark X5470 could be a good choice. But if you need to make a good impression, consider spending a little more money.

Office users searching for a bargain should snap this up. The PIXMA MP180's text output is excellent for the price, and scan facilities aren't bad either. However, if you're after graphics output that takes the breath away, look elsewhere.

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.

Exclusive business users might find a laser printer more to their liking but, for a home office with a need to mix faxing and decent text output with a desire for eye-catching photographs; the C6180 is a decent option.

The Canon Pixma MP530 may lack some trimmings of a full-featured MFP, but it delivers a good mix of performance, quality, and paper handling at an affordable price.

This is a worthy but slightly dull MFD, enlivened by the presence of Wi-Fi.

Getting the highest print quality out of the 5300 costs about 30 cents per photo, which is a pretty good result. And those ink prices may be hard to pass up.

Konica Minolta appears to have fixed the problem with sluggishness that plagued our 5430DL test unit. However, the 5440DL's 14.7 pages per minute for text and 4.5ppm for colour still lag behind colour lasers that have a similar price and comparable paper capacity.

The Brother DCP-150C's photo prints take an age but are worth it; strong scanning but mediocre copying; very high colour print costs.

The Brother DCP-350C gives slow but top-quality photo prints. Graphics are less impressive, but the Brother DCP-350C is a great scanner and provides so-so copying.

The Canon Pixma MP160's everyday print jobs came out crisp, while scans are above-average but with limited resolution. The lack of a memory card slot could be an important omission.

Neither of the new Lexmark wireless multifunction printers is cheap, but the wireless features are well worth looking into. Add to that great ease of use and very competent print quality, and the X4850 is a very decent model for photo enthusiasts.