All products featured on WIRED are independently selected by our editors. However, we may receive compensation from retailers and/or from purchases of products through these links.
Photograph by Todd Tankersley Epson Stylus Photo RX580
WIRED Unbeatable price. Especially good with color prints, thanks to six ink cartridges. Comes with an adapter to print directly on optical discs (special media required). Memory card slots and USB port allow for PC-free printing, though they're a bit tough to get to.
TIRED No networking or document feeder. Scanner lid and paper tray are frail. Prints output in reverse order by default. Copies (black and white or color) don't match the high quality of standard printouts. $180, www.epson.com
Lexmark X9350
WIRED Amazing feature set, including built-in Wi-Fi and Ethernet networking and 50-page document feeder. Swivel LCD. USB port allows printing directly from a camera or even a thumbdrive. Especially fast at scanning (3 ppm) and printing text (6 ppm). Good color reproduction on scans and copies.
TIRED Homely and a little flimsy. Protracted setup. Uses only two ink cartridges, which means you'll waste plenty of expensive color juice. Middling monochrome prints would never pass for laser. $280, www.lexmark.com
Brother MFC-845CW
WIRED Impressively svelte. The only all-in-one we've seen in ages with a phone on board and a cordless one with an answering machine at that. Copies are better than average. Memory card slots and USB ports for easy access to photos. Access to ink cartridges is easy, too.
TIRED Glacial, poor-quality color jobs. Tiny paper tray holds only 100 sheets, and document feeder takes only 10 pages at a time. Worst of all, copies print in reverse order: You have to collate them yourself. $250, www.brother-usa.com
HP Officejet Pro L7680
WIRED Awesome throughput. Four memory card slots and a USB port for easy photo printing. Large, 250-sheet input tray. Two-sided printing standard. Nifty scanner feature lets you scan directly to any network share and in multiple formats, including PDF.
TIRED No Wi-Fi. Monster footprint overwhelms desk. Prone to fits of "checking this device," taking the printer offline for minutes at a time. Color photos, at four minutes per page, are sluggish and too light. Oddly, the machine smells funny. $399, www.hp.com
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