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HWM+HardwareZone.com Tech Awards 2013: Editor's Choice - Part 2

By Team HardwareZone - 18 Mar 2013

Best AIO Color Inkjet Printer

Best AIO Color Inkjet Printer

While laser printers have always been an office staple, inkjet printers are fast catching up in terms of speed, with many touting 'laser-like' print quality. And don't forget an inkjet printer's ability to produce high-quality graphics and photos. Throw in a scanner, copier, and fax machine, and an all-in-one (AIO) inkjet printer makes for a very compelling addition to home users as well as small business owners. In this category, we take a look at three such inkjet multi-taskers that are targeted for SOHO usage. Our criteria is simple: besides print, copy, and scan, they must also do fax, and cost no more than S$500.

Nominees: 

 

  • Canon Pixma MX897
  • Epson WorkForce Pro WP-4521
  • HP Officejet Pro 6700 Premium

 

And the Winner Is...

Epson WorkForce Pro WP-4521

In terms of design and size, the Epson WorkForce Pro WP-4521 is the largest AIO here, and thus may not be suitable for those working in small work areas. However, the buttons on the control panel are afforded a good deal of space due to its larger size, though the 2.5-inch LCD display does look small compared to the others. The WP-4521 has Epson’s own mobile printing app, Epson iPrint, that allows users to print photographs, PDF files, and documents from many cloud storage services such as Google Docs, Evernote, Dropbox, and Box.net. However, the catch is that while the other models have built-in Wi-Fi support, the WP-4521 doesn't, and so will need to be connected via wired LAN before you can print remotely. Also, the WP-4521 is the fastest in all our tests and has a print quality that's consistently among the top two. 

 Photo Print Quality

*Note: For comparison purpose, our selected results above include the Brother MFC-J825DW. However this printer is out of the running for this category as it's an old model that doesn't fit into our selection criteria that required products to be introduced between December 2011 and November 2012.

Scoring Breakdown
Criteria/Model Canon Pixma MX897 Epson WorkForce Pro WP-4521 HP Officejet Pro 6700 Premium
Design 7.5 7.0 7.5
Features 8.5 8.0 7.5
Print Speed 6.5 8.0 7.5
Print Quality 8.0 7.5 7.5
Value 7.0 7.5 7.5
Overall 7.5 8.0 7.5
Price S$399 S$488 S$369

For more details on how we selected our winners, check out the full reviews and articles listed at the References section at the end.

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