HP Photosmart 230

The majority of photographs in most people's collections are printed out on a 6 x 4in piece of paper, so why are photo inkjet printers so large?

If you want to print out your snaps and little else, the HP Photosmart 230 looks a compelling purchase.

The Photosmart 230 looks much like a toaster, although it's a touch smaller than your average bread burner. It expands a little when the paper feeder is folded down, which reveals the memory card slots.

The 230 can take images directly from Secure Digital, MMC, Memory Stick and CompactFlash memory cards.

Once a card is inserted, the colour screen on the printer lights up and is used to navigate through the pictures.

Hit the print button and you've got an instant photo. This enables digital photographers without a PC to print their snaps.

As a PC owner, you're better off connecting the printer to a spare USB port. The printer then acts as a card reader so you don't even need to plug your camera into the PC.

Hooking the printer up offers the additional advantage that you can properly vet and edit any pictures you take before you decide to print them.

HP even provides the software to do this. It is simplistic compared with a proper photo editing package but it includes easy-to-use tools for rotating, resizing and removing red-eye.

Once the pictures have been tidied up, it's a simple matter of adding them to the list of photographs to print and hitting the print button.

We ran into a couple of problems while trying to print. First, the paper feeder had some trouble picking up sheets of paper and often displayed an 'Out of paper' error message.

We also found that once it took the paper it would jam and need to be reloaded. Changing the single ink cartridge is simple, although at £30 it's not an especially cheap item to replenish.

For digital photographers without a PC, the Photosmart 230 is a winner. The photo prints are impressive and it is very easy to set-up and use.

For everyone else, a full-size inkjet printer such as the Canon i550 offers greater flexibility, comparable quality and a lower price.

Also Cosider
Epson Photo Stylus 915
Great prints without a PC.