Make no mistake; this photo printer is designed for the serious digital photographer. It can print pages from 6 x 4in up to A3+ and uses eight colours, including two blacks.

As expected with a printer than can handle paper more than twice the size of A4, the HP Photosmart Pro B9180 isn't small. However, the main paper tray is telescopic, so it only needs to be fully opened when printing large sheets.

Initial set-up is quite involved. The B9180 uses separate colour cartridges and four, two-colour print heads. Inks have to be primed before the heads are installed and the printer takes half an hour to calibrate itself, during which time it produces a number of progressively improving print-outs. Though this laborious set up is a one-off, the printer administers another (shorter) recalibration when it detects different printer paper.

As well as the normal printing path, paper can be fed straight through from front to back, allowing thicker media, such as card, to be printed on without bending.

Print speeds are good; the B9180 can produce a high-quality A3+ print in less than 2min 30secs. However, it's the quality, as much as the speed, which makes this printer stand out from the crowd. Using HP’s long-lasting Vivera inks, photos are the best we’ve seen from any printer costing less than £500.

Vivid colours are rich and solid, while pastel shades are natural and benefit from the light grey ink, as well as light cyan and light magenta cartridges. Foreground detail is sharp and variable tones change smoothly without any nasty banding.

If you’re serious enough about photography to spend £500 on a printer and want close-to-perfect photos at home, the HP B9180 is currently the best tool for the job.

Also consider
Canon PIXMA iX5000
Great at what it does, but card slots and an screen wouldn’t go amiss

HP Photosmart 8750 Pro
Represents excellent value for a printer that can handle such a diversity of prints. Photo print quality is superb too

Epson Stylus Photo R1800
One of the best inkjet printers we've seen, but you'll need deep pockets for the best prints

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