Canon i320

Canon calls the i320 stylish; we think it looks like a small lumbar support for a bad back.

Looks aren't everything though, and when you start to use this device you wonder how it can cost just £69 or less, all in.

It connects by USB2, with drivers for Windows 98 and above or Mac OS.

Under the hood there is room for two small cartridges, one black and one CMY, neither of which feature any electronics, and the data contacts are housed in a separate removable cradle.

Text quality is excellent, even on photocopy paper. There is slight feathering, but we had to use a magnifying glass to see it.

Even characters as small as 2pt, in both serif and sans-serif fonts, were clearly legible, and that's no mean feat.

Where speed is concerned, it's fairly middle of the road, finishing the last sheet of our 50-page text document after 12 minutes.

This puts it slightly ahead of the HP's Deskjet 5550, which at £113 is almost twice the price.

It handled our test photo very well. Using Canon's own photo paper we set the driver to high quality and achieved excellent results.

Skies were smooth and small detail was well resolved. Skin tones could have been better and there was minor grain close up, but if you're a serious digital photographer this probably isn't the printer for you anyway.

The image was completed in three minutes, three seconds, which would have placed it second in either the high or low-end categories of our group test.

We were less enamoured by its handling of shaded box areas in monochrome, but are willing to overlook this at the price.

This is a bargain in every sense of the word, and almost worth buying as a backup for when your existing printer runs out of ink.

SPECS

• Inkjet technology
• 100 sheets/output paper trays
• Quoted speeds: 10ppm mono, 7ppm colour
• 2,400 x 1,200dpi resolution
• Number of cartridges: 2
• Number of colours: 4
• USB2
• 2.4kg
• 385 x 195 x 165mm

DETAILS

Price: £69 (£58.72 ex VAT)

Contact: Canon 08705 143 723