HP Photosmart 8450

There's no denying it: the Photosmart 8450 is big. HP's top-of-the-range photo printer looks as if it should handle A3 media, but despite its size can only cope with pages up to A4. However, it does produce fantastic borderless colour prints at an impressive 4,800 x 1,200 dpi.

Being an inkjet the 8450 isn't a speed demon, though you won't have to wait too long for most documents. Following a simple installation, the unit took 98 seconds to print 10 pages of black text, a rate of 7.5 pages per minute (it took 26 seconds to generate the first page). Colour prints at 600 x 600 came in at one minute on standard A4 paper and around eight at the best resolution on photo paper.

The 8450 uses a three-cartridge system with tri-colour, black and photo ink tanks - an optional grey module is available. While black text prints aren't quite as good as those from the best lasers, they're about as good as an inkjet will get - text was readable right down to four-point. In colour, however, the results are spectacular. Using a good-quality image and photo paper the output is indistinguishable from shop-printed snaps. Even on plain paper the results were reasonable, if a little dull and less sharp.

As with some other Photosmart models the 8450 can also be used without a PC - it features an integrated memory card reader, a 2.5in LCD screen and Bluetooth, allowing you to print from suitably equipped cameras, phones and handheld devices. There are also buttons to zoom and choose the layout.

Overall, it's an expensive gadget, but if you want the best inkjet photo printer you can buy, this is very probably it.

Contact:
HP 08705 474 747
www.hp.com/uk

Specifications

• 100-sheet A4 tray
• 15-sheet 4 x 6 photo tray
• 20ppm A4 draft, 2.1ppm A4 best quality
• 4,800 x 1,200 dpi
• 3-cartridge system
• 2.5in LCD - 64MB of Ram
• USB2, Ethernet, Bluetooth, CF, Memory Stick, MMC and SD memory card slots
• Weight: 8kg
• Size: 526 x 401 x 192mm