Brother's new affordable A3 printer also photocopies, scans and faxes

Does this mould-breaking device represent a rebirth for the multifunction printer?

A low-budget wireless all-in-one inkjet without the usual sting in the tail?

What price Kodak's top-of-the-range printer? At least running costs might be cheaper than you think

Can Kodak's new ESP 7250 really drive down the cost of inkjet printing?

Is this ultra-cheap multifunction printer a false economy?

A practically perfect Wi-Fi all-in-one printer for the photo enthusiast and document monger alike

A stickler for tradition, Epson's PX720WD resists the temptation of settling for five inks, as found in the likes of the Canon PIXMA MG5150 and HP Photosmart Premium C309G. So instead of getting both dye-based and pigment-based black inks as a compromise between document and photo printing, the Epson goes for the full 6-ink monty.

Wi-Fi is the way to go for home printing convenience, enabling you to output documents from any desktop computers or laptops around the home. But what happens when you're stuck at the office or out on the road and you want to print something out back at home? HP's new e-All-in-One series of printers feature a crafty ePrint system, which enables you to send emails direct to the printer itself, after which it will automatically create prints from any attachments that you've added.

Inkjet printers have a sloppy reputation for business printing. Run a highlighter pen over an important phrase of text and you're likely to end up with a smudgy mess. A few raindrops can make ink-printed envelopes almost unintelligible. Colour laser printers make a viable alternative but they tend to be big, heavy and expensive, so what's the answer? Epson bridges the gap between regular inkjet and laser printing with its resin-based DURABrite Ultra inks, which are practically dry by the time they hit the paper and are remarkably resistant to water, smudging and fading.

The word 'printer' seems too humble for most of the all-in-one devices currently on the market, which sprout full-colour LCD menu and photo preview screens, memory card slots aplenty and high-resolution scanners for photocopying. But what if you just want a straightforward Wi-Fi printer/scanner that you can use from all over, without all the extra bells and whistles? The new Canon MP495 might be just what you're looking for.

Though it's the least expensive of Canon's new generation of 'MG' all-in-one printers, the MG5150 still serves up a feast of features.

A multifunction printer with no real weaknesses

HP pretty much invented desktop colour inkjet printing, launching its first DeskJet 500C model onto the market all the way back in 1991. For most of the time since then, HP has stuck rigidly to its dual black and tri-colour cartridge configuration, usually enabling you to swap out the black cartridge for an optional tri-colour 'photo' cartridge, boosting the ink range for six-colour photo printing.

Epson has always bucked the inkjet printing trend, using cool-running piezo-electric print heads to get the ink onto the paper, instead of boiling it in the conventional thermal fashion. The company claims this gives greater freedom when it comes to formulating inks, as the consideration of a rapid boiling and cooling cycle is taken out of the equation.

It's a fair few years now since Canon launched its ground-breaking five-ink printing system, featuring dye-based cyan, magenta, yellow and black inks, as well as a secondary pigment-based black ink in the line-up.

Can this new multifunction device continue Canon's recent run of successful printers?

Frankly, we're at a loss as to how Canon stuffed so much stuff into a single, inexpensive box

The Lexmark X4650 is a multifunction device with scanning, printing and copying that lets you send files to and from the machine wirelessly or over USB. You will need a wireless router compatible with IEEE 802.11g to exploit these features.

We’re used to laser printers that are big and bulky, but the size of the inkjet Canon PIXMA MX850 took us by surprise as it is both wide and deep. You have to remove a huge quantity of packing tape to get to the power cord, ink cartridges and the print head, which are packed inside the printer.

Although the Epson Stylus DX9400F has a SRP of £130, you’ll find it on sale for £100, which seems very reasonable for a printer and scanner that includes a fax.

On the face of it, the Brother MFC-7440N is a surprisingly well-specified MFD. It’s a monochrome laser design with a fax and 10/100 BASE TX networking, with the added bonus that the scanner works in colour.

Lexmark includes the X4875 in its Professional range of All-In-One Inkjets and uses Lexmark’s regular pair of inkjet cartridges – one for black, one for the three colours – and sports a list of features that don’t seem especially professional.

Under the bonnet of the Canon MP520 lies a neat row of four individually replaceable ink cartridges, from Canon's latest ChromaLife 100 range. This marries a pigment-based black ink with dye-based cyan, magenta and yellow inks, theoretically enabling fast, high-quality document printing and passable photo output.

Bristling with heavy-duty features that belie its relatively inexpensive asking price, the HP J5780 not only includes a 35-sheet auto document feeder, but also full standalone fax functions, so you can send and receive faxes even when your PC is switched off