The Selphy ES2 uses a completely different upright design compared with the CP750.

The AgfaPhoto AP2300 is sold in Argos stores and it’s the cheapest of the dye-sub printers on test. It’s well specified, supporting all four of the main memory card formats currently in use, together with PictBridge printing.

The Sony DPP-FP95 is the most expensive of Sony's dye-sub photo printers. Small, neat and well made, the FP95 has slots for all the major card formats, and not just Sony's proprietary Memory Sticks.

The Panasonic PX30 is still very new and it could be a while before prices settle down properly. As it is, though, it does look expensive for what is a fairly ordinary dye-sub printer.

The HP A826 is surely as much a style statement as a printer. It looks like a prop from a 1950s sci-fi B-movie, and will certainly provide a talking point.

The Canon MP610 has a secret weapon in the shape of a second black ink cartridge in its arsenal. The result is spectacularly fast mono and colour document printing, along with photo quality that simply outdoes the competition.

Considering that Lexmark is such a big name in the world of business printing, the X4550 feels surprisingly flimsy, with a build quality that doesn't seem to match the competition. We can't see this device remaining in one piece for long under heavy office conditions. Its main claim to fame is that it's fully Wi-Fi compatible straight out of the box, and in our tests this proved quick and easy to set up.

Banishing compromise from its outlook on printing, the Epson RX585 nails its vibrant colours firmly to the mast of photographic output, with a purely dye-based range of six Epson Claria inks.

Kyocera was pushing the green message before it became fashionable, and this model continues the tradition. While many other manufacturers include the developer and drum with the toner cartridge, the FS-1300D’s developer and drum are part of the printer – guaranteed for its working life – and the toner cartridge itself is simple and holds only toner.

A bargain printer, the iP4500 uses Canon's unique line-up of five ChromaLife 100 inks, combining dye-based cyan, magenta, yellow and black inks with a second, pigment-based black ink. The system works so well in practise that Canon has now dropped conventional six-ink photo printers from its PIXMA range altogether.

For many people, spending £500 on a printer is not an option, but some photographers do like to 'go large' so we hauled in an A3+ printer from HP to give you an idea of what you can expect from a printer of this type.

The Epson R285 is a bare-bones A4 printer which doesn't even include PictBridge support. What you do get, however, is Epson's latest generation of Claria dye-based inks that are delivered from six replaceable cartridges.

Aimed at the semi-professional market, the MP970 is Canon's top-of-the-range A4 printer, adding light cyan and light magenta inks to the five-ink line up of its other models such as the iP4500

The D7460 is the latest in HP's new line of Photosmart printers that feature separate ink tanks for all six colours. The black ink is pigment-based, making the printer well suited to document printing as well as photo output.

On the face of it, the RX585 appears to be based on exactly the same print engine as the Epson R285, but adds all the extras you could wish for, including a multi-format card reader and colour screen for direct printing

Little short of legendary, Canon has made such a success of its revolutionary five-ink printing system over the past few years that conventional six-ink photo printers have disappeared from the company's product line-up altogether. So what's the big advantage?

Manufacturers appear to be falling over themselves to offer printers as cheap as chips these days. Feature-light budget printers are everywhere to be found, like the Epson D92, which costs just £30 but still arrives with £25 of free ink, or Canon's own iP1800, which also weighs in at £30.

This colour inkjet boasts CD printing facilities, a rack of camera card bays and a large colour LCD screen for previewing shots. You can also print from BlueTooth devices, but need to buy a separate dongle to do this

The use of wireless LAN has reached mass adoption, so finding the techology in devices that help eliminate the number of wires connected to your home office is always a boon. One look at the Lexmark X4550 all-in-one printer (£60 inc. VAT) and you'll know it's not been made for the mobile market.

Colour inkjet multi-functional devices aren't quite ten-a-penny, but the starting price is well under £100 and there are dozens of models to choose from. By comparison, colour laser printers with built-in scanners are scarce

We all like a bargain and on the surface this seems like a great one. But the cost of a printer needs to be weighed against its running costs. For this model, a new set of inks will set you back around £25

While many users are used to having their laptops connected to a wireless router, the most common way to add a printer is via a cable to the network. The Lexmark Z1420 (£50 inc. VAT) does away with this by incorporating 802.11g into the printer itself.

Nowadays, £176 is a lot of money for an inkjet printer but, as a multi-function device, this Photosmart really delivers on all fronts. At its heart, the C6180 has HP's latest generation six-ink printer that relies on separate cartridges for each colour

With a footprint barely bigger than many A4 inkjet printers, the new 1320c is Dell's smallest colour laser to date.Refreshingly, the 1320c also lacks the hernia-inducing properties of many colour lasers