The Photosmart 7450 costs £30 more than the baby HP Deskjet, but it's money well spent. Apart from reduced running costs that will soon claw back the extra outlay, the Photosmart also comes with a host of extras.
Firstly, it's a full six-ink photo printer, but you can also tailor it to fast, general-purpose printing by buying the optional black HP No 56 cartridge. This enables you to use the same printer for cost effective photo and general printing just by swapping one of the cartridges.
Colour rendition, range and sharpness are all extremely good for photos, and the 7450 goes the extra mile by also including a multi-format media card reader. Unlike the Epson C86, the reader is built into the printer and enables direct printing from media cards.
The only disappointment is that you can't use the display panel for previewing photos on a media card, although there are facilities for printing index prints before choosing the photos you want to print out.
With direct printing from media cards and a choice of four and six-ink printing, the Photosmart has a lot to offer.
