All-in-one printers — printers that can scan, copy, fax and and produce photos in addition to, you know, printing out black and white text on a sheet of paper — are useful for multitasking. But they also tend not to perform any one function that well. And they occupy a huge amount of desk space.

The later drawback is what drew our attention to the Epson Expression Premium XP-800 multi-function printer. At 15.4 by 13.3 by 7.5 inches (390 x 340 x 190mm for those metrically-inclined), we wouldn’t exactly call this printer compact. But it is less space hogging than it’s competitors. And it looks pretty cool too.

So how does the XP-800 compare in terms of quality? Spot Cool Stuff take a look:

Continue →

What took so long? In a technological world in which all manner of gadgets can run apps and connect to the internet it wasn’t until late 2009 that someone came out with a printer capable of such—HP did it with their Photosmart Premium TouchSmart Web All-in-One Printer.

Continue →

You’ve just burned a mix CD of music to impress that special some one (or prospective special some one). Or maybe you’ve burned a DVD of your videos. How can you wow the recipients of your CD or DVD creations before they even hear or see your work? Instead of having your disc say Sony or Maxwell on the top, print your own personal design with the Dymo DiscPainter.

Continue →

It looks like a miniature version of the monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey. That’s one reason the Samsung ML-1630 is a cool printer. Here’s the other: Amazon is selling this printer at a 50% discount.

Continue →

Time was that all-in-one printers could fulfill variety of useful functions without being particularly good at any of them. All-in-one printers could not produce photos as well as a photo printer, could not print text as well as a dedicated inkjet, could not scan as well as a stand alone scanner and could not fax as well fax machine.

Times have changed with the wifi enabled, touchscreen equipped Epson Artisan 800.

The Artisan 800′s ability to print photos and text, to scan and to fax, rivals or exceeds most machines dedicated to those purposes. Here’s a summary of those functions from strongest to weakest:

Continue →

Canon’s latest compact and mobile printer, the iP100, doesn’t look too impressive from the outside. And its “I P” name reminds us of a Bart Simpson prank phone call. Still, the technology here is undeniably impressive. This is the first portable printer capable of printing at a one picoliter droplet size. It prints at around 20 pages per minute, making it one of the fastest portable printers, and connects to your computer wirelessly or via Bluetooth. With the optional battery it can print 290 pages on the a three hour charge. When printing photographs the iP100 really shines — the printer can produce borderless photo-lab quality prints at 9600x2400dpi. The photo prints are so stunning in large part because of Canon’s Auto Image Fix feature, which analyzes and optimizes photographs base on type (portrait, scenery, etc). The Auto Image Fix is especially important when printing directly from your camera, camcorder or cell phone. $249.99

BUY