HP Deskjet 970CXi

Without a doubt, the new 970CXi is a high end inkjet printer designed for the demanding user. The Professional Series label on the box gives the game away a little. Performance-wise, how does 12ppm mono and 10ppm colour grab you? How about photo printing at 2400 x 1200 dpi? Still not convinced? Ok, here's the real gem, this baby will automatically print on both sides of your A4 paper. It can even function as a colour printing solution for small workgroups when you use it with an HP JetDirect print server, so you just connect it anywhere on your network.

For those in the SOHO sector, the 970CXi meets all your needs as well. It offers high quality printing even on plain paper, and it does it extremely quickly. Supporting a wide range of operating systems, with USB and parallel connections, the 970 is as flexible as they come.

PhotoREt III and ColourSmart III are the new image enhancing and colour matching technologies that are incorporated in the 970, and undoubtedly contributed towards the excellent quality result of 92% in out obstacle course that is one of our tests. This quality test comprises 25 of the most difficult patterns and images that a printer will ever have to print, and sorts out the men from the boys every time. You can rest assured that whether you're printing photos, text or fine details like line drawings, the 970 won't let you down. Black really is black. Blocks of black were dense and showed no banding at all. Halftones were near perfect and colour images looked good even on plain paper. You could easily be fooled into thinking you were looking at a laser printout.

Looking at our test photo on HP photo paper proved that the 970 really does provide true photo quality when you need it. Skin tones were accurate, the colours rich and vibrant. In the text speed test, we found that in normal mode the average speed over 10 pages of 5% text the 970 produced a respectable 4.6ppm.

Considering the versatility, speed and print quality you are getting, £279 seems like a fair asking price.