The most recent articles from What PC?

The most recent articles from What PC?http://www.whatpc.co.uk/The most recent articles from What PC? (Generated on Thursday 8 January 2009 at 09:33:12)VNU Business Publications LTD, London UKCopyright © 1994-2009 VNU Business Publications LTD, London UKhttp://www.whatpc.co.uk/2009-01-08T09:33:12.815Z

The most recent articles from What PC?http://www.whatpc.co.uk/images/rss/wpc_logo.gifhttp://www.whatpc.co.uk/Canon S750http://www.whatpc.co.uk/whatpc/hardware/2132802/canon-s750Claudia Randall, <a href="http://www.whatpc.co.uk/">What PC?</a>, Thursday 4 July 2002 at 09:32:53A 'photo-quality' inkjet printer at a fair price.<content page="1"><html><body>So-called 'photo-quality' inkjet printers have been around for some time, and any new entrant to the market has to have something special if it's to stand out.Canon's latest model, the S750, has a redesigned print head which the company claims increases output speed and eliminates the banding effect caused by poor alignment of the ink nozzles as they pass over the paper.Canon says that the S750 can print up to 20 pages per minute (ppm) for mono prints, 13ppm for colour and 2.5ppm for a full-colour A4 page in default mode.It sounds impressive but, as always, the manufacturer's figures are a little optimistic. In tests the S750 managed just over 7ppm for text output, while A4 photographs appeared at the rate of one every two and a half minutes.So, it's slower than Canon's claims, but let's keep things in perspective: the printer is a good bit faster than many of its contemporaries.The banding issue, which so often afflicts inkjet printouts, has been solved by what Canon calls Advanced Precision Colour Distribution Technology. In lay terms, a short gap separates the black and colour nozzles, enabling the black ink to dry before the colour jets are fired on top.This ensures minimal ink bleed. In addition, the colour nozzles are mirrored, allowing the firing order of ink tanks to be the same on both passes of the bi-directional head. The machine also allows for borderless printing, so you can produce photographs without having to trim them afterwards.Unfortunately, we did encounter problems. After about 40 prints on various media our magenta tank stopped printing, even though it still had ink in the reservoir.Selecting the head-clean option fixed this temporarily but the problem did recur. However, Canon assures us that this was a one-off problem with our particular test model.Price: £189 (inc VAT)Specifications:<ul><li>2,400 x 1,200dpi print resolution</li><li>Separate ink tanks (cyan, yellow, magenta, black)</li><li>Borderless printing</li><li>USB and parallel port connection</li><li>Networkable via optional adaptor</li><li>Windows and Mac drivers.</li></ul>Contact: Canon 0800 616 417 <a target="_blank" href="http://www.canon.co.uk/bubblejet">www.canon.co.uk/bubblejet</a></body></html></content>http://www.whatpc.co.uk/whatpc/hardware/2132802/canon-s750Claudia Randall, <a href="http://www.whatpc.co.uk/">What PC?</a>, Thursday 4 July 2002 at 09:32:53A 'photo-quality' inkjet printer at a fair price.<content page="1"><html><body>So-called 'photo-quality' inkjet printers have been around for some time, and any new entrant to the market has to have something special if it's to stand out.Canon's latest model, the S750, has a redesigned print head which the company claims increases output speed and eliminates the banding effect caused by poor alignment of the ink nozzles as they pass over the paper.Canon says that the S750 can print up to 20 pages per minute (ppm) for mono prints, 13ppm for colour and 2.5ppm for a full-colour A4 page in default mode.It sounds impressive but, as always, the manufacturer's figures are a little optimistic. In tests the S750 managed just over 7ppm for text output, while A4 photographs appeared at the rate of one every two and a half minutes.So, it's slower than Canon's claims, but let's keep things in perspective: the printer is a good bit faster than many of its contemporaries.The banding issue, which so often afflicts inkjet printouts, has been solved by what Canon calls Advanced Precision Colour Distribution Technology. In lay terms, a short gap separates the black and colour nozzles, enabling the black ink to dry before the colour jets are fired on top.This ensures minimal ink bleed. In addition, the colour nozzles are mirrored, allowing the firing order of ink tanks to be the same on both passes of the bi-directional head. The machine also allows for borderless printing, so you can produce photographs without having to trim them afterwards.Unfortunately, we did encounter problems. After about 40 prints on various media our magenta tank stopped printing, even though it still had ink in the reservoir.Selecting the head-clean option fixed this temporarily but the problem did recur. However, Canon assures us that this was a one-off problem with our particular test model.Price: £189 (inc VAT)Specifications:<ul><li>2,400 x 1,200dpi print resolution</li><li>Separate ink tanks (cyan, yellow, magenta, black)</li><li>Borderless printing</li><li>USB and parallel port connection</li><li>Networkable via optional adaptor</li><li>Windows and Mac drivers.</li></ul>Contact: Canon 0800 616 417 <a target="_blank" href="http://www.canon.co.uk/bubblejet">www.canon.co.uk/bubblejet</a></body></html></content>VNU Business Publications LTD, London UKCopyright © 1994-2009 VNU Business Publications LTD, London UKClaudia Randall2002-07-04T09:32:53.000ZHardware Reviewsperipheral-devicesSamsung SCX-1100http://www.whatpc.co.uk/whatpc/hardware/2132793/samsung-scx-1100Scott Colvey, <a href="http://www.whatpc.co.uk/">What PC?</a>, Friday 31 May 2002 at 15:30:56All-in-one printer, scanner and copier.<content page="1"><html><body>Take a flatbed scanner and plonk it on top of an inkjet printer and what have you got? Samsung's new SCX-1100 multi-function device.The Korean corporation hopes its new machine will sell well enough to propel the manufacturer to a top-three position in the UK market for such machines.First impressions augur well. The SCX-1100 is hefty rather than hollow, feeling much weightier than its £180 price tag suggests. It's also pretty smart looking, with a design resembling a shrunken office photocopier.Lifting the lid presents an A4-sized scanning bed, perpendicular to the paper hopper at the rear which accommodates up to 100 sheets.It works just like a photocopier, too. Even when not connected to a PC, the SCX-1100 will happily churn out copies of documents placed on the scan bed; just hit the Copy button and sit back.The time it takes to complete printing varies depending on the document. In our tests A4 pages of text appeared at a rate of just under five pages per minute (ppm), while mixed text and colour output dropped the rate to a little less than 2ppm.The slowest yield was, unsurprisingly, A4 colour photograph prints: the SCX-1100 took almost nine minutes to squeeze out one of these.Unfortunately, while scanned documents are faithful to the originals, print quality isn't a strong point. Our Labs examination showed text characters as grey and feathery, and bands were clearly visible on all coloured areas.Output of black and white photography was much better but it's a shame that on two key selling points - colour printing and colour copying - the SCX-1100 disappoints.Should that deter you from buying? Well, the answer really depends on intended use. As a cheap colour printer, scanner and copier the SCX-1100 is cheerful. However, the sometimes unpleasant look of printed output could make for shabby business presentation.Price: £179.99 (inc VAT)Specifications:<ul><li>All-in-one printer, scanner and copier</li><li>2,400 x 1,200dpi print resolution; 600 x 1,200dpi scan resolution</li><li>Claimed print speed of up to 14 monochrome ppm</li><li>Parallel and USB connections.</li></ul>Contact: Samsung 0800 521652 <a target="_blank" href="http://www.samsungelectronics.co.uk">www.samsungelectronics.co.uk</a></body></html></content>http://www.whatpc.co.uk/whatpc/hardware/2132793/samsung-scx-1100Scott Colvey, <a href="http://www.whatpc.co.uk/">What PC?</a>, Friday 31 May 2002 at 15:30:56All-in-one printer, scanner and copier.<content page="1"><html><body>Take a flatbed scanner and plonk it on top of an inkjet printer and what have you got? Samsung's new SCX-1100 multi-function device.The Korean corporation hopes its new machine will sell well enough to propel the manufacturer to a top-three position in the UK market for such machines.First impressions augur well. The SCX-1100 is hefty rather than hollow, feeling much weightier than its £180 price tag suggests. It's also pretty smart looking, with a design resembling a shrunken office photocopier.Lifting the lid presents an A4-sized scanning bed, perpendicular to the paper hopper at the rear which accommodates up to 100 sheets.It works just like a photocopier, too. Even when not connected to a PC, the SCX-1100 will happily churn out copies of documents placed on the scan bed; just hit the Copy button and sit back.The time it takes to complete printing varies depending on the document. In our tests A4 pages of text appeared at a rate of just under five pages per minute (ppm), while mixed text and colour output dropped the rate to a little less than 2ppm.The slowest yield was, unsurprisingly, A4 colour photograph prints: the SCX-1100 took almost nine minutes to squeeze out one of these.Unfortunately, while scanned documents are faithful to the originals, print quality isn't a strong point. Our Labs examination showed text characters as grey and feathery, and bands were clearly visible on all coloured areas.Output of black and white photography was much better but it's a shame that on two key selling points - colour printing and colour copying - the SCX-1100 disappoints.Should that deter you from buying? Well, the answer really depends on intended use. As a cheap colour printer, scanner and copier the SCX-1100 is cheerful. However, the sometimes unpleasant look of printed output could make for shabby business presentation.Price: £179.99 (inc VAT)Specifications:<ul><li>All-in-one printer, scanner and copier</li><li>2,400 x 1,200dpi print resolution; 600 x 1,200dpi scan resolution</li><li>Claimed print speed of up to 14 monochrome ppm</li><li>Parallel and USB connections.</li></ul>Contact: Samsung 0800 521652 <a target="_blank" href="http://www.samsungelectronics.co.uk">www.samsungelectronics.co.uk</a></body></html></content>VNU Business Publications LTD, London UKCopyright © 1994-2009 VNU Business Publications LTD, London UKScott Colvey2002-05-31T15:30:56.000ZHardware Reviewsdesktop-computersBrother MFC-590http://www.whatpc.co.uk/whatpc/hardware/2132790/brother-mfc-590Andy Gordon, <a href="http://www.whatpc.co.uk/">What PC?</a>, Friday 10 May 2002 at 10:12:56A combined printer, scanner and fax.<content page="1"><html><body>Combining the roles of printer, scanner and fax, Brother's new MFC-590 is designed to save desk space, and, hopefully, a few quid as well.In theory, an all-in-one machine like this should work out cheaper than buying the components, but Brother has missed this particular trick. The MFC-590's asking price isn't bad, but you could buy a fine printer, reasonable scanner and serviceable fax machine for less.At least the machine's printing mechanics employ four separate ink tanks - one black, and three colour - which is a much better system than the combined tanks. If one of the colours runs dry, you can replace it individually.As a printer, the MFC-590 boasts an impressive maximum resolution of 2400x1200 and in our tests it produced good results. However, you wouldn't want to sit around waiting for high-resolution colour printouts - the machine took more than nine minutes to plough through our colour-photo output test.In the key area of plain, black text printing it managed an average 3.13 pages per minute (ppm), though the figure dropped to 2.87ppm when dealing with mixed colour and text documents. In short, it's okay, but there are much faster inkjets available for less money.The scanner sits on top and does a competent job at 1200x1200 resolution. As with many multi-function devices (MFDs), the MFC-590 offers only average scanning and printing capabilities. This has always been excused by the fact that MFDs are bought primarily to save space, rather than for high-class performance. However, Brother now shares the MFD market with Lexmark, Sharp and HP, and some of the models we've seen from its competitors deliver superior printing and scanning at better prices.The MFC-590 could also do better at space saving. If both paper trays were on the front it could be positioned flush against the wall, but the paper-feed tray is at the rear and the flimsy paper-out tray on the front.SPECIFICATIONS<ul><li>2400x1200 resolution inkjet printer</li><li>1200x1200 resolution scanner</li><li>Fax machine</li><li>Four ink tanks</li><li>USB connection</li></ul>ContactBrother: 0161 931 2354 <a target="_blank" href="http://www.brother.co.uk">www.brother.co.uk</a></body></html></content>http://www.whatpc.co.uk/whatpc/hardware/2132790/brother-mfc-590Andy Gordon, <a href="http://www.whatpc.co.uk/">What PC?</a>, Friday 10 May 2002 at 10:12:56A combined printer, scanner and fax.<content page="1"><html><body>Combining the roles of printer, scanner and fax, Brother's new MFC-590 is designed to save desk space, and, hopefully, a few quid as well.In theory, an all-in-one machine like this should work out cheaper than buying the components, but Brother has missed this particular trick. The MFC-590's asking price isn't bad, but you could buy a fine printer, reasonable scanner and serviceable fax machine for less.At least the machine's printing mechanics employ four separate ink tanks - one black, and three colour - which is a much better system than the combined tanks. If one of the colours runs dry, you can replace it individually.As a printer, the MFC-590 boasts an impressive maximum resolution of 2400x1200 and in our tests it produced good results. However, you wouldn't want to sit around waiting for high-resolution colour printouts - the machine took more than nine minutes to plough through our colour-photo output test.In the key area of plain, black text printing it managed an average 3.13 pages per minute (ppm), though the figure dropped to 2.87ppm when dealing with mixed colour and text documents. In short, it's okay, but there are much faster inkjets available for less money.The scanner sits on top and does a competent job at 1200x1200 resolution. As with many multi-function devices (MFDs), the MFC-590 offers only average scanning and printing capabilities. This has always been excused by the fact that MFDs are bought primarily to save space, rather than for high-class performance. However, Brother now shares the MFD market with Lexmark, Sharp and HP, and some of the models we've seen from its competitors deliver superior printing and scanning at better prices.The MFC-590 could also do better at space saving. If both paper trays were on the front it could be positioned flush against the wall, but the paper-feed tray is at the rear and the flimsy paper-out tray on the front.SPECIFICATIONS<ul><li>2400x1200 resolution inkjet printer</li><li>1200x1200 resolution scanner</li><li>Fax machine</li><li>Four ink tanks</li><li>USB connection</li></ul>ContactBrother: 0161 931 2354 <a target="_blank" href="http://www.brother.co.uk">www.brother.co.uk</a></body></html></content>VNU Business Publications LTD, London UKCopyright © 1994-2009 VNU Business Publications LTD, London UKAndy Gordon2002-05-10T10:12:56.000ZHardware Reviewsperipheral-devicesKyocera FS-1200http://www.whatpc.co.uk/whatpc/hardware/2132693/kyocera-fs-1200Jim Haryott, <a href="http://www.whatpc.co.uk/">What PC?</a>, Wednesday 9 February 2000 at 11:54:06Why wait longer than you have to for your documents to print? This zippy 12ppm laser printer can churn through the work and it will grow with your business as it can be upgraded to a become a network printer.<content page="1"><html><body>Kyocera's FS-1200 is aimed at the grey ground between high-end consumer and small business user. It's an upgradable, 600dpi, 12-page-per-minute black and white laser printer but at a price point that many home users would be happy to stretch to.Bearing more than a passing resemblance to a standard networkable office printer, the FS-1200 does not however cost the earth - £599 for the basic model. But if you want to network it, you'll have to delve into the optional extras and buy yourself the 10/100BaseTX Ethernet card. Other extras include boosting the memory to a maximum 68Mb, adding various paper feeders and a duplexing unit.Print quality is of a high standard. Indeed, the FS-1200 scored a creditable 82.4 per cent in our Labs tests, and the mono text speed of 9.23ppm is not too far off the manufacturer's own claims. This slumps somewhat when printing colour images, to just under 5ppm, but this is common.The FS-1200 had no problems printing either the smaller or larger fonts thrown at it, and lines of white amid seas of black were well defined. Nor was there any banding of note.It fared slightly less well when printing high-density colour images, but again, this is not unusual.Perhaps the greatest selling point of Kyocera's printer ranges is the excellent Ecosys technology. Unless you're an eco-warrior though, the fact that it's environmentally friendly probably won't overly excite you.What will please you more is that running costs are incredibly low. At under a third of a penny per page, it's a winner for SoHo users where money is a key factor when it comes to buying IT equipment.Contact Kyocera 0118 931 1500</body></html></content>http://www.whatpc.co.uk/whatpc/hardware/2132693/kyocera-fs-1200Jim Haryott, <a href="http://www.whatpc.co.uk/">What PC?</a>, Wednesday 9 February 2000 at 11:54:06Why wait longer than you have to for your documents to print? This zippy 12ppm laser printer can churn through the work and it will grow with your business as it can be upgraded to a become a network printer.<content page="1"><html><body>Kyocera's FS-1200 is aimed at the grey ground between high-end consumer and small business user. It's an upgradable, 600dpi, 12-page-per-minute black and white laser printer but at a price point that many home users would be happy to stretch to.Bearing more than a passing resemblance to a standard networkable office printer, the FS-1200 does not however cost the earth - £599 for the basic model. But if you want to network it, you'll have to delve into the optional extras and buy yourself the 10/100BaseTX Ethernet card. Other extras include boosting the memory to a maximum 68Mb, adding various paper feeders and a duplexing unit.Print quality is of a high standard. Indeed, the FS-1200 scored a creditable 82.4 per cent in our Labs tests, and the mono text speed of 9.23ppm is not too far off the manufacturer's own claims. This slumps somewhat when printing colour images, to just under 5ppm, but this is common.The FS-1200 had no problems printing either the smaller or larger fonts thrown at it, and lines of white amid seas of black were well defined. Nor was there any banding of note.It fared slightly less well when printing high-density colour images, but again, this is not unusual.Perhaps the greatest selling point of Kyocera's printer ranges is the excellent Ecosys technology. Unless you're an eco-warrior though, the fact that it's environmentally friendly probably won't overly excite you.What will please you more is that running costs are incredibly low. At under a third of a penny per page, it's a winner for SoHo users where money is a key factor when it comes to buying IT equipment.Contact Kyocera 0118 931 1500</body></html></content>VNU Business Publications LTD, London UKCopyright © 1994-2009 VNU Business Publications LTD, London UKJim Haryott2000-02-09T11:54:06.000ZHardware Reviewsperipheral-devicesCanon BJC-6100http://www.whatpc.co.uk/whatpc/hardware/2132675/canon-bjc-6100Richard McPartland, <a href="http://www.whatpc.co.uk/">What PC?</a>, Saturday 1 January 2000 at 00:00:00Inkjet printers have traditionally been very expensive to run. However, the latest Canon BJC-6100 helps you keeps costs low with its colour cartridge - each individual inkwell can be replaced separately, so you don't need to replace the ink cartridge when only one of the colours has run out.<content page="1"><html><body>The simplest ideas are often the best, and every once in a while a manufacturer comes up with an idea that's so ludicrously simple, it makes you wonder why it hasn't been adopted as standard sooner. Separate ink tanks are a case in point. Replacing individual inks rather than an entire colour cartridge is not only logical, it's much cheaper. Although Canon's BJC-6100 isn't the first printer to include separate tanks, it scores points for doing so.With a maximum resolution of 1400dpi we hoped that output quality would be impressive and we weren't disappointed. In our Labs tests, the unit coped well with mono text, producing crisp, clear prints even in standard mode. Graphics printing was also good. Although banding was visible on normal paper, this disappeared when we switched to high-quality paper or film.Inkjet printers often suffer from colour bleeding, but thankfully the BJC-6100 didn't fare too badly in this area. The new model was no slouch in terms of speed either. In our tests it managed 4.3 mono pages per minute in standard mode, but when we used Canon's own test files, which are less text-heavy than our own Labs tests, and selected Fast mode, this increased to nine, Canon's claimed speed.Canon offers as an optional extra a cartridge to turn your printer into a sheet-fed scanner, ideal if desk space is too tight to accommodate a flatbed. Using the cartridge we found 300dpi text scans were of good quality, although greyscales suffered slightly.A one-year on-site warranty completes the package, bar the addition of a cuddly toy to promote Canon's corporate sponsorship of WWF (the World Wide Fund for Nature, rather than the World Wrestling Federation).Contact Canon 0500 246246Minimum requirements 486MHz PC, 8Mb RAM, 15Mb free hard disk space, CD-ROM drive, VGA display, parallel or USB interface</body></html></content>http://www.whatpc.co.uk/whatpc/hardware/2132675/canon-bjc-6100Richard McPartland, <a href="http://www.whatpc.co.uk/">What PC?</a>, Saturday 1 January 2000 at 00:00:00Inkjet printers have traditionally been very expensive to run. However, the latest Canon BJC-6100 helps you keeps costs low with its colour cartridge - each individual inkwell can be replaced separately, so you don't need to replace the ink cartridge when only one of the colours has run out.<content page="1"><html><body>The simplest ideas are often the best, and every once in a while a manufacturer comes up with an idea that's so ludicrously simple, it makes you wonder why it hasn't been adopted as standard sooner. Separate ink tanks are a case in point. Replacing individual inks rather than an entire colour cartridge is not only logical, it's much cheaper. Although Canon's BJC-6100 isn't the first printer to include separate tanks, it scores points for doing so.With a maximum resolution of 1400dpi we hoped that output quality would be impressive and we weren't disappointed. In our Labs tests, the unit coped well with mono text, producing crisp, clear prints even in standard mode. Graphics printing was also good. Although banding was visible on normal paper, this disappeared when we switched to high-quality paper or film.Inkjet printers often suffer from colour bleeding, but thankfully the BJC-6100 didn't fare too badly in this area. The new model was no slouch in terms of speed either. In our tests it managed 4.3 mono pages per minute in standard mode, but when we used Canon's own test files, which are less text-heavy than our own Labs tests, and selected Fast mode, this increased to nine, Canon's claimed speed.Canon offers as an optional extra a cartridge to turn your printer into a sheet-fed scanner, ideal if desk space is too tight to accommodate a flatbed. Using the cartridge we found 300dpi text scans were of good quality, although greyscales suffered slightly.A one-year on-site warranty completes the package, bar the addition of a cuddly toy to promote Canon's corporate sponsorship of WWF (the World Wide Fund for Nature, rather than the World Wrestling Federation).Contact Canon 0500 246246Minimum requirements 486MHz PC, 8Mb RAM, 15Mb free hard disk space, CD-ROM drive, VGA display, parallel or USB interface</body></html></content>VNU Business Publications LTD, London UKCopyright © 1994-2009 VNU Business Publications LTD, London UKRichard McPartland2000-01-01T24:00:00.000ZHardware Reviewsperipheral-devices