Hewlett-Packard Deskjet 6540

The DeskJet 6540's biggest selling point is its claim of 30ppm (pages per minute) printing. Speeds quoted by manufacturers should always be taken with a pinch of salt, but while the 6540's real-world performance is almost half the stated speed, it still manages to outperform every other printer in its price range.

Not only did it produce black text at the staggering rate of 16ppm during our tests, its output in FastDraft mode was surprisingly dark and legible. Speed falls to a still rapid 7.8ppm at the second quality mode. Even with the dark and pristine lettering produced by the third quality setting, performance is a very reasonable 7.5ppm.

Switch to colour and the 6540 is even more impressive. Even at the lowest quality setting, the quality is extremely good at a blistering 6.3ppm, which is an amazing rate for an inkjet. At the higher quality modes, it's still faster than the competition, and produces higher quality output that fizzes with colour.

The HP has a carefully thought-out external control panel that makes it easy to adjust the printer's settings. It doesn't feature any specific digital camera features.

You can bolt on an optional 250-sheet paper tray in addition to the standard 150-sheet tray.