The $300 HP Photosmart C6180 is a photo printer by name but has office-printer tendencies by function. The inclusion of an automatic document feeder, built-in networking (including wireless), and fax functionality make it attractive as an office printer, but its task speeds are too slow for all but the smallest offices. It offers great print quality, but it lacks photo features. While it excels in neither role, it’s a decent all-around all-in-one for a home user who wants a machine that can do everything. If your needs tend to the office functions and you have to have faster task speeds, the comparably priced Canon Pixma MP830 is a good choice, though you lose fax functionality and a bit of print quality. If you’re leaning toward a truly photocentric all-in-one, check out the $200 Canon Pixma MP600.

All-in-one office machines are all the rage at the moment, as they hold out the promise (especially for small businesses) of combining many tasks at a high standard for remarkably low costs. HP is one of the leaders in this area and has been eagerly trumpeting the virtues of the Photosmart 6180, especially for its supposed ‘ultimate’ printing speeds of 32ppm for mono documents and 31ppm for colour.

Well, it certainly won’t take up too much space as it’s a conveniently compact 17.5 x 15.2 x 9.2 inches, weighs a comparatively featherlight 10.6kg and unites the roles of fax, copier, scanner and printer. The optical scanner has a top resolution of 4,800 x 4,800dpi and directly above the scanner lid is an automatic document feeder (ADF) which will hold 50 sheets of A4 or Letter and up to 35 Legal length sheets. The scanner itself cannot duplicate any greater size than A4.

The C6180 is not only chock full of special features and options, it helps save you time and money by working quickly to accommodate different jobs and paper types. First, the intuitive control panel and convenient one-touch buttons are easy to use, so you’ll never struggle to program a job. And thanks to the automated 4 x 6-inch tray for dedicated photo printing, you can effortlessly print landscapes or other panoramic images with HP panorama photo printing in any size up to 8.5 x 24 inches, with or without borders. At the same time, you can make the most of your new prints by taking advantage of the HP Document Viewer to easily view, manage, and annotate photos and documents. When it comes to copying, the HP auto paper-type sensor optimizes print and copy quality by adjusting to various papers, which means you won’t have to worry about wasted paper and poor-quality copies costing you money.

The HP Photosmart C4180 is exactly the sort of multi-function device that you might consider for the home or small office. It’s a twin-cartridge inkjet printer with a scanner on top that also gives copy features.

In addition it has four card reader slots which support Compact Flash, Memory Stick, MMC and SD cards. That should suit the owners of most digital cameras and mobile phones, although you’re left high and dry if you use xD media. Once you’ve inserted a memory card you flip up the colour LCD display, which turns the backlight on, and then use HP Photosmart Express to print off your photos.

You’ll need to swap back to the black cartridge for a decent rendition of mono prints, but speeds are disappointing at 4ppm. Draft mode offers some relief, with pages being hurled out at 20ppm, but text appears blurred. At least costs are low, with 4.6p per page using the standard-sized cartridge and 2p per page using the high-yield 336 cartridge. We prefer the Lexmark for office-based work, though, as it’s faster and offers nearly as low running costs.

t wouldn’t be so bad if the print quality was worth the wait. In Best mode, we found obvious linear print patterns and even on the printer’s top dpi setting, they are still all too visible.

On the upside, colour rendition is excellent making this a printer great for printing graphics over top quality photos.

As with most AIO models, the C4180 offers direct printing from a range of memory cards including CF, SD/MMC, xD, Memory Stick (and Duo) cards and everything can be viewed on the units 6cm colour screen. You can also apply basic edits to prints without a PC, which is a nice touch. On-screen instructions provide simple steps to getting your photos printed and, if connected to a PC, the C4180 acts as a memory card reader so that you can upload your images as well if required.

HP Deskjet F380 is a low-cost all-in-one printer designed for light home use. It combines printing, scanning, and copying into one reasonably compact device for about $80. Its slow speed and mediocre print quality will disappoint users who need high-volume printing or high-quality photos, but it will suffice for anyone who just wants to print the occasional Mapquest directions or a casual snapshot. If you need more features, such PictBridge compatibility for printing directly from a digital camera or a built-in media card reader, invest a bit more money for something like the Canon Pixma MP450.

The adage “you get what you pay for” applies to the Deskjet F380. The body of the light-gray-and-white printer is boxy and made of more lightweight plastic than HP’s more expensive printers, such as the HP OfficeJet 5610 or even the basic Deskjet 6940. The printer measures 16.8 inches wide, 10.2 inches deep (with the paper tray folded in), and 7 inches tall, and weighs a light 10.3 pounds. Still, it feels well-enough constructed, though the glossy white scanner lid is a bit wobbly and flimsy. The scanner lid’s hinges don’t lift to accommodate thick materials, and A4-size paper (slightly larger than letter size) is the largest that fits on the platen, or scanner bed.

Picture-takers won’t find any flash-memory-card slots or PictBridge port to plug in a digital camera, nor an LCD screen to preview photos. Shutterbugs can, however, make borderless 4 by 6-inch prints, and also step up from four- to six-color printing by replacing the black ink cartridge with a photo cartridge (not included).

None of that, however, should disqualify the Deskjet from finding a home with families or dorm-room dwellers who want sharp (if slow) high-quality printing plus occasional copying or image-import or optical character recognition (OCR) scanning.

One exception to the HP Deskjet F380 All-In-One’s minimalist approach is that the scanner has an optical resolution of 1,200 pixels per inch, which is high enough to let you scan a photo and enlarge it. Combined with the reasonably good photo output, this makes it a potentially good choice if you’re interested primarily in scanning and printing photos, but it’s hard to recommend it otherwise.

The rw6828’s finest feature is undoubtedly its size. Weighing just 140 grams, the handset cups comfortably in the palm of your hand. It has a remarkable resemblance to the O2 XDA Atom and shares many similar design characteristics right down to its screen and controls.

Compared to many other bulky smart phones in the market, the rw6828 is elegant, compact and stylish. The downside of this is that there is less room for the onscreen keyboard. Therefore the rw6828 isn’t ideal for heavy typing or data input, but this is a small price to pay for its compact nature.

Audio playback is catered for by an integrated FM radio, dual stereo speakers and PocketMusic MP3 playback software. You’ll want to buy an expansion card to stick into the mini-SD slot, however, as the device only comes with 128MB of flash ROM. These audio features are certainly attractive, but make no mistake, it won’t replace the intuitive interface and long battery life of your current MP3 player. But that’s OK, since HP reps said it themselves at the launch event in Hong Kong–”we’re not targeting iPod,” they proclaimed.

Rounding out the device’s excellent multimedia feature-set is an integrated HP 2.0 mega-pixel camera, whose shots trump most smart phones. All of the major connectivity options are present, including Tri-band (900/1800/1900MHz) GSM, GPRS/EDGE, Bluetooth 1.2, Infrared and 802.11b WiFi. Push-email is also available, putting it in direct competition with the BlackBerry.

Specifications:

GSM: Tri-Band GSM/GPRS/EDGE
Processor: Intel® PXA272 processor 416MHz
Dimensions: 102mm (H) x 58mm (W) x 19.5mm (D)
Weight: 140g
Battery: 1530mHh Rechargeable Lithium-Polymer
Screen: QVGA (240 x 320 Pixels) 256K Colour TFT LCD
Audio: Dual stereo speakers, Voice recording, microphone, built-in speaker phone, headphone input jack, LifeVibes™ Concert sound EX 3D widening/bass adjustment, with FM Radio
Wireless: Integrated WLAN 802.11b
Connectivity: Bluetooth, USB Cable, Infrared
OS: Microsoft Windows Mobile 5
Phone Memory: 64 MB
Memory Card: 1 GB Mini SD card
RAM: 64 MB

The HP iPaq rx5900 Travel Companion is a sleek device, both as a portable nav system and a PDA. The travel-friendly handheld measures just 4.7 by 3 by 0.6 inches and weighs 5.9 ounces, making it easily portable between your car and for use on foot. We really like its streamlined look and attractive silver casing and burnt-orange accents. In general, the device had a solid construction, but the glossy coating made it quite slippery in the hand.

The GPS capabilities and the travel tools made the reviewers more optimistic about the HP iPaq rx5900 Travel Companion. It comes equipped with a SiRF Star III GPS receiver and it’s loaded with GPS applications and maps of the respective countries. It can provide text as well as voice-guided driving directions, automatic route recalculation, and a POI database. You can view maps in 2D or 3D mode. A status bar at the bottom of the screen displays useful information, such as the next instruction, remaining distance, and estimated time of arrival. There are also two icons in the upper right and left corners that let you zoom in and out of maps. You can add real-time traffic information, safety camera alerts, and other advanced nav features via TomTom’s subscription-based Plus services.

A SiRF Star III GPS module provides the most accurate navigation currently possible, and we found it to locate satellites within seconds. HP isn’t a satnav company, so it’s teamed up with TomTom to handle the maps side of things. This is a wise choice, opting for the leading GPS player in the market. It comes with full European mapping stored on 2GB of flash memory. As with all Mobile 5.0 devices, a button on the side allows you to switch the display to landscape mode. This is the best mode for maps, as it allows you to get a lot more detail on the screen. Full postcode support makes it easy to enter your destination, and the HP stores a list of recently visited places.

Being a handheld, it’s equally usable for using when walking around as it is when in the car. You’ll find all you need to hook it up to your car, including a dashboard mount as well as a battery charger. What makes the rx5900 so appealing is how simple it is to use. Whether as a PDA or a GPS, it switches seamlessly and never feels as though you are compromising the quality of either.

The price tag is pretty steep for a PDA, but considering that you also get a full-featured GPS device tossed into the mix and that we were able to find it for closer to $450 from a variety of vendors, the price gets a lot more reasonable. If you’re looking for a versatile PDA that also offers GPS capabilities, the well-designed HP iPaq rx5900 Travel Companion is an excellent device to take on the road with you.