6. Strong All Around: Epson PictureMate 290

We’ll finish our comparison with Epson, the printing specialist. Its PictureMate 290 is an extremely well-rounded, simple-to-use device that produces excellent photos.

An ink jet printer, the Epson PictureMate 290 is more cumbersome than its competitors seen here, and is also heavier at nearly seven pounds. It can handle the majority of memory cards (CF, SF, MiniSD, MicroSD, MMC and xD) and is Bluetooth- and PictBridge-camera compatible.

Compared to the competition, this printer distinguishes itself above all by its ability to read and write CDs. It allows you to print photos compiled on CD/DVD, but it also allows you to burn (only on CD) your images, originals or modified versions, whether they come from a card or directly from a camera.

Handling printing and maintenance

This printer’s menu is totally intuitive, which makes navigation fast. Choose the photos you’d like to print and the number of copies you want of each. Among the available effects, we should mention the black-and-white printing, as well as the sepia, the red eye correction and the brightness controls, plus the saturation and contrast settings. In addition to all that, you also have the option to control the maintenance of your machine directly from the menu. You can set it to clean itself automatically or to fix the alignment of the printer heads.

We’re disappointed that (at least in theory) we can’t insert more than 20 sheets of paper into the paper tray. However, the Epson PictureMate 290 is still the fastest photo printer in our test -– with an average of only 37 seconds to print each photo. Lastly, we appreciate that it uses quality paper. Above all, we’re glad that this time there wasn’t any border to rip off (an aberration on other models)!

The PictureMate’s printing is very precise. For example, it does shading perfectly. As for the details in your photos, you’d need a magnifying glass to notice any rough spots, so they’re really not worth worrying about. There is, however, something strange going on with the sepia mode, which seems to print out in a shade of pink.

Our verdict: Where the Epson PictureMate goes astray is its price, which is much higher compared to its competitors, and it doesn’t give us enough to sensibly make up the difference. However, in terms of ergonomics and prints, it answers to absolutely all the criteria we would want when looking for a photo printer.