Most all-in-ones (AIOs) at the $100 level are studies in compromise on virtually every feature. The Epson Stylus NX400 ($99 direct) makes compromises too, but it's better understood as leaving out a few features altogether so it can concentrate on doing some things—notably, photo printing—very well indeed.

The NX400 is aimed squarely at home use, so it lacks obviously office-centric features like a fax modem and an automatic document feeder (ADF). But it goes further than some home AIOs by leaving out even such conveniences as a front-panel menu choice or a software utility to let you scan and e-mail or scan and fax using your computer's fax modem. (You can scan and then e-mail or fax the scanned file, and can scan and fax from most fax programs, but that's a function of your e-mail or fax program, not the NX400.)

The other side of the coin is that the NX400 delivers big-time on features that matter for home use, notably high-quality photo output and scans. You can also print from PictBridge cameras and memory cards, with a 2.5-inch color LCD letting you preview photos that are on memory cards before printing.

The NX400 also offers some features you might not expect in a home AIO. The pigment inks help make photo output highly water-resistant and lightfast, with a claimed 105-year lifetime framed behind glass. They also make text and graphics (as well as photos) on plain paper highly smear-resistant.

The smear-resistant ink not only promises to keep pages readable after accidental spills, but it lets you use highlighter without smearing text—something that you can't do with the output from many ink jets. I managed to get black text to smear slightly by wetting it thoroughly and then rubbing it, but the key word here is slightly. And even that took effort.

Setup is mostly standard for an ink jet AIO. Find a place for the 7.2-by-17.7-by-13.5-inch (HWD) unit, remove the packing materials, plug it in, and load the ink cartridges and paper. Then connect a USB cable, and run the automated installation routine. I tested using Windows XP, but the disc that ships with the printer also includes drivers for Vista, 2000, XP64, and Mac OS 10.3.9 through 10.5.x.

One minor difference in setup from most inexpensive ink jets is that the NX400 uses four ink cartridges rather than the usual two. Another is that there's no alignment needed. As with all current Epson printers, the printhead is permanently installed and aligned before shipping. Should it somehow become misaligned, however, the driver includes an alignment option that you can run.

My first real surprise with the NX400 was how fast it completed our business applications suite (timed with QualityLogic's hardware and software, www.qualitylogic.com): in a total of 15 minutes 20 seconds. To put that in context, the somewhat-more-expensive Kodak ESP 3 All-In-One Printer took 21:03, and the Dell 948 All-In-One Printer took 26:37. Photo speeds in highest-quality mode were less impressive, averaging 2:41 for 4-by-6s and 6:11 for 8-by-10s, but the high quality makes them well worth waiting for.

The NX400's photo quality gave me a second pleasant surprise. Not only is it among the best for any consumer-oriented ink jet, it's a match for photocentric ink jets that cost $500 and up. Most ink jets today offer photos as good as you would expect from a local drugstore or photo shop. The NX400's photos are much closer to what a serious photographer would demand from a professional photo lab. Even the monochrome output in my tests was notable for its smooth gradients and lack of any visible tint over the entire range from white to black.

Text and graphics on plain paper weren't at the same rarefied quality level, but they were still more than good enough for home, school, or even printing something at home to take into work. All but one of our test fonts that you might use for business or school work were easily readable and well formed at 8 points, and only one highly stylized font with thick strokes needed more than 12 points to pass both thresholds. The text lacks the laser-sharp quality that I'd want in, say, a résumé. But unless you need to print at sizes smaller than 8 points, it's good enough for most purposes.

Graphics quality is a strong point. I saw some banding in default mode, but not in highest-quality mode. I also saw some dithering in the form of relatively subtle graininess, but that's more than balanced by the NX400's ability to print thin lines that other printers lose entirely.

Overall, the graphics are easily adequate for home projects like printing party invitations or calendars as well as business output like PowerPoint handouts to bring into the office. Depending on how much of a perfectionist you are, you may even consider the graphics good enough for printing output meant for a potential customer whom you need to impress with your professionalism.

I ran into one potentially bothersome design choice. In addition to a Copy mode, the front panel includes a Photo mode, which lets you place up to two 4-by-6 photos or one 5-by-7 on the flatbed, pre-scan to let the NX400 find the photos or photo, and then scan and print copies, with the option of scaling them up to as large as letter size. The feature also worked in my tests with a 4-by-6 and a 3-by-4 at the same time, and it could scale photos up to letter size. It doesn't work at all, however, with any originals larger than 5 by 7.

According to Epson, the maximum size for the originals is limited by the amount of memory. The company chose the memory size by balancing the cost of memory against its understanding of which photo sizes its customers are most interested in copying. Well, okay, file that under it's not a bug, it's a feature. But the bottom line is that the Photo mode won't work for large originals. Instead, you have to scan to a file and then print the file, which yielded great-looking prints in my tests, but takes more work. Alternatively, you can use the standard Copy mode, but that depends on a less sophisticated dithering scheme than the Photo mode, and the difference shows in the form of graininess. It also lacks the Photo mode's color-restore feature for faded photos.

I'd argue that Epson should at least offer a memory upgrade to get past this limitation for those who want to, but this is a minor issue at worst. Even as it stands, the NX400 has far more going for it than against it, to the point where if it had only slightly better text quality it would be awarded an Editors' Choice—which would make it the first in the category of low-end home AIOs. No other AIO at this price offers a comparable balance of speed and overall output quality; few at any price can beat it for photo quality; and features like smear resistance on plain paper are valuable extras. That makes the NX400 easy to recommend, particularly for anyone who wants to print high-quality photos.

Check out the Epson Stylus NX400's test scores.

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