Olympus P-10

Incredibly small and convienient, but image quality and included media is a downer.

Month Reviewed: November 2004
Verdict: 6
URL: www.olympus.com

Don’t be fooled by the CP-220’s strikingly diminutive profile—thanks to the Olympus P-10’s cube shape and small paper tray, it actually has the smallest footprint of the printers reviewed here. You can literally wedge the P-10 into a small corner of your desk or park it in your living room next to a box of Kleenex, and no one would even notice it.

Alas, if only the P-10’s shape and sharp looks carried over to print quality. The P-10’s output looked similar to that of Canon’s CP-220 in terms of tone and clarity, but upon close inspection, we noticed jagged lines in the P-10’s prints. In fact, it looked as though no antialiasing was performed on our test images before being sent to the printer. And some of the aliasing was clear even to the naked eye! Because we printed all of our test images from the same computer with the same version of Photoshop 7, we couldn’t blame our test rig. Updating the driver didn’t help.

That’s a shame as we were partial to the P-10’s style, formfactor, and attention to details like an internal paper tray that keeps paper safe from dust. Like the Canon CP-220 and Sony EX-50, the P-10 comes bundled with a paltry amount of media—we’re talking about a measly six pieces of paper stock and just enough ribbon to make six prints. What a rip. You’d think these companies would at least give you a full ribbon cartridge. --Gordon Mah Ung

+ Posed shots: Requires very little desk space.

- Impromptu photography: Unsightly jaggies in prints.

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