View from the Labs

Much has improved in the two decades that Simon has spent testing printers, but the testing process brings more frowns than smiles

Forgive the self-indulgence, but it’s 20 years since I first inserted a printer’s driver CD, connected its USB cable, and hit it with a suite of demanding tests. That sentence alone tells you quite how much has changed. These days there’s rarely a disc in the box – my test PC doesn’t even have an optical drive – and virtually every printer comes with some kind of network interface. While colleagues have gone on to review more glamorous devices, I’m still here, timing print runs, measuring power consumption, and poring over the fine print with an eyeglass inherited from an old art editor. I’ve reviewed several hundred printers, in which time I must have printed at least 50,000 sheets of paper. My Computer Shopper leaving cover pointed out the contrast…

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PC Pro (Digital) - 1 Issue, February 2025

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