Dell 968 All-in-One Printer

Dell wisely understands that the people who purchase all-in-one printers (particularly small/home businesses) are likely to have networked computers, and thus wireless or Ethernet connectivity is a key requirement. The Dell 968 All-in-One Printer does a fine job with all the basics and the wireless and other networking features help boost it above the competition. It warms up fast, is easy to set up, and has an automatic document feeder. A duplexer would be nice--there's one available as an option--and the awkwardly placed paper-exit tray could be a bit tougher, but those are minor quibbles.

The Dell 968 All-in-One Printer is a great multifunction machine that fits the bill when it comes to making a home office run smoothly. It's got a built-in wireless card as well as an Ethernet connection, so you can use it with any computer on your network. What's even better is that it was easy to set up the printer to work wirelessly, with Dell's drivers and utilities CD doing all the behind-the-scenes work. You've got to know the basics of your wireless network, but that's about it.

Wireless is great but it's not enough to make an all-in-one indispensable. Fortunately, this printer has a lot more going for it. Prints--even photos--come out looking good, though they do take a fair amount of time to come out (from 1:00 to 1:35 for a 4x6 photo, and nearly a minute for a high-quality 8.5x11 color copy). Colors are sharp and the ink completely dry on photos and paper.

It's not a photo printer, so it's not fair to compare it to a dedicated photo printer (with only two ink cartridges, colors will never rival photo printers); nevertheless, for occasional printing of photos, you won't have any problems or complaints. On-board editing functions are basic (brightness, rotation, crop, and red-eye removal), but any decent photo editing software (Snapfire software is included) will take care of additional needs.

The printer features the same conveniences that most all-in-ones offer (it has a fax, unlike some other so-called all-in-ones), such as a tiltable LCD screen, multiple media-card slots, and a PictBridge connection up front. While printing, you'll be able to see how much ink is left in the two cartridges (one color, one black). Should the black cartridge run dry, the printer can use the color cartridge's black to finish the job.

One of the rollers in test machine was squeaky, a minor annoyance. Otherwise I found this a fantastic printer.

Disclosure: Review samples were provided by the manufacturer. For more information, please see our Ethics Policy.