Can a working-class ink-jet printer be considered a glamorous tech toy? One glance at Hewlett-Packard's Photosmart 1315 and you'll nod your head yes. This is a sleek photo ink-jet with built-in slots for almost every type of media card and a built-in 2.5-inch color LCD. It can be connected to a Windows or Macintosh system, but its raison d'etre is its ability to print beautiful photos without a computer. See us demonstrate it all this week on "Fresh Gear."

Because of its sturdy, metallic-looking body, we've dubbed the 1315 the Lexus of ink-jet printers. It measures 17 inches by 8 inches by 15 inches, and due to HP's patented, integrated input/output tray, it minimizes its footprint on the desktop. Unlike other stand-alone photo printers in which an LCD preview monitor is sold separately, the 1315's LCD is built into its chassis. Although an LCD monitor isn't necessary, it's a nice bonus, allowing for selecting photos without having to print a thumbnail index page. Conveniently, the large 2.5-inch LCD doubles as the graphical user interface.

On the right side of the 1315, you'll find three separate media slots, which can accommodate CompactFlash, SmartMedia, IBM's Microdrive, and Sony's Memory Stick. Like-minded printers such as Epson's Stylus Photo 785EXP ship with a CompactFlash PCMCIA adapter as a default that must be exchanged for another media type to accommodate users' needs. The assortment of slots on the Photosmart 1315 may be overkill, however, since the typical consumer usually uses only one type of storage medium.