Affordable do-it-all printers fit perfectly into your home office.

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When Dell hooked up with Lexmark to launch the A960 late last year, I was so excited about the low price that I bought one. For $161 I got an MFP with a built-in fax and an automatic document feeder for big copy and scan jobs.

The A960's gargantuan body (19.7 inches by 11.7 inches by 17.3 inches) takes up the majority of space on my desktop, but I can't complain about the reasonable print and scan quality (4800x1200 printing using four-color ink, 4800x1200 scanning). It also lacks media card slots, a feature present in most MFPs.

Letter-size photos took a slowish nine-plus minutes, and I wasn't too impressed with the overall quality. Dithering and lack of definition in detailed areas made the quality more comparable to the Lexmark than the Canon.

The auto-document feeder works well, but copies in the default normal mode were on the slow side and weren't even amazing copies. (You should set the printer for better or best when copying important documents.)

Overall the Dell A960 is an easy-to-use machine with good print quality for text and graphics. Though subpar on photos and print times, it's still a bargain for a fax-included printer.

Bottom line: Despite being big and clunky, the A960 includes an automatic document feeder. Print quality and performance aren't top-notch, but at $161 you can't beat the functionality of this workhorse.

TechTV rating:
Price: $161
Best for: Home office; small office
Platform: Windows
Pros: Automatic document feeder; built-in fax
Cons: Extremely large; no Mac compatibility; no media card slots


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