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All-in-One (AiO) printers are finding favour with users.

The majority of AiOs in the consumer market are built keeping in mind the photographic and imaging demands. With its AiO's priced between Rs 5,999 and Rs 14,999, HP has managed to get the price tag right.

So what is an All-in-One printer? When you have a printer that adds a scanner, copier and fax, it becomes an AiO. It will not only leave enough room for a PC, but you will also end up saving a small fortune in the process. The good part, all of these vital features are crammed in a standard-sized body (similar to an inkjet printer).

HP's Photosmart 3108 deftly balances its role as an AiO. Like rival models, Canon and Epson, it can print photos beautifully on glossy 4x6 inch paper, prints that are every bit as reliable as your neighbourhood photo walla. On the front right-hand side of the body are four slots for various flash memory formats, including SD cards, XD cards, Compact Flash, Memory Sticks and even USB drives. Yes, it does work smoothly with computers running Microsoft Windows or Macs.

Features When printing text, we got variable print speeds (measured as pages per minute or PPM) which directly depends upon the matter/text that's being printed. HP 3108 gave me 20-25 black and white PPM and 15-20 colour pages PPM (also depends on the quality of output selected).

Printing time was as less as 20 seconds for the black and white and 40-50 seconds in colour mode. A colour photo printed to plain paper took close to 90 seconds, while a single snapshot on the 4x6 inch photo paper was out in less than a minute. This means that if there is an entire batch of printing to be done then it is advisable to be patient.

The user interface of 3108 can be daunting for beginners but it takes a few quick minutes to set up the printer's ecosystem on the computer. Photosmart, as the name suggests, is a pro when it comes to digital imaging. Printing and copying can be accomplished without turning on the PC, by viewing photos via a 2.5-inch image display screen on the Photosmart 3108 AiO.

The printer gives no hassle in transferring pictures from memory cards as this killer machine has PictBridge (allows transfer images from the memory card directly to the AiO without a computer or editing software. Print size and layout can be set using the printer controls and the LCD on the camera). The best part, if you have a Bluetooth on your mobile phone, then you can directly print and share the photos (literally wireless!!).

Even if you have never sent a fax in your life, using the fax on HP 3108 would not be a troublesome experience. The fax speed is good, but cannot be deemed as extraordinarily fast. It can send a fax directly from your PC or by printing a document and then feeding it to send. Scanner and copier were simple to use and gave satisfying outputs. A piece of advice, get an Optical Character Recognition package along with HP 3108 as it would convert all the scanned pages into editable text documents, saving you countless hours if you've lost the original soft copy.

Verdict Call it an AiO or a multifunction printer or a mopier, it is a blessing for consumers and offices where digital information needs to be printed regularly.

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HP "� oj 6318 All-in-One
Price: Rs 14,999
Features: Excellent for plain and photo paper