Considering how much you can do directly at the printer's LCD display, it would be very tempting to use the wireless connection to place the C8180 in a central location accessible to the entire family.

PLUS

• Excellent print quality
• Full photo features: scan, print, copy, burn
• Big, bright LCD with easy-to-use menus

MINUS

• No fax
• Propensity for calling home needs careful opting-out
• Substantial software footprint

Multifunction printers have come a long way. The Photosmart C8180 from Hewlett-Packard manages to pack in all the basic functions: printing, scanning, plus a few novel goodies such as DVD burning, while providing stellar six-ink print quality.

Getting the C8180 hooked up to my network couldn't have been easier. You can hook up by USB or wired Ethernet, but of course I selected Wi-Fi. Entering my SSID and password was a breeze, using the unit's bright 3.5-inch LCD display. An instant later, the printer confirmed that it was connected.

I then installed the sizable software package: several hundred megabytes of drivers and productivity apps. The installation failed the first time, likely because the disc that came with my demo unit had already been through many hands. I downloaded the latest software from the HP Website, and sure enough, the printer was detected and connected within just a few minutes.

The installer is unusually friendly, even to the inclusion of videos that show how paper should be loaded. That's a good thing, because it's a bit hard to tell at first where the paper goes in, and where it comes out. Lifting the plastic deck above the main letter-size tray reveals a half-size secondary tray that accepts 4x6-inch photo paper. It's a neat system, once you understand it. Photo quality, as I'd have expected, was excellent.

Images were sharp, with minimal grain and a natural range of colours. Moreover, the printer setup dialogs are unusually extensive. For example, you can tweak colour using sliders to control brightness, saturation, colour warmth, or individual cyan, magenta, yellow and black. You can also easily create presets for various kinds of print jobs.

The software install includes HP's Photosmart Essential, an all-round image manager that lets you print, index and e-mail your photos. It's not bad, though demanding users will want to omit it and go straight on to more powerful products like Adobe Photoshop Elements or ACDSee.