HP has taken minimalism to the extreme with the PSC 1510: there are no media card slots, only single-digit (and symbol) displays, a flimsy flip-out paper tray and the lowest-capacity ink cartridges. But in place of features sits a print engine that belongs in a more expensive system.

This is because HP wisely chooses to use the PhotoREt IV system. Cartridges come with integrated print heads and produce excellent quality. You’ll need to replace the black with a dedicated photo cartridge for best quality, but with it the 1510 was awarded maximum marks for four of our five 6 x 4in prints. The A4 photomontage also had vibrant colours and smooth transitions, with only slight banding and grain evident.

The 6 x 4in prints took around two minutes to print, which is better than average here, but the A4 photo took nearly seven minutes. Copies are impressive quality-wise; the results were only slightly too bright. Our complaint concerns speed: it took nine minutes to produce three 6 x 4in photo copies, partly due to it rescanning the original for each copy.

The scanner is slower than most too, but only three others provided better quality. Our 600ppi jewels test image was captured flawlessly, with accurate colours. This result was backed up by highly detailed reproductions of other images. The only problem was it picked up so much detail that specs of dust were visible.

Elsewhere, though, text quality is disappointing and, even with the black cartridge fitted, pages print at 4.6ppm in Normal mode. The output tray isn’t very wide either, so your paper will quickly curl downwards at the edges. Also, it’s not too hot at catching photos if a few are fired out in succession.

The basic interface is surprisingly simple to use, despite only featuring a few buttons with small LCD symbols. A few presses of each lets you flip between the available options, and quality settings, size and borderless options are all available to configure. You’ll need a PC to go into any detail, though, and HP’s drivers contain a wide range of options: gamma correction is the only real omission, while the hardware is only limited in that it won’t automatically detect the paper type.

The high-capacity tri-colour and photo cartridges and Premium Plus paper gives a high cost of $1.68 per 6 x 4in print – 71c more than its main rival, the Canon MP170.

The Canon is a better all-round device, but the stylish and diminutive HP PSC 1510 offers solid quality if you don’t mind waiting longer.