Like Canons CD-300, Fujifilms NX-500 is a digital photo printer designed for use around the television. Its a sturdy and lightweight metallic grey box with a friendly set of control buttons along the front. A SmartMedia slot sits unobtrusively next to the large printer cassette tray, which in turn is easy to insert fresh paper into.

Once again computer compatibility is referred to fleetingly at the bottom of the instruction manual, and the software installation procedure is about as difficult as one could get. Windows 98 had problems finding the printer driver, incorrectly identifying it as NX-700, while Windows ME could only succeed by doing a manual hardware installation. Two Windows 98 machines failed to recognise the USB connection when printing, though there were no problems communicating with it during installation.

As a television-based photo printer, the NX-500 is quite capable. From the menu system one can edit the photos size, zoom onto specific areas of the picture and add special effects such as sepia toning and colour enhancement. You can also use stored images to generate pre-designed calendars.

They say patience is a virtue and this is a lesson that the NX-500 drums home. A standard photo takes well over two minutes to slowly emerge from the paper tray from the moment you tell it to print. The standard paper is quite glossy compared to its competition and a fairly thick white border surrounds every photo.

Print quality shows the machines 8-bit colour, 306dpi limitations. While all hues appeared without bleeding, light colours on the printer test document faded into oblivion. The flower image suffered an imbalance of colour, giving a minor shade of magenta throughout the picture. This, coupled with the small print size (even for a photo-sized page), makes for just around average results.