Both the Dell Photo 924 and 964 use the same print engine and cartridges, so there shouldn’t be much difference between the two in terms of quality. Our print tests confirmed this, with identical average scores despite minor variations in a few tests, but they both offer different features.

The 924 got off to a bad start as we attempted to use its interface. The single-line LCD is disappointing at best, but the fact that you have to set every option using just up, down, confirm and cancel buttons makes it tortuous to utilise fully. Also, you can’t alter certain settings, such as selecting borderless copies, without using the driver on your PC, so its appeal as a standalone unit is diminished.

Fortunately, the driver itself is simple to use and isn’t lacking any major functions. Bundled in the box is Dell Picture Studio, which you’ll need for tweaking colours in your scans. ABBYY FineReader 6 Sprint takes care of OCR tasks, and Paint Shop Photo Album 5 is a welcome addition.

However, the 924’s print quality isn’t the best. Text is its strength, but the Photo part of the name is ill deserved. Several prints were grainy and the general colour reproduction was never accurate enough to earn top marks. Print costs are the same as the 964’s, and our continuous rundown test resulted in a reasonable (but not best-on-test) price per 6 x 4in photo of around $1.

The Photo 924 slips further behind the 964 with its scanning quality, which was the worst of the group. Our skin-tones image was reproduced onscreen with a yellow hue, and elsewhere colours were inaccurate. Copies exhibited the same traits.

Unfortunately for Dell, the 924 is also one of the slowest this month. Unless you switch the photo cartridge for black, Normal quality text emerges at a rate of 1.6ppm. With the black cartridge, it rises to a decent 9ppm, or 12.5ppm in Draft. Text copies arrive at 1.1ppm (or 2.7ppm with the black cartridge) and our 6 x 4in prints took more than two-and-a-half minutes to print at Best quality. In one unusual burst, it scanned our 1200ppi test faster than any other, but fell back to normality for the rest.

Despite costing just $139, it can’t compete with the speed and quality of the cheaper Canon Pixma MP170.