Olivetti JP90 review

While we're used to seeing portable notebook PCs which are beginning to match the capabilities of their larger desktop brethren, pint-sized peripherals aren't so common.

The Olivetti JP90 aims to deliver desktop inkjet levels of performance in a package small enough to offer true mobility. If you're brawny enough to take the considerable weight of a multimedia notebook and the JP90 with battery stowed, there's nothing to stop you taking your whole office wherever you go.

The JP90 is very compact. With a 30x13cm footprint, and a height of 6.5cm, it's not much larger than a brick (though not as heavy). Simplicity is the key - there's nothing on this printer that need not be there. While the plastic casing isn't the sturdiest I've ever seen, with some care the JP90 could cope with life both in and out of the office.

The top lid flips up to form a paper-tray capable of accepting 15 sheets of paper. The ink cartridge slots horizontally into the plastic cradle. Paper feeds through from the back and in a U-shaped path to appear again at the top of the tray, where a limited number of sheets can remain during multi-page print jobs. There's nothing particularly clever here but nevertheless, paper-handling on the JP90 was more than acceptable, though it can't handle thick media weighing more than 80gsm.

Installation is simple, with Windows 95 and 3.11 mono drivers on one disk apiece. The software support isn't feature-packed, but it covers the basics of media selection, resolution and quality control, with options for different forms of image reproduction and dithering. Monochrome speeds are reasonable for a printer at this price. Olivetti quote 3ppm (pages per minute) but, depending on quality, text usually goes through at between 28 and 70 seconds per page. A complex photo reproduction with a variety of greyscale tones took just over two minutes to appear. Quality is very acceptable, although text suffers on plain paper from a feathering effect which can make it look a little untidy. Graphics can appear slightly dark, but the dithering patterns work well to produce an illusion of realistic greytones.

This JP90 came with the optional colour kit, which replaces the mono cartridge with a three-colour CMY job and the mono driver with the Olivetti Olichrom colour driver. More advanced features include a greater diversity of graphics options, and a real-time print status display. In most cases the Olichrom driver can be left on an automatic setting which adjusts options according to the print job.

It's true that the JP90 isn't the fastest inkjet in the world at colour. The common Corel Draw Train image took 6 minutes 10 seconds to complete, with some lesser detail missed, and dithering patterns occasionally looking a little rough. Jagged edges on diagonal and round surfaces are obvious, but that bane of inkjet printing, colour banding, wasn't that noticable, especially for a sub-£250 printer.

Graphic images, again, took longer to arrive. A full-page took nearly 11.5 minutes to complete, but from such a small package, the results are pleasantly surprising. As with any inkjet, the quality on specialist coated paper is a lot better than on plain photocopier paper, where dark colours bleed into lighter colours.

The JP90 uses refillable ink cartridges. A one-use disposable mono cartridge costs £20, and should last for 225,000 characters, but a reusable cartridge and three refills costs only £31.52, and can be refilled 24 times. A pack of six refills costs £7.67. A colour cartridge with two refills costs £32, with four refills, £52. Colour printing is never cheap, at 21p or 17p per page, depending on the refill pack you go for, at 8% coverage. The JP90 isn't the cheapest inkjet to run, and with it's small input and output capacity, it's not good at high volume work. There are better desktop printers at a comparable price, but you'd have great trouble using them on the move. While the JP90 won't win any awards for speed or high quality, the only real portable competition is the more expensive Canon BJC-70, which makes the Olivetti a decent budget buy.