Epson RX80

Personal Computer News

Kenn Garroch

PRINTS OF THE REALM Finding the right printer for your computer can be as difficult as winding your way through a maze. But, there's hope on the horizon - simply consult Kenn Garroch's guide to what's what and for how much. Printers range from cheap thermal narrow-paper machines to large expensive daisy wheels. The in between ground is held by the dot matrix, Epson lookalike printers. There are also colour printers which range from the cheapest pen plotters to the ribbon and ink jet machines that produce high quality prints. The bottom end of the printer market is generally held by the thermal printers, and the pen plotters. Thermal printers need either special paper, available from many stationers, or carbon transfer ribbons such as those in the Brother range (EP22/44/HR5). The pen plotters use one of four coloured pens which move horizontally across the paper. The paper moves vertically allowing characters and graphics to be drawn on the paper. They tend to be slow and are generally limited to narrow (4.5in) paper. Dot matrix is the most common type of printer these days. A vertical line of needles presses an inked or carbon ribbon onto the paper. At the bottom of the range the capabilities are limited but usually include bit image graphics and a choice of character sets. At the top end, features such as proportional spacing, near letter quality (NLQ), buffers, and downloadable character sets are available. But you pay for the extra facilities. For the more serious users, the daisy wheel type of printer may be necessary. These use a spoked wheel with a letter on each spoke. The letters are stamped against a ribbon just like a typewriter. The main problems are inflexibility, as you are limited to the characters available on the wheel. They also tend to be slow, roughly 10-20cps, and very noisy, which irritates some people. INTERFACES A snag you may run across is the type of interface that connects the printer to your computer. The most common is the Centronics parallel connection. The other main type is the serial or RS232 interface. This is usually available either as an alternative to Centronics, or as a separate adaptor for more cash (denoted by the £ sign in the list below). When buying a printer, you will probably be spoilt for choice. The first thing is to decide what you need a printer for - letter quality, listings, graphics, colour, etc. Next, decide what you can pay, and see which printers are in your price range. Once you have a selection, think of what you may need the printer for in the future. This should narrow the choice down to one or two. At this point, you should scour the advertisements in the computer press for the company that offers the best deal for the printer you want. Now you have a printer that should last for years without any problems. In case of hitches, make sure the dealer you buy the printer from has some kind of backup and guarantee policy. THERMAL PRINTERS NAME: TC600 PRICE: £577.25 SPEED: 16cps INTERFACES: RS232 PRINT METHOD: Carbon ribbon/thermal PAPER SIZE: 8.5in COMMENTS: Plots graphs, built-in keyboard and RAM, disk drive available. SUPPLIER: Jones Brother [redacted] NAME: HR5 PRICE: £180.85 SPEED: 16cps INTERFACES: Centronics/RS232(£) PRINT METHOD: Carbon ribbon/thermal PAPER SIZE: 8.5in COMMENTS: Battery powered 4xU2s, similar to EP-44 without keyboard. SUPPLIER: Jones Brother [redacted] NAME: EP22 PRICE: £169.95 SPEED: 16cps INTERFACES: RS232 PRINT METHOD: Carbon ribbon/thermal PAPER SIZE: 8.5in COMMENTS: Battery powered 4xU2 SUPPLIER: Jones Brother [redacted] NAME: Epson P-40 PRICE: £109 SPEED: 10cps INTERFACES: Optional Centronics or RS232 PRINT METHOD: Thermal PAPER SIZE: 4.5in COMMENTS: Cheaper but paper is narrow SUPPLIER: Peripheral Hardware [redacted] DOT MATRIX PRINTERS NAME: Smith-Corona D200 PRICE: £483 SPEED: 160cps INTERFACES: RS232 and Centronics PRINT METHOD: Dot matrix PAPER SIZE: 8.5in COMMENTS: Includes NLQ, 2K internal buffer, IBM compatibility. SUPPLIER: Smith Corona dealers NAME: Walters WM-80 PRICE: £228.28 SPEED: 80cps INTERFACES: Centronics/RS232(£) PRINT METHOD: Dot matrix PAPER SIZE: 8.5in COMMENTS: Bog standard Epson lookalike. SUPPLIER: Walters Microsystems [redacted] NAME: Shinwa CPA-80 PRICE: £228.85 (Centronics), £251.85 (RS232) SPEED: 100cps INTERFACES: Centronics/RS232(£) PRINT METHOD: Dot matrix PAPER SIZE: 8.5in COMMENTS: Pretty well Epson compatible SUPPLIER: Micro-Peripherals [redacted] NAME: Cana PW1080A PRICE: £320 SPEED: 160cps draft/75cps NLQ INTERFACES: Centronics/RS232(£) PRINT METHOD: Dot matrix PAPER SIZE: 8.5in COMMENTS: Includes NLQ option. SUPPLIER: CJE Micros [redacted]/Maplin [redacted] NAME: Brothers M1009 PRICE: £199 SPEED: 60cps INTERFACES: Centronics/RS232(£) PRINT METHOD: Dot matrix PAPER SIZE: 8.5in COMMENTS: A compact printer, almost completely Epson control code compatible. SUPPLIER: Jones Brother [redacted] NAME: Riteman Plus PRICE: £260 SPEED: 120cps INTERFACES: Centronics/RS232(£) PRINT METHOD: Dot matrix PAPER SIZE: 8.5in COMMENTS: Tractor fee mech available SUPPLIER: KODE [redacted] NAME: Smith Corona Fastex 80 PRICE: £224.25 SPEED: 80cps INTERFACES: Centronics/RS232(£) PRINT METHOD: Dot matrix PAPER SIZE: 8.5in COMMENTS: Tractor feed available. SUPPLIER: Smith-Corona dealers NAME: OKI Microline 80 PRICE: £229 SPEED: 80cps INTERFACES: Centronics/RS232(£) PRINT METHOD: Dot matrix PAPER SIZE: 9.5in SUPPLIER: X-DATA [redacted] NAME: Epson RX80 F/T PRICE: £328 SPEED: 100cps INTERFACES: Centronics/RS232(£) PRINT METHOD: Dot matrix PAPER SIZE: 8.5in COMMENTS: Taken as standard SUPPLIER: Epson dealers NAME: Mannesman Tally 80 PRICE: £299 SPEED: 80cps INTERFACES: Centronics PRINT METHOD: Dot matrix PAPER SIZE: 8.5in COMMENTS: Mannesman Tally [redacted] NAME: Star Gemini 10X PRICE: £286 SPEED: 120cps INTERFACES: Centronics/RS232(£) PRINT METHOD: Dot matrix PAPER SIZE: 8.5in SUPPLIER: Keyaki [redacted] LETTER QUALITY PRINTERS NAME: IBICO LTR-1 PRICE: £175 SPEED: 12cps INTERFACES: Centronics PRINT METHOD: Letters on cylindrical roller - a bit like a rubber golf ball. PAPER SIZE: 8.5in COMMENTS: Interfaces available for Commodore 64, and Spectrum at £29.95, and £39.95 respectively. SUPPLIER: IBICO [redacted] NAME: Silver Reed EXP500 PRICE: £378 SPEED: 18cps INTERFACES: Centronics/RS232(£) PRINT METHOD: Daisy wheel PAPER SIZE: 10in SUPPLIER: C/WP Computers [redacted] NAME: Juki 6100 PRICE: £385.25 SPEED: 17cps INTERFACES: Centronics/RS232(£) PRINT METHOD: Daisy wheel PAPER SIZE: 13in COMMENTS: Takes Triumph Adler wheels. SUPPLIER: Most printer dealers NAME: Smith Corona L1000 PRICE: £368 SPEED: 12cps INTERFACES: Centronics/RS232(£) PRINT METHOD: Daisy wheel PAPER SIZE: 13in COMMENTS: Replacement for the TP1 SUPPLIER: Smith-Corona dealers NAME: Turbo-20 PRICE: £497 SPEED: 18cps INTERFACES: Centronics/RS232(£) PRINT METHOD: Daisy wheel PAPER SIZE: 15in SUPPLIER: Office Efficiency Machines [redacted] COLOUR PRINTERS NAME: Seikosha GP700-A PRICE: £488 SPEED: 50cps INTERFACES: Centronics PRINT METHOD: 7-colour ribbon dot matrix PAPER SIZE: 8.5in SUPPLIER: DRG Business Machines [redacted] NAME: Integrex Colour Jet PRICE: £654.35 SPEED: 40cps INTERFACES: Centronics/RS232(£) PRINT METHOD: Dot matrix ink jet PAPER SIZE: 8.5in COMMENTS: No tractor feed available; interface for viewdata system. SUPPLIER: Integrex [redacted] NAME: CGP 1154 PRICE: £149 SPEED: 12cps INTERFACES: Centronics PRINT METHOD: Pen plotter PAPER SIZE: 4.5in COMMENTS: One of many 4-colour pen plotters, all the same design and roughly the same price. SUPPLIER: Tandy shops NAME: Tandy CGP-220 PRICE: £499 SPEED: 37cps INTERFACES: Centronics PRINT METHOD: 7-colour ink jet PAPER SIZE: 8.5in SUPPLIER: Tandy dealers NAME: Canon PJ1080A PRICE: £497 SPEED: 37cps INTERFACES: Centronics PRINT METHOD: 7-colour ink jet PAPER SIZE: 8.5in SUPPLIER: Canon dealers, Keyaki [redacted] NAME: Commodore MPS-801 PRICE: £395.95 SPEED: 38cps INTERFACES: CBMIEEE PRINT METHOD: Dot matrix coloured ribbon PAPER SIZE: 8.5in SUPPLIER: Commodore [redacted]

A comparison of the speed and capabilities of thermal printers puts the HR5 well in front.

The Brother HR5.

The Brother M1009.

The Canon PW180A.

The Epson RX80 F/T.

The GP-700-A is good value, but the Integrex offers more features. Above, the Commodore MPS-801.

The Smith Corona D200.

The dot matrix market is competitive, and price is not always the best indication of what's best.

With letter quality printers, you get what you pay for.

Sinclair User

HARDWARE WORLD With ever-increasing amounts of peripherals available for Sinclair computers, users are finding it more and more difficult to know what to buy. We present a buyer's guide to joysticks, keyboard and printers and review the best of the rest from the 1984 add-on market. The decision to buy a printer to complete your computer system will be one of the most difficult and certainly one of the most expensive which you as a Sinclair user will have to make. The variety of printers available tends to confuse rather than facilitate your choice and many of them are likely to cost more than the rest of your system. Yet if you are intending to use a Sinclair machine for something other than games playing, you will, sooner or later, need to make a permanent copy on paper. With that in mind Sinclair User looks at 11 printers, from the inexpensive to those suitable for small businesses. The first consideration must be the purpose for which you intend to use a printer. All the printers reviewed will produce listings of programs, some faster than others and some more legibly. If you intend to do some word processing the type-style and method of printing is also important. Most of the machines reviewed are dot matrix printers. That means that, just as characters on the screen are composed of a number of dots - pixels - the printer has a number of little pins which are pushed on to the paper, through the ribbon, to form the character. The greater the number of dots the better the definition of the character. Just as user-defined graphics are made by changing the arrangement of the dots, dot matrix printers can easily change the type-style or the character. The printer holds those definitions in ROM and by telling it which set you want to use it can print in different type-styles and use different national characters, in some cases even Japanese. Some of the printers use different methods. The Alphacom 32 and the Brother EP44 are thermal printers. That means they use special, more expensive paper although they are still dot matrix types. The pins become hot and cause the paper to change colour. The Brother can also use plain paper with the addition of a special ribbon. The Dyneer DW16 is a daisywheel printer, using a wheel which has each character, like those on a typewriter, at the end of a spoke. To change type-styles the wheel has to be changed. The Olivetti JP101 has a small cartridge which fires an ink-jet at the paper. As there are few mechanical parts the printer is quieter than most. The Tandy CGP-llS has four ballpoint pens which form characters by moving the pen horizontally and the paper up and down. The speed of a printer normally is measured in characters per second; in theory the higher the number the greater the speed. To test that we used a standard body of text, the first chapter of Genesis, and timed how long it needed to print. The text was prepared using Tasword 2 and printed via a Kempston E Interface, where suitable, a total of 796 words over 77 lines. The results were surprising. The Microline 80, with a quoted speed of 80 cps, took nearly twice as long as the Mannesmann Tally MT80 and three times as long as the Olivetti. The answer would be to take such quoted figures only as a very rough guide. Another thing to consider is how you want to drive the printer. Two of the machines reviewed connect directly to a Sinclair computer, the Alphacom 32 and the Seikosha. While that is undoubtedly the cheapest method, when and if you upgrade your computer you are left with a printer you may not be able to connect to your new machine. There are two standards by which printers normally are driven, Centronics and RS232. Roughly speaking, Centronics interfaces have eight wires so that the bits of each byte travel to the printer at the same time along each wire. Serial interfaces have one wire and the bits travel along it one after the other. Whether you use Centronics or RS232 does not make much difference so long as you do not try to mix them. On many of the printers Centronics is fitted as standard and RS232 is available as an add-on at extra cost. Your future plans must be taken into consideration. Users with a Microdrive can use the RS232 port fitted. If you are thinking of buying a QL it also has an RS232 port fitted as standard. Other add-ons such as modems also tend to use RS232 and so the system has advantages, despite the extra cost. The width of paper the printer can handle may also be a consideration. Normal listings may use only 32 columns but if you like to add REM statements at the side or for word processing, 80 is the minimum. It is often necessary to indicate to the printer what you want it to do, whether changing the type-style or feeding paper through it. There is a standard for it known as ESCape codes, i.e., codes which escape from normal printing to do something different. Those codes were originated by Epson and are now used by most other makes of printer. To help you each printer is now considered, briefly, in turn. The Sinclair printer has not been included as it has been discontinued and will be available only while stocks last. Alphacom 32 is the cheapest on the market at the moment. It has reasonable print quality and is easy to use. It has only a ZX-81 size connector, so Spectrum users must use it as the last add-on. From Dean Electronics or Prism. Seikosha GP50S is an inexpensive plain-paper printer, not particularly fast and rather noisy but easy to use. It has a Spectrum-size edge connector, so ZX81 users will need an extender card not yet available from Seikosha, so try Eprom Services. From DRG or Prism. Tandy CGP-115 is the cheapest colour printer; it is very slow but can do pleasant graphics with the appropriate software. From retail shops. Microline 80 is supplied with roll paper holder as standard. It uses ordinary typewriter ribbons. It has only one type-style. From X-Data. Brother EP44 is a portable typewriter with RS232 connection. It is not really suitable as a computer printer but as a typewriter it is amazing. From local typewriter shops. Olivetti JPIOl is a quiet ink-jet printer; it has slightly blurred print but is reasonably fast. Epson RX80 is the standard by which other printers are measured. It is versatile with clear print and all the facilities you are liable to need. Star Gemini-10X was caught by a recent price reduction for the Epson, which it mirrors. It may be discounted further. From London Computer Centre or Micro Peripherals. Mannesmann Tally MT80 is a good-looking printer, also heavily discounted. Canon PW1080A is very fast and has a good range of facilities, including programmable characters. It is slower in near letter-quality mode. From London Computer Centre or Micro Peripherals. Dyneer DWl6 is a business users' daisywheel printer. The code is compatible with Diablo printers. From X-Data. British Olivetti Ltd, [redacted]. Dean Electronics Ltd, [redacted]. DRG Business Systems Ltd, Peripheral Division, [redacted]. London Computer Centre, [redacted]. Mannesmann Tally Ltd, [redacted]. Micro Peripherals Ltd, [redacted]. Prism Microproducts Ltd, [redacted]. X-Data Ltd, [redacted].

Alphacom 32

Brother EP44

Canon PW1080A

Dyneer DW16

Epson RX80

Mannesmann Tally MT80

Microline M80

Olivetti JP101

Seikosha GP50S

Star Gemini 10X

Tandy CGP-115

Name: Alphacom 32 Rec. Retail Price: £70 Centornics Port: No RS232 Port: No Sinclair Port: Yes Plain/Thermal: T Printing Method: Dot Characters Per Line: 32 Dots Per Character: 8x8 Characters Per Sec.: Time For Test (secs.): 50 Max. Paper Width (inches): 4.25 Line Feed Button: Yes Escape Codes: No Different Type-styles: No Graphics: Yes Name: Seikosha GP50S Rec. Retail Price: £138 Centornics Port: No RS232 Port: No Sinclair Port: Yes Plain/Thermal: P Printing Method: Dot Characters Per Line: 32 Dots Per Character: 7x7 Characters Per Sec.: 40 Time For Test (secs.): 152 Max. Paper Width (inches): 5 Line Feed Button: No Escape Codes: No Different Type-styles: No Graphics: Yes Name: Tandy CGP-115 Rec. Retail Price: £149 Centornics Port: Yes RS232 Port: Yes Sinclair Port: No Plain/Thermal: P Printing Method: Pen Characters Per Line: 40/80 Dots Per Character: N/A Characters Per Sec.: 12 Time For Test (secs.): 483 1440 Max. Paper Width (inches): 4.5 Line Feed Button: Yes Escape Codes: No Different Type-styles: No Graphics: Yes Name: Microline 80 Rec. Retail Price: £229 Centornics Port: Yes RS232 Port: £68 Sinclair Port: No Plain/Thermal: P Printing Method: Dot Characters Per Line: 80 Dots Per Character: 9x7 Characters Per Sec.: 80 Time For Test (secs.): 170 Max. Paper Width (inches):8.5 Line Feed Button: No Escape Codes: No Different Type-styles: No Graphics: No Name: Brother EP44 Rec. Retail Price: £253 Centornics Port: No RS232 Port: Yes Sinclair Port: No Plain/Thermal: T/P Printing Method: Dot Characters Per Line: 80 Dots Per Character: 24x18 Characters Per Sec.: 16 Time For Test (secs.): 383 Max. Paper Width (inches): 8.5 Line Feed Button: Yes Escape Codes: No Different Type-styles: No Graphics: No Name: Olivetti JP101 Rec. Retail Price: £265 Centornics Port: Yes RS232 Port: £40 Sinclair Port: No Plain/Thermal: P Printing Method: Ink jet Characters Per Line: 80 Dots Per Character: 7x7 Characters Per Sec.: 80 Time For Test (secs.): 67 Max. Paper Width (inches): 9 Line Feed Button: Yes Escape Codes: Yes Different Type-styles: No Graphics: Yes Name: Epson RX80 Rec. Retail Price: £286 Centornics Port: No RS232 Port: £69 Sinclair Port: No Plain/Thermal: P Printing Method: Dot Characters Per Line: 80 Dots Per Character: 9x9 Characters Per Sec.: 100 Time For Test (secs.): 80 Max. Paper Width (inches): 8.5 Line Feed Button: Yes Escape Codes: Yes Different Type-styles: Yes Graphics: Yes Name: Star Gemini 10X Rec. Retail Price: £286 Centornics Port: Yes RS232 Port: £80 Sinclair Port: No Plain/Thermal: P Printing Method: Dot Characters Per Line: 80 Dots Per Character: 9x9 Characters Per Sec.: 120 Time For Test (secs.): 69 Max. Paper Width (inches): Line Feed Button: Yes Escape Codes: Yes Different Type-styles: Yes Graphics: Yes Name: Mannesmann Tally MT80 Rec. Retail Price: £299 Centornics Port: Yes RS232 Port: £57 Sinclair Port: No Plain/Thermal: P Printing Method: 80 Characters Per Line: 80 Dots Per Character: 7x8 Characters Per Sec.: 80 Time For Test (secs.): 92 Max. Paper Width (inches): Line Feed Button: Yes Escape Codes: Yes Different Type-styles: No Graphics: Yes Name: Canon PW1080A Rec. Retail Price: £367 Centornics Port: Yes RS232 Port: No Sinclair Port: No Plain/Thermal: P Printing Method: Dot Characters Per Line: 80 Dots Per Character: 11x9 Characters Per Sec.: 160 Time For Test (secs.): 48 Max. Paper Width (inches): 10 Line Feed Button: Yes Escape Codes: Yes Different Type-styles: Yes Graphics: Yes Name: Dyneer DW16 Rec. Retail Price: Centornics Port: £378 RS232 Port: £413 Sinclair Port: No Plain/Thermal: P Printing Method: Daisy Characters Per Line: 101 Dots Per Character: N/A Characters Per Sec.: 14 Time For Test (secs.): 330 Max. Paper Width (inches): 10 Line Feed Button: Yes Escape Codes: Yes Different Type-styles: Yes Graphics: No

Sinclair User

GETTING INTO PRINT The decision to buy a printer to complete your computer system will be one of the most difficult and certainly one of the most expensive which you as a Sinclair user will have to make. The variety of printers available tends to confuse rather than facilitate your choice and many of them are likely to cost than the rest of your system. Yet if your are intending to use a Sinclair machine for something other than games playing, you will, sooner or later, need to make a permanent copy on paper. With that in mind Sinclair User looks at 11 printers, from the inexpensive to those suitable for small business. The first consideration must be the purpose for which you intend to use a printer. All the printers reviewed will produce listings of programs, some faster than others and some more legibly. If you intend to do some word processing the type-style and method of printing is also important. Most of the machines reviewed are dot matrix printers. That means that, just as characters on the screen are composed of a number of dots - pixels - the printer has a number of little pins which are pushed on to the paper, through the ribbon, to form the character. The greater the number of dots the better the definition of the character. Just as user-defined graphics are made by changing the arrangement of the dots, dot matrix printers can easily change the type-style or the character. The printer holds those definitions in ROM and by telling it which set you want to use it can print in different type-styles and use different national characters, in some cases even Japanese. Some of the printers use different methods. The Alphacom 32 and the Brother EP44 are thermal printers. That means they use special, more expensive paper although they are still dot matrix types. The pins become hot and cause the paper to change colour. The Brother can also use plain paper with the addition of a special ribbon. The Dyneer DW16 is a daisywheel printer, using a wheel which has each character, like those on a typewriter, at the end of a spoke. To change type-styles the wheel has to be changed. The Olivetti JP101 has a small cartridge which fires an ink-jet at the paper. As there are few mechanical parts the printer is quieter than most. The Tandy CGP-115 has four ball-point pens which form characters by moving the pen horizontally and the paper up and down. The speed of a printer normally is measured in characters per second; in theory the higher the number the greater the speed. To test that we used a standard body of text, the first chapter of Genesis, and timed how long it needed to print. The text was prepared using Tasword 2 and printed via a Kempston E interface, where suitable, a total of 796 words over 77 lines. The results were surprising. The Microline 80, with a quoted speed of 80 cps, took nearly twice as long as the Mannesmann Tally MT80 and three times as long as the Olivetti. The answer would be to take such quoted figures only as a very rough guide. Another thing to consider is how you want to drive the printer. Two of the machines reviewed connect directly to a Sinclair computer, the Alphacom 32 and the Seikosha. While that is undoubtedly the cheapest method, when and if you upgrade your computer you are left with a printer you may not be able to connect to your new machine. There are two standards by which printers normally are driven, Centronics and RS232. Roughly speaking, Centronics interfaces have eight wires so that the bits of each byte travel to the printer at the same time along each wire. Serial interfaces have one wire and the bits travel along it one after the other. Whether you use Centronics or RS232 does not make much difference so long as you do not try to mix them. On many of the printers Centronics is fitted as standard and RS232 is available as an add-on at extra cost. Your future plans must be taken into consideration. Users with a Microdrive can use the RS232 port fitted. If you are thinking of buying a QL it also has an RS232 port fitted as standard. Other add-ons such as modems also tend to use RS232 and so the system has advantages, despite the extra cost. The width of paper the printer can handle may also be a consideration. Normal listings may use only 32 columns but if you like to add REM statements at the side or for word processing, 80 is the minimum. It is often necessary to indicate to the printer what you want it to do, whether changing the type-style or feeding paper through it. There is a standard for it known as ESCape codes, i.e., codes which escape from normal printing to do something different. Those codes were originated by Epson and are now used by most other makes of printer. To help you each printer is now considered, briefly, in turn. The Sinclair printer has not been included as it has been discontinued and will be available only while stocks last. Alphacom 32 is the cheapest on the market at the moment. It has reasonable print quality and is easy to use. It has only a ZX-81 size connector, so Spectrum users must use it as the last add-on. From Dean Electronics or Prism. Seikosha GP50S is an inexpensive plain-paper printer, not particularly fast and rather noisy but easy to use. It has a Spectrum-size edge connector, so ZX-81 users will need an extender card not yet available from Seikosha, so try Eprom Services. From Dean Electronics or Prism. Tandy CGP-115 is the cheapest colour printer; it is very slow but can do pleasant graphics with the appropriate software. From retail shops. Microline 80 is supplied with roll paper holder as standard. It uses ordinary typewriter ribbons. It has only one type-style. From X-Data. Brother EP44 is a portable typewriter with RS232 connection. It is not really suitable as a computer printer but as a typewriter it is amazing. From local typewriter shops. Olivetti JP101 is a quiet ink-jet printer; it has slightly blurred print but is reasonably fast. Epson RX80 is the standard by which other printers are measured. It is versatile with clear print and all the facilities you are liable to need. Star Gemini-10X was caught by a recent price reduction for the Epson which it mirrors. It may be discounted further. From London Computer Centre or Micro Peripherals. Mannesmann Tally MT80 is a good looking printer, also heavily discounted. Canon PW1080A is very fast and has a good range of facilities, including programmable characters. It is slower in near letter-quality mode. From London Computer Centre or Micro Peripherals. Dyneer DW16 is a business users' daisywheel printer. The code is compatable with Diablo printers. From X-Data. British Olivetti Ltd, [redacted]. Dean Electronics Ltd, [redacted]. DRG Business Systems Ltd, Peripheral Division. [redacted]. London Computer Centre, [redacted]. Mannesmann Tally Ltd, [redacted]. Micro Peripherals Ltd, [redacted]. Prism Microproducts Ltd, [redacted]. X-Data Ltd, [redacted].

Alphacom 32

Brother EP44

Canon PW1080A

Dyneer DW16

Epson RX80

Mannesmann Tally MT80

Microline M80

Olivetti JP101

Seikosha GP50S

Star Gemini 10X

Tandy CGP-115

Alphacom 32 Rec. retail price: 70 Centronics Port: No RS232 Port: No Sinclair Port: Yes Plain/Thermal: Thermal Printing method: Dot Characters per line: 32 Dots per character: 8x8 Characters per sec.: Not Known Time for test (secs.): 50 Max. paper width (inches): 4.25 Line feed button: Yes Escape codes: No Different type-styles: No Graphics: Yes Seikosha GP50S Rec. retail price: 138 Centronics Port: No RS232 Port: No Sinclair Port: Yes Plain/Thermal: Plain Printing method: Dot Characters per line: 32 Dots per character: 7x7 Characters per sec.: 40 Time for test (secs.): 152 Max. paper width (inches): 5 Line feed button: No Escape codes: No Different type-styles: No Graphics: Yes Tandy CGP-115 Rec. retail price: 149 Centronics Port: Yes RS232 Port: Yes Sinclair Port: No Plain/Thermal: Plain Printing method: Pen Characters per line: 40/80 Dots per character: N/A Characters per sec.: 12 Time for test (secs.): 483 1440 Max. paper width (inches): 4.25 Line feed button: Yes Escape codes: No Different type-styles: No Graphics: Yes Microline 80 Rec. retail price: 229 Centronics Port: Yes RS232 Port: £68 Sinclair Port: No Plain/Thermal: Plain Printing method: Dot Characters per line: 80 Dots per character: 9x7 Characters per sec.: 80 Time for test (secs.): 170 Max. paper width (inches): 8.5 Line feed button: No Escape codes: No Different type-styles: No Graphics: No Brother EP44 Rec. retail price: 253 Centronics Port: No RS232 Port: Yes Sinclair Port: No Plain/Thermal: Thermal/Plain Printing method: Dot Characters per line: 80 Dots per character: 24x18 Characters per sec.: 16 Time for test (secs.): 383 Max. paper width (inches): 8.5 Line feed button: Yes Escape codes: No Different type-styles: No Graphics: No Olivetti JP101 Rec. retail price: 265 Centronics Port: Yes RS232 Port: £40 Sinclair Port: No Plain/Thermal: Plain Printing method: Ink Jet Characters per line: 80 Dots per character: 7x7 Characters per sec.: 80 Time for test (secs.): 67 Max. paper width (inches): 9 Line feed button: Yes Escape codes: Yes Different type-styles: No Graphics: Yes Epson RX80 Rec. retail price: 286 Centronics Port: No RS232 Port: £69 Sinclair Port: No Plain/Thermal: Plain Printing method: Dot Characters per line: 80 Dots per character: 9x9 Characters per sec.: 100 Time for test (secs.): 80 Max. paper width (inches): 8.5 Line feed button: Yes Escape codes: Yes Different type-styles: Yes Graphics: Yes Star Gemini 10X Rec. retail price: 286 Centronics Port: Yes RS232 Port: £80 Sinclair Port: No Plain/Thermal: Plain Printing method: Dot Characters per line: 80 Dots per character: 9x9 Characters per sec.: 120 Time for test (secs.): 69 Max. paper width (inches): Unknown Line feed button: Yes Escape codes: Yes Different type-styles: Yes Graphics: Yes Mannesmann Tally MT80 Rec. retail price: 299 Centronics Port: Yes RS232 Port: £57 Sinclair Port: No Plain/Thermal: Plain Printing method: Dot Characters per line: 80 Dots per character: 7x8 Characters per sec.: 80 Time for test (secs.): 92 Max. paper width (inches): Unknown Line feed button: Yes Escape codes: Yes Different type-styles: No Graphics: Yes Canon PW1080A Rec. retail price: 367 Centronics Port: Yes RS232 Port: Unknown Sinclair Port: No Plain/Thermal: Plain Printing method: Dot Characters per line: 80 Dots per character: 11x9 Characters per sec.: 160 Time for test (secs.): 48 Max. paper width (inches): 10 Line feed button: Yes Escape codes: Yes Different type-styles: Yes Graphics: Yes Dyneer DW16 Rec. retail price: Unknown Centronics Port: £378 RS232 Port: £413 Sinclair Port: No Plain/Thermal: Plain Printing method: Daisy Characters per line: 101 Dots per character: N/A Characters per sec.: 14 Time for test (secs.): 330 Max. paper width (inches): 10 Line feed button: Yes Escape codes: Yes Different type-styles: Yes Graphics: No

Personal Computer News

Barry Miles

MACHINE: EPSON RX80 PRICE: £250-300 plus VAT SPEED: 100 CPS INTERFACES: Centronics parallel CONTACT: Epson [redacted] DOT MATRIX A LA MODE Twelve sectors make the new Epson RX80 printer really versatile. Barry Miles switches it on. A new printer from Epson is an event in itself, particularly if the machine contains new features and is cheaper than the earlier model, the MX80, which has proved a very popular and reliable machine. I was particularly interested to see how the new RX80 compared with the more up-market FX80, just introduced (PCN April 29). The major difference is that there is a 25 per cent speed improvement over the MX80. The newcomer runs at 100 characters per second, unless you choose the half-speed mode to reduce noise levels. This faster speed will be significant if you are carrying out long print runs. The RX80 could be intended for business use, but since the paper transport mechanism is tractor, your only way of using the enhanced and double-strike modes - which fill in the spaces between the dots - for correspondence purposes will be to have your letterheads glued temporarily to continuous fanfold stationery. Anyone using the printer for this purpose will be better off forking out the extra for the FX80, which has a friction feed as well as tractor, and offers proportional spacing as well. At £250-£300 plus VAT, the RX80 is also aimed fairly and squarely at the hobbyist market. where competition is hotting up all the time. The hobbyist will probably get most out of the machine's many facilities, since it requires some dedication to master the various possible combinations of control codes, and what results from their use. SETTING IT UP The packaging is very sturdy, with liberal use of polystyrene. The machine is of the customary cream plastic, and looks almost identical to the old MX80 box. A row of four clearly labelled lights tells you whether the power is on, whether it is being received properly, whether the printer is ready to receive data, whether you are running out of paper, and whether or not the printer is on-line. The on-line indicator tells you whether you can expect two of the three buttons, form feed and line feed, to work. The third button toggles you on and off-line. There are no difficulties in getting the machine going. It comes with Centronics parallel interface as standard, and Epson also manufactures an IEEE interface, and a special IEEE for Commodore machines, together with an RS232 interface. A 16K buffer is also available. All these add-ons are fitted internally to the machine and - fortunately for loyal Epson owners who upgrade - are interchangeable between machines. But be warned, you can use these devices only one at a time. If you have fitted the buffer, you cannot fit an internal interface, and if you have an extra interface fitted, you cannot use the Centronics interface. The manual takes you through the fairly simple setting-up procedures without strain. Assembling the printer after getting all the parts out of the carton is simple. The wire separator, which keeps the paper from fouling, is a simple spring fit, and the ribbon cartridge is an easy clip fitting. The ribbon is rather expensive, but this is alleviated by the fact that you can refill the cartridge at a third of the cost. This is quite comical really. The manufacturer supplies a neat and clean way of inserting a new ribbon, and makes it easy for you to swop ribbons over if you want an almost new ribbon for that high-resolution printout and put it away again: the customer then decides to save a few pounds and refill his own ribbons, trying to avoid getting mucky in the process, using one plastic glove! It is worth remembering that the ribbons dry out over time, so it is not worth stocking too many. The manual is a luxurious affair, clearly printed on heavy art paper. It is spiral-bound, so it does not tend to close just when you have found the page you want. It is well-written, explaining each command thoroughly, with liberal illustrations of Basic routines to carry out a particular function and photographs of the result. This makes learning about the printer a true pleasure, and is in stark contrast to the tatty little manuals which come with some machines. The lid of the machine should be handled carefully - it is quite brittle. It doesn't have a serrated edge for easy tearing of the paper, but with reasonable care it's possible to tear it off quite successfully. The widest paper the printer will accommodate is 10in, so if you've gathered in a large stock of 72-1ine 10.25in word processing paper, bad luck! The RX80 will print a self-diagnostic test if you switch it on with the linefeed switch pressed. The machine can be set to power-up in a number of conditions, which will be convenient for various requirements. You can have ten characters to the inch or 16.5; the form-length set at 11in (normal listing paper), or 12in (word processing, pseudo-A4 paper). There are no fewer than 12 switches available for modifying the printer to become whatever you want, but you cannot get to them without removing the cover. This is a real nuisance. There is a hatch at the back of the RS through which access is awkward but possible. But you must take the cover off first, removing two screws and pulling off a connector first. The ham-fisted would in trouble here! In particular, it is important to have close at hand the switch which controls whether a carriage return is to generate an automatic linefeed or not. It seems a pity to have to resort to mounting an extra switch outside the case on a cable. Once you have access to the switches you can define: - Condensed or pica (10-pitch) characters. - Control codes as graphic symbols. - Buzzer on or off. - Length of form 11 or 12in. - Paper-end detector, on or off. - Selection of international character set, one of eight. - Selection of slashed or unslashed zero; and - Determine whether the SLCT IN signal is internally fixed or not. - Whether linefeed is to be automatic or not, on receipt of carriage return; and - Decide whether a 1in skip-over perforation is to occur. IN USE Tests show that the printer is as fast as other printers rated at 100 characters per second. The noise-level is acceptable for this speed, and in some circumstances you may find the half-speed quieter printout more acceptable, particularly if you are spooling a file to the printer while using the computer for some other purpose. A good feature of the tractor mechanism is that the paper is no longer inclined to climb off the sprockets, even when you're using heavy paper. This was a real nuisance on the MXSU, and one of the reasons for going for tractor feed in the first place is to be sure that the paper will not drift out of alignment, as it usually does when you friction feed. However, apart from that you have all the familiar facilities of the MX series at your disposal, and these are substantial. Firstly, there is the character font itself. Because of the rich variety of designs available using the 9 wire head it is sufficiently attractive for it to have been used for illustrations in several volumes of programming and the condensed face has illustrated spreadsheets in a variety of books. This mode is particularly useful, because it enables your 80-column sheet of 'A4' paper to display 137 columns, as much as a daisy wheel's wide carriage will accommoodate in normal 10 characters to the inch mode. The double-width characters are striking in appearance, and particularly attractive when the elite 12 pitch characters are being doubled in size. These are useful as headings or for notices to be read from a distance. Bold printing can be accomplished in two ways: by double-striking, with the paper having been moved up by 1/216in, and by enhanced mode, which gives a stronger impression. To get what the American MX80 manual calls 'Harvey Wallbanger' (very dense print), you have both modes operational at once. It is worth remembering that a backspace is carried out before the second strike occurs in double-strike mode, so this is slower than enhanced mode. An intermediate-size print is obtained by printing the condensed characters in double-width, so the range of possibilities is wide indeed. Each control code has a page to itself, and it is intriguing to see that Epson is now modestly approaching the possibility of an error in the minute linefeeds. Escape J is said to produce 'tentative n/216' line-spacing! You can have italics by calling up the alternative character-set using an escape sequence. This can also be enhanced or doubles-struck, and in the full range of widths and pitches. Incidentally, all these modes may be turned on and off within a line, almost like changing a daisy-wheel. Various other line-spacing distances are provided. Really impressive subscripts and superscripts are produced, with tiny letters double-struck so that all dots are merged. I can't help wondering why Epson doesn't go the whole hog and have a correspondence-quality mode, where the head makes four passes, with the precision of the subscripts and superscripts. This is not quite the same as emphasised and double-strike together, since I visualise each line being built up from two halves of each character, top and bottom, with each half being double-struck. All the settings which you make via the dip-switches can be overridden by use of control codes. A special feature of this product is a character font suitable for output from Epson's portable HX20 computer, with a 6x8 font. Horizontal tabulation can be carried out, as can vertical tabulation, but without the extra sophistication available on the FX80, which uses channels to control tabulation on consecutive forms with different layouts. With refreshing candour, Epson admits that although bi-directional printing produces almost no horizontal dot aberration, use of a pair of special commands which cause printing in a single direction only will produce greater precision. Bit image graphics are available in a bewildering range of modes: normal density, dual density, double-speed dual density, and quadruple density. This should be sufficient for all graphics enthusiasts. Two versions of screen graphics are provided, with a warning that one of them is better for taking a hard-copy of screen data. VERDICT This printer has an excellent price/performance ratio, and is backed up by a company which has been widely recognised for years as producing good-quality printers with an excellent, easily readable font. The lack of easy access to the dip-switches is irritating, but provided you don't want to use single sheets of paper, the machine has much to offer. It is worth considering why you might choose the FX80 instead, bearing in mind the substantial price difference of £150. Speed is the obvious first point. A rate of 160cps can offer significant advantages on long print-runs. You may want full proportional spacing and the ability to define your own characters, which allows you to close up the line-spacing and print your logo. You may want bit image graphics for use with a plotter. You may find the RX control codes somewhat complex, and wish to use the simple extra command in the FX which produces 63 different combinations of print mode. However, the RX has the following advantages, apart from price: it is smaller, and lighter; at the lowest speed it is quieter; and it will accommodate paper down to a width of 4in, which allows labelling on narrow paper. To date, the promised tractor-feed has not yet emerged for the FX, and in any case it will be an extra.

The first three lines show print-out samples from the EX80 printer in different modes, reproduced actual size. Below them are samples enlarged three times to show the structures in detail.

RX80 IN THE PCN STAKES This pie chart represents a rough guide to what we feel is the trade-off between price and capabilities on the Epson RX80, as determined by the PCN Peripheral Pro-Test. It's based on the premise that a high capability in one direction will cause either a low capability in another or a higher price. For this reason 'economy' is a negative way of expressing price - the cheaper the printer the bigger the economy segment. If a printer has lots of everything it will close the price/performance gap - obviously a wide gap doesn't represent a good buy, 15 degrees is good and none is excellent.

Personal Computer News

Ian Scales

PRINT POWER: EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW If you're looking for hard copy Ian Scales has the answers - and the all-important questions. Printers are one of the first things most users hook up to their micros. Choosing the right one, however, is a fairly demanding business requiring a cool head and a firm grasp of your likely requirements. All printers are not the same. The field can be broadly split into three catagories. At the bottom of the price range there are the alternative types like the ZX printer, at the top of the heap are the letter quality daisywheels, and occupying a large chunk of middle ground are the dot matrix. The first category includes printers like Sinclair's ZX or Apple's Silentype and represent computer manufacturers' attempts to enhance their products with comparatively priced printer offerings. The ZX Printer remains cheap at the expense of paper width, paper quality and print quality. It is useful only to people who want hard copy listings of programs and this is all it is really designed to provide. The problem is that printer prices have refused to descend in pace with the computers they serve. A computer is composed mostly of microchips and the cost of manufacturing them has been steadily coming down over the past ten years. Conventional printers, however, have the handicap of crucial mechanical components and it has not been possible to radically cheapen their manufacture without making them flimsier and less reliable. Electrostatic printers introduce technology with fewer moving parts but at present compromise on print quality to such an extent that they suffer severe limitations. RELEASES Although dot matrix printers are stuck with lots of moving parts they do seem to be experiencing benefits from their mass production. As everyone knows, the more you produce of one thing, the cheaper it becomes per unit. The Japanese manufacturers haven't wasted time in virtually cornering the low-cost printer market and expansion of this market is starting to have a lowering effect on UK prices. The past couple of months have seen some notable releases - especially Epson's new and relatively cheap RX80. At under £300, it and its competitors are viable printers for users with micros in the £300 to £450 price range. Even lower priced matrix printers are available at around £200, although these tend to lose points on quality and flexibility. The dot matrix printer sends a print-head back and forth across the paper. On the head is a row of (usually 7 or 8) pins. The pins are punched through an ink ribbon onto the paper and build up the characters as a matrix of dots. It's a popular method and there is a wide variety of matrix printers on the market in every price bracket, so picking a dot matrix printer is not an easy matter. Potential buyers must arm themselves with a proper understanding of the things before venturing forth with a fistful of notes. The first thing to work out is interfacing. Most printers could really be described as purpose-built computers in their own write. A printer will usually have a small volatile memory (buffer) and a processor to manipulate it and control the print head as it goes over the paper. Far from being directly under the control of the micro, they deal as equals-obeying and interpreting text code. This computer to printer communication is carried out through an interface. INTERFACES An interface is a small group of electronic components which takes the signals from the computer and converts them so they can be sent down a cable to another compatible interface waiting at the other end to convert them back. There are two main types of interface. The first is known as a serial interface - the most common of which is the RS232. This sends pulses one after the other, rather like a one lane roadway. Its alternative is a parallel interface and the most popular of these is the Centronics. The Centronics sends its signals in ranks over a multi-lane roadway rather like tanks in a Russian May-day parade. The advantage here, of course, is speed - you can get more individual bits down in a given time. So the first thing to work out is what interface your computer has and attempt to match this to interfaces on offer on available printers. It is important to distinguish between interfaces available as standard on a printer and those available as extra cost. Some manufacturers give you a choice - either one or the other or the basic price. It may turn out that you have no standard interface on your computer. If so get interface prices before making a purchase, as the expenditure can radically alter the economics of the whole exercise. The Spectrum, for instance, is cheap partly because it has no interfaces. These then have to be added at extra cost before a reasonable printer can be configured. Kempston does a Centronics interface for the Spectrum. But having the right interface unfortunately doesn't guarantee compatibility. Some computers recognise different character codes and this can lead to major problems - always get an assurance from the dealer or, if possible, see the printer running with your model computer feeding the text. SPEED Another criterion that must be considered is print speed. Although 100cps sounds fast, it can still take some time to get through a length of text. Like all features, speed is generally a direct trade-off against price. If you plan to use your printer for business try and work out how much text you are likely to want to put through in a given time in determining your requirements. Remember too that manufacturers' speed claims tend to err on the optimistic side. It seems to be a convention not to take account of the time involved in carriage return. As a rough guide it is wise to knock 20 to 30 cps off the claimed speed. Many users will be interested in graphics capability. This is often very dependent on supporting software - make sure you get all the details sorted out before getting too enthusiastic. Print flexibility is another quality the importance of which will differ from user to user. Do you really need a full European character set or need to run different typefaces on the one page? (it can often look rather gross anyway). The same applies to different pitches and print positions (the maximum number of characters that can be printed on one line by the smallest character set). FEEDING TIME Feed methods are another problem. The dot matrix works best with a tractor feed. The paper is pulled under the print head by a sprocket which marries with a line of perforations on the fan-fold paper. Once the paper is out of the printer the strips of paper down the side of the sheet with the tractor holes can be torn off. Alternative feed methods - sheet feed for instance - tends to increase the price quite dramatically. Unless you want to use letter-head paper sheets, fanfold tractor feed will probably be quite satisfactory. PRINT QUALITY Perhaps the most important consideration, however, is print quality. On the face of it, a dot matrix printer is an ideal method of putting what appears on a screen onto paper. It really uses the same method as the cathode ray tube building up characters from a matrix of dots. The dot matrix printer is conventionally supposed to come underneath the daisy-wheel printers in terms of print quality. Instead of a matrix, the daisywheel uses moulded characters which strike the paper through a ribbon using the same principle as the typewriter. The daisywheel is really a con-job designed for people who want the convenience of computer-generated text but wish to retain the illusion that every letter sent is the result of half an hour's slave labour on an electric typewriter. it is interesting to note that the early typewriters sometimes featured a script-type which was supposed to resemble 'joined-up writing'. The idea was the same - it was designed to appease correspondents used to pen and ink. My guess is that the days of the daisywheel printer are probably numbered. Eventually people will get used dot-matrix text which they already receive in gas bills, circulars and even, sometimes, books. Good dot matrix printing is just as easy to read as that from a daisywheel and it has been completed faster, quieter and comes from a machine that on average costs half the price. When it's finished doing letters, the printer can output graphics in its spare time. One alternative to dot matrix is ink jet. The odd man out in this round-up is Olivetti's JP101. This printer uses a spark to fling ink out of a capsule directly onto the paper. The JP101 does only one line of dots at a time, but does them very fast - this makes it particularly good at graphics. PCN COMPARES THE RECENT CONTENDERS Over the past two months PCN Pro-Tested a representative sample of printers. Below we take a look back. The PCN Printers Pie roughly indicates the trade off between the four major variables. Price is represented by economy so excellent value for money will close up the price/performance gap. THE APPLE Dot matrix Pro-Test: PCN, March 18, 1983 Price: £489 Speed: 100 cps Interface: Parallel Centronics General Features: Seven different character widths and variable proportional spacing. Characters can be printed standard, bold or elongated. Tractor and friction feed are standard and carriage width is 10.5 inches. Contact Apple [redacted]. FACIT 4510 Dot matrix Pro-Test: PCN, April 1, 1983 Price: £498 Speed: 80 cps Interfaces: Parallel Centronics, Serial R5232. General Features: Full European character set. Has proportional spacing and characters can be printed at 10, 12 or 17 per inch. Characters can be printed standard, elongated or underlined. Block graphics plus high resolution graphics. High res densities of 70, 62 and 100 dots per inch. Friction and tractor feed standard. Contact Access Data Communications [redacted]. OLIVETTI JP101 Ink jet Pro-Test: PCN April 29, 1983 Price: £359 inc VAT Speed: 67-80 cps Interfaces: Centronics, RS232 £55 extra General features: Uses spark jet. Perhaps its main advantage is almost no noise. Provides ten, 12 or 18 characters per inch. Has full European character sets, and three types of underlining and bit graphics. Its graphics capabilities are extremely good. Tractor and friction feed is standard. Contact Micro-Peripherals [redacted]. EPSON FX80 Dot matrix PRO-Test: PCN, April 29, 1983 Price: £438 inc VAT Speed: 160 cps Interfaces: Parallel Centronics, IEEE optional extra. General features: Definable proportional spacing. Subscripts and superscripts are good quality - has double strike giving close to daisywheel quality. Provides normal condensed and double-width characters. You can define your own character set and double and even quadruple density bit graphics are available. Tractor/pin and friction feed standard. Contact Epson UK [redacted]. EPSON RX80 Dot matrix Pro-Test: PCN, May 6, I983 Price: £250 to £300 plus VAT (the dealers tend to set their own retail prices - shop around). Speed: 100 cps Interfaces: Parallel Centronics, IEEE and RS232 optional extras. General features: Alternative character set available plus double strike, bold strike and a full range of widths and pitches. Modes may be turned on and off within a line. Bit graphics are available in a wide variety of modes. Tractor feed is standard. Contact Epson UK [redacted]. STAR 510 Dot matrix Pro-Test: PCN May 13, 1983 Price: £289 plus VAT Speed: 100 cps Interfaces: Parallel Centronics General features: A 9x9 matrix provides either 10, 12 or 17 characters to the inch while the line pitch is programmable. Pitch changes may be made within a line. Superscripts and subscripts are generated in unidirectional mode. Bit graphics come in single or double density in a 480 or 960 dot matrix. An interesting feature is the printer's use of a normal typewriter ribbon instead of the usual printer cartridge. Tractor and friction feed is standard. Contact Miro Peripherals [redacted]. QUESTIONS YOU NEED TO ASK PCN Checklist - arm yourself with the right set of questions before you put yourself on the printer market. What do I want to print? Think carefully about print quality and graphics. Will you really print a lot of letters and do you want graphics hard-copy? How important is time? Is it worth £100 to save the odd minute or so in printing time? Compatibility: Will it run properly with my computer? How much will it cost to make it do so? Speed: What is the real speed? . Ribbon: How much do they cost and how long will they last? Feed method: Is the standard tractor adequate or is it worth the extra money to buy a sheet feeder? Carriage-width: Will it take the paper? Flexibility: How many different character sets and graphics modes are available for the money? What will extra features cost? Noise: Make sure you hear it first. Support: Will the dealer fix it if it breaks and how long will he continue doing so? Are there maintenance schemes available?