HP has named itself top performer in a tough new set of supposed "real-world" printer tests performed by Fifth Gear presenter Vicki Butler-Henderson.

Slamming Canon, Epson and Lexmark, HP has said that it produces the best print quality, reliability and durability in printers ranged from £79 to £99.

HP tested the HP Photosmart C4180 against the Epson DX6050 against the Lexmark X3480 against the Canon Pixma MP180.

The challenge, which measured the reliability, durability and quality as well as value for money of the printers when tested in a real-life environment, found according to HP that its model was able to print more than twice as many pages as the worst performing printer but only performed 15 percent better that the next in queue.

Instead of being switched on and tasked to print continuously until the ink runs dry – as they would be in a lab-test - Vicki printed a combination of everyday documents such as web pages, slides and photos.

HP say that when printing ink-intensive photos, it's printer was able to produce twice as many as two of the competitive products, with the closest competitor only producing 60 percent of HP’s total.

Vicki says she was happy to take part in the test because she "was keen to test printers in a typical home environment", something that "didn't seem the case in the consumer technology world".