ALPS Allegro 24 - 24 Pin Dot Matrix Printer
                        Copyright 1989 David Batterson
     
     My first impression of the ALPS Allegro 24 was that the printer LOOKED
different.  My evaluation showed that the innards and performance also stand
out from the crowd.
     Right off the bat, you notice significant differences.  First of all, the
push tractor is located in the front of the printer, for very easy paper
loading.
     You pop open the paper clamps, put the paper on the tractor pins, turn on
the power, and then press the FF button.  The paper then advances to the
top-of-form position.  Press the Select button, and you're ready to print.
     The Allegro 24 has a short, flatbed paper path too, instead of feeding
paper around a platen.  This results in less jamming, especially with
multi-part forms.
     The back of the top cover serves as the tear bar.  No more wasted sheets
of paper.  After completing a printing job, press the Tear Bar button.  The
paper advances, so that you can tear it off perfectly.  Press the Tear Bar
button again, and the paper returns to print position.
     Another surprise comes if you look for the DIP switches.  [Where did they
put those suckers this time?--inside, underneath, in back behind a cover
plate?]  The surprise is that there aren't any DIP switches.  The Allegro 24
has a Memory Mode feature instead.
     No DIP switches?--way to go, ALPS!  I don't know any PC users who like
messing around with DIP switches.  They are an outmoded technology, and let's
hope they soon disappear from printers, boards, modems and ALL products.
     Memory Mode is simple to use.  By holding down the Select button upon
powering up, the Allegro 24 prints out the Memory Mode menu.  You change
settings with the FF button, and advance to the next setting with the LF
button.  Pressing the Select button again saves the new settings.
     This printer also features paper parking (for easy use of single sheets);
has fold-down metal legs; prints at 180 cps in draft, and 60 cps in LQ mode;
the buffer is 7K; there are 3 LQ fonts, Courier, Gothic and Tiempo.  The
Allegro 24 emulates the Epson LQ series.
     Options include a 32K buffer, single-bin sheet feeder, and more LQ fonts:
Prestige Elite, Orator and OCR-A.
     The printer has character pitches of 5 to 20, including proportional. 
You can select either IBM extended character sets or the Epson italic
character set.  There are 13 different international character sets.  Graphics
images print at 360 dpi x 180 dpi resolution.
     A bonus with the Allegro 24 is the ALPSmate printer control utility. 
This is a TSR program which lets you see a pop-up menu from within other
applications, and then select appropriate printer commands.  You can even
enter control codes, and select sideways printing.
     For the Allegro 24's unique design features, quality, and ease-of-use, I
give it an A+ rating.  I consider it the best dot matrix printer I have
reviewed thus far.  Suggested list is $499; actual retail is much less.
     For more information, contact ALPS America, a division of ALPS Electric
(USA), Inc., 3553 N. First St., San Jose, CA  95134; phone 800-828-ALPS,
800-825-2577 (in CA), or 408-432-600; FAX: 408-432-6035.
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     David Batterson writes articles and reviews for several publications. 
Send your comments via MCI Mail: DBATTERSON.