All the printers tested printed the same files and all results were compared as to which machines printed which files well. These were out of the box machines as there was no time to tweak them. Testers were not allowed to "test" the same type of machine then personally owned so that they could not be swayed by personal preference or goof with them. So if someone owned, say, a Replicator 5, they were given a different machine to test. All machines were tested by a team of at least two testers. One tester was then chosen to write the review.

Of course, another machine from the same company could print differently out of the box but this is the best way MAKE could set up the testing.