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Epson Stylus C64 Inkjet Printer

Epson Stylus C64 Inkjet Printer

List Price: $79.99
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Great Printer, But Ink Eater
Review: The printer itself is a great product, especially for the price. The print-outs are of excellent quality and it prints fairly fast. However, it goes through ink SO FAST! I don't use it extremely often and I go through one black cartridge every month and a half.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Epson's cheap printers kill you on toners and paper.
Review: They have a trojan horse business model. You get a printer for practically nothing, but it runs out of ink after less than 50 prints and they charge an arm&leg for toner. For example, I bought a color ink cartridge 2 months ago. I made 8 high-quality color prints for school on epson inkjet photo paper. Today, I made 3 color prints on epson heavy matte paper. The 25$ toner is now half full. The paper works out to about 30 cents a sheet, meaning I paid Epson about $1.40 per print in the last two months. Can you imagine how much it would cost to stock a photo album of your last vacation trip? Half of my prints were re-prints because the printer colors look -nothing- like what they do onscreen. The bottom line is, if you're going to buy a low-end inkjet printer, do the research and find out how much you're going to be spending per high-color print. Don't believe the manufacturer's claims! Check out third-party websites for details on exactly how fast these printers run out of ink.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Excellent photo quality, text so-so
Review: This is a versatile little printer for the home. It produces excellent photo quality (you don't have to use "best" setting to get it , either). The Durabright inks are indeed water resistant, but very expensive. On the plus side, the cartridges seem to last a long time. But it is expensive to fill this thing with ink, almost as much as what the thing costs. I'm not impressed with the text quality. It looks very jagged. I bought it primarily for text, so it is a disapointment. At this price, the machine has to be considered as disposable as the ink cartridges. Buy it, use it until it dies, buy another, fill up the landfills. Epson seems to come out with a new model (and new ways to sell more expensive cartridges) every month.
I had an Epson 880 before this unit, and it produced equal results on photos, better results on text, with ink costs much lower. Epson is clearly interested in making its money on the ink. The 880 died after two years (started producing blurry text on certain WP programs), and so it's been retired to the Internet computer, where it still does a superior job to this guy.
Overall the C64 is a cheap, decent printer that will cost you its weight in ink.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Cheap printer, expensive non-fading ink.
Review: This little printer was no trouble to set up and start using. It's a bit slow. Even just a black & white page takes quite a while. A full-color photo takes a couple minutes. The "draft" mode comes out verrrrry faint, but is really fast, and obviously uses a lot less ink (an important point, as you will see).

This printer uses a special type of ink, called "Durabrite", which is MUCH longer-lasting than normal inkjet ink. (It's a pigment-based ink rather than a dye-based ink.) Your printouts will not fade away like a normal cheap inkjet's will. The downside to this super-duper ink is that the ink is darned expensive. The good news is that the four colors are separate cartridges, so at least you only have to replace the one color you've run out of. The black ink, however, is the MOST expensive inkjet cartridge you'll see in the store. It's about twice the price of a normal black cartridge. Yes, your printouts will last some 70 years on plain paper, instead of vanishing within 2 years like the cheapo inkjets do. Three of those $25 black cartridges later, and you've just spent more on ink than the printer itself!

Strangely, the other color cartridges (cyan, magenta, and yellow) are only half the price of the black cartridge. Don't ask me why, I have no idea. Too bad the black is the one you'll be buying most often.

I should point out that this printer will try to con you into replacing the ink cartridges long before they actually run dry (it gives you all sorts of dire warnings about low ink levels). Don't fall for it. It will actually STOP printing when it's truly run dry, so just keep printing until it stops, and only then replace the cartridge that's empty.

So, should you get this printer? It depends on what you'll be using it for. If you want a cheap printer for making quick printouts that you'll be tossing in the trash within a couple years, get a different printer. If you want printouts that will still be legible 50 years from now, get this one. If you're an artist or photographer and want to make decent prints of your art that won't fade too quickly, this is a good starter printer for you.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Cheap printer, expensive non-fading ink.
Review: This little printer was no trouble to set up and start using. It's a bit slow. Even just a black & white page takes quite a while. A full-color photo takes a couple minutes. The "draft" mode comes out verrrrry faint, but is really fast, and obviously uses a lot less ink (an important point, as you will see).

This printer uses a special type of ink, called "Durabrite", which is MUCH longer-lasting than normal inkjet ink. (It's a pigment-based ink rather than a dye-based ink.) Your printouts will not fade away like a normal cheap inkjet's will. The downside to this super-duper ink is that the ink is darned expensive. The good news is that the four colors are separate cartridges, so at least you only have to replace the one color you've run out of. The black ink, however, is the MOST expensive inkjet cartridge you'll see in the store. It's about twice the price of a normal black cartridge. Yes, your printouts will last some 70 years on plain paper, instead of vanishing within 2 years like the cheapo inkjets do. Three of those $25 black cartridges later, and you've just spent more on ink than the printer itself!

Strangely, the other color cartridges (cyan, magenta, and yellow) are only half the price of the black cartridge. Don't ask me why, I have no idea. Too bad the black is the one you'll be buying most often.

I should point out that this printer will try to con you into replacing the ink cartridges long before they actually run dry (it gives you all sorts of dire warnings about low ink levels). Don't fall for it. It will actually STOP printing when it's truly run dry, so just keep printing until it stops, and only then replace the cartridge that's empty.

So, should you get this printer? It depends on what you'll be using it for. If you want a cheap printer for making quick printouts that you'll be tossing in the trash within a couple years, get a different printer. If you want printouts that will still be legible 50 years from now, get this one. If you're an artist or photographer and want to make decent prints of your art that won't fade too quickly, this is a good starter printer for you.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Label Hell
Review: This printer seems to be incapable of printing labels (however I do accept that it may be possible that I have a faulty unit). The Label begins to feed, then the printer dog ears the corner and pulls the label off the backing and jams itself to death. This is using A4 Avery labels which have on other printers seemed infallible.

It is a real shame as it can perform well if you only need to print a few photo's.

Beware being tempted by the price of this unit, you may be better stepping up to a higher modem Epson.


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