Rating: Summary: Excellent features and performance at a reasonable price Review: I've had this printer for about 3 weeks and am extremely pleased. I've used it for text printing, copying, scanning and, more recently, photo printing. The performance has been terrific - I printed out an 8x10 photo that looks comparable to one produced by a portrait studio. For photo printing, it is critical to take the picture at high resolution, and to ensure that the printer is set to the proper settings (e.g. the "best photo" setting, photo paper setting, and several others.). While I've read reviews on other sites that complain about photo quality printing on this model, I think that following these guidelines and using good photo quality paper ensures good quality printing. Also, the printer does not seem to drink up ink cartidges the way others are reputed to, and has the convenience (and economy) of allowing you to replace separate color ink cartridges.
Rating: Summary: My new Epson CX5200 all in Wonder Review: I needed to replace my aging Epson 850N printer in my home/office setting with a newer printer capable of better text and graphics. In addition, being able to photocopy things was an increasing need. Around the same time as the 850N needed to be replaced my Umax scanner was giving me trouble, so being able to scan documents was also added to the list. The printer also needed to be both PC & Mac compatible. The CX5200 fits all of the above. It is a USB based printer so sharing it means OS level printer sharing or buying an external print server. The scans are clean and exact. The prints are awesome compared to my old (5+ year) printer. Scanning can be done either remotely or at the printers control panel. Paper handling is the loudest part of this printer, but that is relatively quite. The scanner is TWAIN compliant, so all the benefits of TWAIN supported apps fall into play. The printer driver, etc. are well supported in Mac OS X as well. An anticipated update this spring will provide missing control panel support. All in all this looks to be an excellant home printer for the money.
Rating: Summary: Go for upgrade: CX6400 Review: I just got the newest version, CX6400, and it's worth the extra few dollars for the extra features. It reads all types of camera cards, prints photo thumbnail index, does borderless printing and a host of other tricks that the CX 5200 and 5400 can't do. I've yet to try all the bells and whistles, but basically this is just a slightly newer and more featured version of the one with reviews here. My problems were right out of the gate with SOFTWARE - I had to call tech support due to error messages and wound up doing the custom install. I didn't bother loading the photo software, have my own and like it. I uninstalled other printer driver, etc., (another Epson) prior - recommended. This is my 4th (!) Epson printer, which I bought primarily for the convenience of copy and scan in one unit. If noisy on paper loading, it's still a lot quieter than any of my former Epson printers (Color Stylus IIs, 300, 777). All 3 of those were ruined by inferior ink cartridges. Stay with Epson cartridges, despite cost, or pay the long-term price: replacing printer. Live and learn.... Durabrite black actually makes my photo artwork look better, less contrast-y. In printer software, I'm using high speed for color, which actually looks better (for some reason) than slow - use the custom configurations (despite Epson's warning when you click) - this is the only way to ensure getting a print preview. As for longevity....stay tuned. I'm hopeful.
Rating: Summary: I just love this Printer Review: After reading the reviews of Epson c82 and learning about Epson's durabrite ink technology, I ordered this printer from Amanzon.com. This printer seems to be big brother of C82 with multifunction capabilities. Compared to other multi function printers on the market, like HPs PSC 750/2210, this unit is pretty heavy and takes more desk space. But i just liked its looks on the first sight - it has extremely well build grey colored plastic exterior, and looks more like a small laser printer. Setting it up was easy, plugged to power supply, popped in the 4 ink catridges, ran the software CD, followed the instructions, connected the USB line and in 7-10 minutes it printed the first test page. The page was printed extremely fast, but i wanted to experiment more. I put my favourite picture in the scanner and selected the color copy button and in less than 2 minutes it printed a very close copy of the picture. I had used ordinary paper for printing the picture and observed the colors-mix was more than what you would expect from an inkjet. It was just stunning! Just to confirm Epson's claim that the dura brite is water resistant, i splashed some water on the pictures and after 5 seconds wiped it off. No smudging was seen (and this was done on a picture that was printed on ordinary paper). So far so good. I wanted to try some scanning. I put a copy of my check, pressed the scan button. It popped up scanning software window on my computer screen. I pressed the scan button and it scanned ! but the best feature about scanning was that the scanner automatically detects the size of the object to be scanned. So the scanned image of my check was just the image of check without any white boundries. I am really impressed by this printer. To sum it up: PROS: Extremely fast printing, Durabrite tech, high resolution, fast and accurate scanning, seperate ink tanks (can save money on ink), flatbed scanning. CONS: No parralel interface (if that is important), no fax capability (but you can use it with your computer for sending/receiving faxes with scanning/printing features of this machine), it makes some cranking sounds at the startup (but the operation after startup is quiet), cannot get durabrite ink from 3 party manufacturers or 3rd party refills. Overall Rating: This is the best Multi Function Device available on market today. I would recommend it to anyone who wants to print quality pictures, copier, color copier, good scanner.
Rating: Summary: Overall excellent home product Review: this is my first epson product and I am more than happy with my purchase. The price for what you get is excellent. Scanning was simple. Basicly you put in a picture or face down book and press scan and the software takes care of the rest. Compared to my last scanner (microtek) this is a dream. The software is intuitive and didnt require my going thru help menus to figure out. The unit, being multi function integrates with printing and that makes it easy too. Not to mention *not* needing extra cables and space to connect separate units. The printing is quicker than my last printer (HP) especially in black and white. The printing speed isnt what I would call lightening fast, but it works well for me as a home user. Color printing is somewat slower. You can set preferences to do more *draft quality* prints as a preference. Something that saves ink and makes the print jobs go quicker. The epson software comes up when you are printing and shows you how much ink you have left. In black, and the three colors... very nice. That you can buy the cartridges (the colors separately) is wonderful. No more waste. The one drawback Ihave found is that I find it fairly noisy. Not necessarily much noisier than my last one but still I was surprised. I have found that you can vary the print quality based on your needs. Rough drafts to presentation modes. I think a flat bed scanner is essential as you can not sheet feed things to copy that are from books. This is a wonderful, and so far, trouble free unit. Well, worth the money (I paid a bit more than the current price) and it suits my purposes very well
Rating: Summary: It does NOT work after replacing the cartridges Review: I liked the printer for first couple of monthw. I guess everybody does that. That's why you see all five or four stars. It is great at the beginning. Once you have replaced the cartridges, you are in trouble. I have used it for 8 months without any problem. I have replaced the cartridges than. It started giving me problem. I had to run head cleaning many times. There was lots of leaking, and missing characters. Then suddenly, it stopped using "cyan" after that yellos has gone. I hope technical support agrees with me and changes the printer. Basically, once you replace the cartridges, you are screwed!!! Be careful!
Rating: Summary: This is a piece of JUNK Review: I got this because I thought it would be exactly what I needed. It worked wonderfully--for six months. Now it prints only in blue (if you want full color) or black. Banding and splotching are everywhere, and I can't clean the heads because they are permanent. What a piece of junk. Never will I buy an Epson again.
Rating: Summary: Does not last Review: I was pleased with the quality while it lasted. We have had occasional problems with an error message regarding the scanner, but it usually goes away on its own. My problem is it printed in bands after about 12 months, and now at 15 months won't print at all. I chose the Epson largely based on my previous experience with its quality, but this week I've seen numerous complaints that the printer doesn't last two years. So I will be spending a little more and replacing it with a different brand.
Rating: Summary: Caution - Print heads are built in and NOT replaceable!!! Review: This printer seems like a great value, and the ink cartridges are cheap to replace as are most printers that have the ink seperate from the print head. However one MAJOR problem with this printer is that you can not REPLACE the print heads like in any other printer I've seen that has seperate modules. This means that when it's time to replace the print heads... you must buy a new printer!!! (Usually this is done about every 3 cartridges or so.) Basically this is a disposable printer... so don't plan on maintaining it for the long haul.
Rating: Summary: Works for over a year and now fails to print properly Review: I was very satisfied with the purchase of the printer but after not using it for about 1.5 months the colors do not print properly. The ink seems to have dried on the print head an none of the cleaning steps work at all to fix this. I also just bought a new set of ink both for the b&w and for the color so now it is just a waste. Epson support doesn't help at all except for the disclaimer that you should use the printer at least once a month. (Why is a product mandating when I should use it?) I am very disappointed that the core reason why I bought the thing is to print and now I get blotchy output that I can't get rid of. The other alternative is the clean it but with what? I have been searching the net for a solution but none is absolutely conclusive on fixing this printing issue.
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