Epson has always bucked the inkjet printing trend, using cool-running piezo-electric print heads to get the ink onto the paper, instead of boiling it in the conventional thermal fashion.
The company claims this gives greater freedom when it comes to formulating inks, as the consideration of a rapid boiling and cooling cycle is taken out of the equation.
The latest in a long line of dedicated photo printers, the PX710W uses Epson’s most recent generation of ‘hummingbird’ Claria dye based inks, and there are six individually replaceable cartridges in the conventional photo-friendly line-up of cyan, magenta, yellow and black, plus light cyan and light magenta, intending to extend the colour gamut for greater photographic accuracy.
All six of the PX710W’s inks are dye-based, enabling a premium finish on glossy photo papers. With the lack of a pigment-based black ink, or a resin-based DuraBrite black ink, as used in Epson’s SX600FW printer, the creation of high-quality mono text is a challenge for the PX710W.
However, while it can’t compete with printers like the Canon MP640 and HP C309G on this front, black text is still reasonably crisp, suffering less from a faint greyish affair than with some of Epson’s older photo printers, making it more viable as an all-rounder.
Mono text pages are fairly cheap to create as well, despite the lack of a high-capacity mono cartridge.
There’s certainly no shortage of connection options, the PX710W boasting both Ethernet and Wi-Fi, along with USB 2.0, PictBridge and a wide range of media card slots including CompactFlash, SD, SDHC, MMC, MS and xD.
Epson’s usual 5760 x 1440dpi print engine is coupled with a high-resolution 2400 x 4800dpi scanner with standalone functions like photocopying and direct printing from memory cards being brought together by a, frankly, huge control panel.
It lacks the more adventurous touchscreen option featured by the likes of the Lexmark S605 and HP C309G but the 6.3cm colour LCD is bright and clear, and the plethora of buttons sprouting from the front panel keeps things fairly intuitive, even if it does put your dexterity to the test.
Switching between plain and photo paper is a bit of a chore and, while there’s a secondary input tray, this can only accommodate small-format photo paper rather than full A4 sheets. Automatic double-sided printing is also off the menu, unless you buy Epson’s optional Auto Duplex unit.
Photo print speed is very quick in normal quality photo mode, with 6 x 4-inch prints taking around 20 seconds to produce.
Previous Epson models like the Stylus Photo P50 basic printer and PX650 all-in-one were notorious for their tardiness in top quality photo print modes, making you wait for about five minutes while they served up a borderless A4 print.
The PX710W proved considerably quicker in our tests, at just under three minutes, which is on a par with the HP C309G but still rather slower than the Canon MP640 or Lexmark S605, which do the same job in under two minutes.
The bottom line for any dedicated photo printer is the actual quality of photo prints. The PX710W is a bit of a mixed bag in this respect, because while photos are typically very bright and vibrant, contrast can be artificially high and some of our test shots lost detail in shadowy areas of scenes as a result.
Meanwhile, skin tones can be a little on the cool side and rather less flattering than with the Canon MP640.
A smart-looking piece of kit, the contrasting shiny and matte black surfaces of the PX710W combine well to give the impression of quality and this is reflected in a broad range of impressive features and up-market specifications.
We liked
There’s a wide choice of wired and wireless connection options as well as a full complement of media card slots, making it easy to print photos from just about any source, whether it’s a PC, Mac, camera or memory card.
Compared with touchscreen printers, the vast expanse of buttons can look a little daunting at first but the control system is nevertheless quick and easy to use in standalone modes.
There are some nice little extras, like a secondary input tray for postcard sized photo paper, and a neat CD tray for printing directly onto compatible CD/DVD discs, as also featured in the Canon MP640.
We disliked
As a dedicated photo printer running six dye-based inks, the PX710W makes a surprisingly good job of mono text printing but print quality is less than perfect where you need it most – in photo output.
We often found that fine detail got lost in lowlight areas and that contrast was a little high, while skin tones were sometimes cool and less than flattering.
Another problem was that the Epson seemed more prone than other printers to print head blockages in the ink nozzles, requiring greater frequency in cleaning cycles, which is not only an inconvenience but also wastes ink.
Verdict
The PX710W is one of Epson’s best photo printers to date but speed and quality could still be better, even in comparison to more general purpose printers like the Canon MP640.
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