A stickler for tradition, Epson’s PX720WD resists the temptation of settling for five inks, as found in the likes of the Canon PIXMA MG5150 and HP Photosmart Premium C309G. So instead of getting both dye-based and pigment-based black inks as a compromise between document and photo printing, the Epson goes for the full 6-ink monty.

Billed as an all-in-one for photo enthusiasts, it serves up the conventional mix of CMYK dye-based inks, along with additional light cyan and light magenta inks, boasting an enhanced colour range for truly photo-realistic output. At least, that’s the theory.

Running on Epson’s latest generation of Claria inks, each in individually replaceable cartridges, the PX720WD runs true to form with a 5760dpi resolution that’s typical of Epson printers, joined at the hip to a high-resolution 4800dpi scanner that enables mono or colour photocopying as well as scanning. Indeed, these and most other specifications are identical to the PX710W that we’ve reviewed previously.

For example, you get USB, Ethernet and Wi-Fi connectivity, along with a wide range of media card slots that include compatibility with CF, SD, SDHC, MMC, MS and xD formats. But there are a couple of notable differences too.

One of our criticisms of the PX710W was that it had a barrage of buttons cluttering the front panel, making standalone use a little counter-intuitive. That’s now been replaced by a touch-sensitive panel in which individual icons are only illuminated as and when they’re active, somewhat simplifying the process.

It’s not as slick as the full-colour touch-screen LCDs of printers like the Lexmark Interact S605 or the HP Photosmart Premium C309G, but it’s definitely a step in the right direction, and overall the menu system is quite intuitive.

The other new attraction compared with the older PX710W is that the PX720WD sprouts a bulbous auto duplex unit on its rear end, adding about 7cm to the overall depth of the printer

It’s a little strange to find an auto duplex on a printer that’s designed for photo output rather than document printing, but considering the PX720WD lacks a pigment-based black ink, mono text is reasonably crisp and solid-looking, at least compared with the feint grey that’s often associated with photo printers. Other extras include a neat CD/DVD tray for direct printing onto white-faced discs.

Print speeds are very respectable in standard photo quality mode, with 6×4-inch prints taking about 20 seconds a piece. Top quality mode drags the speed down to about three minutes per borderless A4 print, but that’s quicker than with some of Epson’s photo printers, like the P50.

When it comes to image quality there’s plenty of contrast, and colour rendition is good, although skin tones aren’t particularly flattering. Photo prints tend to look very punchy, but sometimes at the expense of a slight loss of detail in highlights and lowlights. Running costs are slightly lower than average, which is a bonus considering there are six cartridges under the bonnet, rather than just four or five.

The PX720WD is a marked improvement over Epson’s preceding PX710W in terms of intuitive ease of use, and the auto duplex unit is nice to have for double-sided printing if and when you need it. In all other respects, the two printers are virtually identical, so it’s a case of evolution rather than revolution.

We liked

The touch-sensitive panel makes it easier to engage standalone printing and photocopying modes, and there’s a wide range of media card slots. Built predominantly for photo output, the addition of a CompactFlash slot is an advantage to those with posh D-SLRs, as this is lacking on many of the latest all-in-one printers.

Photo print quality is particularly punchy and vibrant, and the addition of a secondary paper input tray for postcard prints of up to 7×5 inches reduces the need for continual swapping between plain paper and photo paper in the main tray.

We disliked

Photo print quality isn’t noticeably better than from Canon’s 5-ink printers like the MG5150, and the latter produces stronger mono text with its pigment-based black ink. Another plus point for the Canon is that the secondary input tray can accommodate full A4 photo paper.

Epson’s touch-panel interface isn’t quite on a par with full-colour touch-screen LCDs, as fitted to the Lexmark Interact S605 or the HP Photosmart Premium C309G.

Verdict

One of the most expensive A4 all-in-one printers on the market, the Epson PX720WD goes a long way to justify its price tag and running costs are pretty reasonable. Ultimately, however, the 6-ink system doesn’t really deliver noticeably better photo quality than some of Canon’s cheaper 5-ink printers.

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Inkjet printers have a sloppy reputation for business printing. Run a highlighter pen over an important phrase of text and you’re likely to end up with a smudgy mess. A few raindrops can make ink-printed envelopes almost unintelligible.

Colour laser printers make a viable alternative but they tend to be big, heavy and expensive, so what’s the answer?

Epson bridges the gap between regular inkjet and laser printing with its resin-based DURABrite Ultra inks, which are practically dry by the time they hit the paper and are remarkably resistant to water, smudging and fading.

As an all-in-one printer for the small or home office, the BX305FW has a wide range of business-like features. In standalone mode, it can handle mono or colour photocopying at the touch of a button but, unlike most multi-function printers, it adds faxing to its repertoire.

Better still, scanning, photocopying and faxing all benefit from a 30-sheet ADF (Auto Document Feeder) to make light of multi-sheet documents. There’s also a neat row of assignable speed-dial buttons for up to five phone numbers.

You don’t need to be tied to the printer either, because the Epson is fully Wi-Fi certified in addition to carrying a standard USB 2.0 port. Another neat touch is that you can fire off faxes through the BX305FW direct from your computer, without having to print hard copies of your documents first.

While the on-board control interface is fairly neat and tidy, using the Epson isn’t all plain sailing. There’s only a single, rear-mounted paper input tray, which sits vertically and can accommodate around 100 sheets of standard 80gsm paper.

This means that if you want to print on headed paper or envelopes, you have to swap the paper around every time, and the same goes for photo printing. The dual paper input system on most Canon printers like the MG5150 makes life much easier.

Another disappointment is that there’s no USB port for direct document printing from flash drives, and there are no memory card readers either. An auto-duplex facility would have been nice too, since the instantly dry resin-based inks are perfect for double-sided printing, but sadly you have to turn each sheet over manually.

Print speeds are a bit sluggish for document printing, taking 14 seconds for a mono text page and 58 seconds for a mixed text and colour graphics DTP page in our tests.

On the plus side, the printer doesn’t have to wait for pages to dry when outputting multi-sheet documents, which speeds things up in real terms.

Photo printing is very slow, taking two minutes and 21 seconds for a 6 x 4-inch print in standard photo quality mode and over 12 minutes for an A4 photo print at the highest quality setting.

As a four-ink printer, photo quality is compromised but even considering the lack of colour space, it’s especially poor on glossy photo paper, although quite acceptable on plain paper.

Running costs are steep when using the standard yield (Fox) cartridges that come with the printer, at around 3.7p per mono page and 14.5p for colour.

Using high-yield (Apple) cartridges reduces this to 3.2p for mono and 10.3p for colour, but that’s still pricey and the page yield is only about the same as you’d expect from Canon’s regular cartridges fitted to the likes of the MP640 and MG5150.

As a combined printer, photocopier and fax machine, the Epson BX305FW makes good sense and its four-ink DURABrite Ultra system makes for rugged prints that are water, smudge and fade-resistant on plain paper. It’s nice to know you can print out important business documents and they’re going to stay looking professional.

We liked

The auto document feeder works well with scanning, photocopying and faxing, and the BX305FW takes most office printing jobs in its stride.

The robustness of the output is definitely the main attraction and, while photo quality is poor on glossy paper, photographic images actually look very passable on plain paper. Wi-Fi connectivity is a bonus.

We disliked

The resin-based inks are perfect for double-sided printing, because the ink doesn’t soak into the paper, but the BX305FW doesn’t include an auto duplex facility, so you have to turn each page over manually.

The single paper input tray means you have to switch between plain paper, headed paper, envelopes and photo paper all too often, and there’s no means of printing direct from a USB flash drive.

Photo printing is extremely slow, especially in top quality mode, and running costs are very high if you use the standard-yield ink cartridges, and still pretty expensive even with high-yield cartridges fitted.

Verdict

The BX305FW works pretty well for basic printing, scanning, photocopying and faxing and its ULTRABrite Ultra inks make for impressively smudge-resistant prints. However, it’s lacking in various areas and a few extra features would have made it much more useful in the office.

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Why just go large when you can go wide as well? The Epson R2880′s standout feature is that it comes complete with a paper roll feeder, which attaches to the printer for creating large format panoramic pictures.

Indeed, stitch enough photos together in a program such as recent editions of Photoshop Elements, and the Epson can produce a single print that’s an astonishing 11 metres long, with a height of 329mm.

Even sticking to the still generous constraints of regular A3+ printing, with 483 x 329mm (19 x 13-inch) output, the R2880 has plenty to offer, especially for fans of film noir.

Beneath the fairly bland and boxy exterior of the R2880 lies a heart of vivid magenta. At least, ‘vivid magenta’ is one of the colours that makes up the range of eight Epson UltraChrome K3 pigment-based inks, designed with professional photographers in mind.

On closer inspection, you’ll find that three of the inks are given over to black, or rather various shades of grey, including Photo Black, Light Black and Light Light Black.

As such, the R2880 lays out its credentials as a super-serious black and white photographic printer. In our tests, it did a fabulous job of reproducing the subtlest nuances and tonal variations, from the darkest shadows to the brightest highlights, producing spectacular monochrome prints.

You can also swap out the Photo Black cartridge for a Matte Black option, which you need to do every time you switch between glossy and matte photo paper.

Excellence in image quality is guaranteed, but we found it quite frustrating because the printer takes about five minutes to sort itself out after each cartridge swap, and seems to waste a fair bit of ink recharging the print head.

By contrast, some competing pigment-based A3+ printers, such as the Canon Pro9500 Mark II and HP Photosmart Pro B8550, have full-time inclusions of both regular and matte black inks, so there’s no need to swap.

Despite only having five different colour cartridges, apart from all the black inks, the R2880 can nevertheless deliver seriously strong colour output, with great fidelity over a very wide gamut.

Colour reproduction is particularly punchy on matte photographic papers but, as with other pigment-based printers, photo prints lose a little of their sheen on glossy paper stock. For this, dye-based printers like the Canon Pro9000 Mark II and Epson’s own Stylus Photo 1400 do a better job.

Another bit of bad news is that, as well as being pricey to buy, the R2880 has running costs that are among the highest in its class.

Combined ink and paper costs for A4 and A3+ photo prints work out to around £2.30 and £5 respectively.

Print speeds are also a little sluggish, taking about five minutes for a normal quality A4 photo and nearly nine minutes for an A3 photo print in top quality mode.

With its three black inks, as well as the option of swapping between regular and matte black inks depending on what type of photo paper you’re using, the R2880 is a bit of a black and white specialist, but still manages excellent colour rendition with very high all-round print quality on matte papers.

We liked

The panoramic print facility works a treat and adds (or at least extends) an extra dimension to large-format printing.

Black and white photo printing quality is absolutely outstanding.

We disliked

It’s a time-consuming chore having to swap the regular and matte black ink cartridges every time you switch between glossy and matte photo papers.

Along with a high purchase price, running costs are particularly expensive and print output is a little on the slow side.

Verdict

If you like black and white photo printing, you’ll love the R2880 because it’s simply unbeatable in mono mode.

Colour rendition is vibrant too, and the pigment-based ink system is ideally suited to matte and semi-gloss photo papers.

It’s just a shame about the cartridge-swapping niggles and the high running costs.

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What’s the single most infuriating thing about inkjet printers, apart from when one of the cartridges runs out and the damned thing refuses to print just when you need it most?

Well, picture this. You’re trying your level best to look good on paper, creating an immaculately crafted and mostly truthful CV that you’re really proud of.

However, at some point before it lands on the desk of whoever’s handing out your dream job, it somehow comes into contact with a single drop of water and your award-winning CV is instantly transformed into a smudgy mess.

The Epson Stylus SX515W aims to ensure that never happens.

An inkjet is an inkjet is an inkjet, right? Actually, while the vast majority of models from Brother, Canon, HP and Lexmark, as well as from Epson itself, use pigment-based or dye-based water-soluble inks, the SX515W is a rare breed that relies on resin-based inks, under Epson’s DURABrite umbrella.

In fact, an umbrella is the last thing these inks need, as their main claim to fame is that they can produce water-resistant, smudge-proof, anti-fade prints on bog-standard plain paper.

Robustness of plain-paper prints isn’t the SX515W’s only selling point, as it’s also well-connected for a printer with such a knockdown price tag.

As well as de rigueur USB 2.0 and PictBridge ports, it also features full Wi-Fi connectivity with a blissfully quick and easy setup routine that’s fully automatic, apart from requiring you to enter your network password.

On top (literally) of a fast 5760 x 1440dpi printer, you get a capable 2400 x 2400dpi CIS (Contact Image Sensor) scanner, which has been teamed up with a logically-designed control panel and 6.3cm colour LCD screen.

The net result is simple standalone mono or colour photocopying, as well as direct photo printing from the built-in CF, MMC, MS, SD, SDHC and xD memory card readers.

The inclusion of CompactFlash compatibility is nice to have, and something that’s lacking on many current all-in-one printers like the Lexmark Interact S605.

It’s not all good news thought, because while the four-ink system is perfectly adequate for document printing, photo output from the SX515W is a lacklustre, with limited colour range, poor contrast and a dull appearance even when printing on glossy photo paper.

In a straight fight with our stopwatch, the Epson put in a great turn of speed for mono documents, outputting A4 text pages in as little as four seconds.

It proved a little more tardy for mixed text and colour graphics, taking 28 seconds per page. Photo output was painfully slow, taking a minute and six seconds for a 6 x 4-inch print in normal quality mode, and a nap-inducing six minutes and forty seconds for a top-quality borderless A4 photo print.

That’s nearly three and a half times slower than the Canon iP4700 and five times slower than the Lexmark Interact S605.

The only other real snag we ran into was that if we didn’t use the Epson for a couple of weeks, its resin-based inks had a nasty habit of setting like glue in the print head nozzles, requiring multiple cleaning cycles to unclog them.

For the creation of smudge-proof documents on plain paper, the SX515W with its DURABrite inks is the next best thing to using a colour laser printer, but is much more compact, lightweight and cheap to buy.

We liked

There’s a good range of standalone printing and photocopying facilities on the menu, and it’s a clearly laid out, intuitive menu at that.

Better still, you can print an address on an envelope and walk to a post box without having to wait for it to stop raining.

Wi-Fi connectivity is a bonus, considering the relatively cheap purchase price of this all-in-one printer.

We disliked

Photo quality is disappointing with poor colour rendition and a lack of contrast, and resin-based inks don’t work too well with glossy photo paper, giving a dull appearance.

Fast mono print speeds decrease dramatically for colour graphics output and photo prints are painfully slow. Without frequent use, nozzles in the print head are prone to clogging.

Verdict

Simple and effective, the SX515W is ideal for printing or photocopying documents with smudge-free benefits but, considering that so many of the latest inkjets deliver great quality output for photos as well as documents, it’s a bit of a one-trick pony.

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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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The Epson Photo Stylus P50 is a striking printer that comes with something of an art deco feel and looks as though it’s been designed with an eye on looking great in any modern home.

Compared to many printers on the market, you won’t readily want to hide the P50 away once you’ve finished using it, adding to its overall value and appeal. The high-gloss black finish and simple clean lines are mirrored by the basic control functions on display.

Connecting to your laptop via a USB cable, this is an easy printer to set up. You’ll find three buttons on the front of the printer, but little else, so no PictBridge port or LED control panel.

This is a dedicated photo printer that uses six ink cartridges, five individual colours and black. With so many cartridges, setting up takes a little time, but it’s a fairly standard routine.

We found that while the P50 installed easily on a Windows Vista laptop, we needed to download new drivers from the Epson website before it would work on a Windows 7 machine. This is a 19MB download and details on downloading it are found in the box, along with those on getting the latest drivers for use with Apple Mac OS X, letting MacBook owners get in on the act too.

Quiet operator

Printing is an incredibly quiet affair, with the shunting of paper associated with most printing kept to a minimum.

This isn’t the fastest machine, however and we found that our test 4 x 6-inch glossy photos took well over a minute to print. Thankfully the results are truly stunning and compensate greatly.

The Epson Photo Stylus P50 sits at the upper end of the price bracket in terms of entry-level photo printers, but it is incredibly easy to use and looks great. With six ink cartridges to consider, each costing around £10 (inc. VAT), running costs can be expensive, but if you’re serious about getting great results from your images, then it is well worth the investment.

As a result, we have no qualms in recommending this printer with our highest accolade.

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LCD projectors like the Epson EB-W7 tend to be slightly larger than DLP machines, but in its favour the EB-W7 has a great look. The white plastic finish feels solid and the menu buttons, while well spaced, are a good size.

The projector itself has an overall weight of 2.3kg, which gives it a semi-portable feel, but it is a rather bulky machine to carry around. The lens is hidden away under a protective cover, so you run less risk of damaging it in transit or simply when stowing it away. It’s a manual cover and underneath you’ll find good-sized focus and zoom controls, so ensuring images are pin-sharp is an easy task.

Connections on the back of the system are adequate. There is no HDMI port, but you’ll find the full array of analog ports for connecting to your laptop. We found that setting up the projector was quick, but using the onscreen menu proved a little complicated, so fine-tuning settings could be tricky.

The 2200 ANSI lumens brightness rating makes this a bright projector and we found it more than usable in a range of home and office situations.

Our presentation test highlighted how usable this device is. With crisp whites and sharp blacks, backed by a good throw-range, this is ideal for an office environment. Our video tests also proved more than acceptable, with a great range of colours that had real warmth to them.

However, with its native resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels, this is a 16:10 aspect ratio projector, so while movies look sharp, it doesn’t natively support widescreen images, so there is a letterbox effect.

The Epson EB-W7 is a good all-round projector that delivers sharp and warm colours. The lack of a high-definition HDMI port limits its future-proofing, but for offices and schools where older laptops hold sway, we feel this is a cost-effective and highly usable machine.

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