Simply the best (Epson Stylus DX4450)

Name: MI9to5

Hello doyoo user, You have to be logged in to use these functions... Login or register Close window

Send message to member

Product:	Epson Stylus DX4450
Date:	23/05/08 (198 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Excellent print quality

Disadvantages: Is slightly slow

I've only ever had a non-Epson printer once and I'll never be doing that again, so when I went out to choose a new printer Epson was my first choice. After much deliberation the printer I eventually choice was the Epson DX4450.

Once I got it home and unpacked it, I set about connecting it to me computer expecting the process to take quite a while. I was pleasantly surprised as from unpacking to printing the first document it only took about 20 minutes. Fantastic.

When the document had printed I was also exceptionally pleased with the print quality which was far better than I have ever had with my other printers in the past. Being impressed I decided to print a colour document (the first had been black and white) to see how this fared. Again the print quality was excellent and better still the paper was feeding through correctly and not being chewed up by the printer (again another feature of my past printers). The only problem was it did take a reasonable period of time to print but I suppose I'd rather it take longer but look decent than be printed in 2 seconds flat and look awful.

The printer itself is a combination scanner and printer. A button on the right hand side allows you to scan and print a document without having to touch anything else. You can also scan documents using a programme on your computer and then print them at a later date if you so choose. Anyway my last printer hadn't had a scanner attached and so I had to try this out too. For testing purposes I choose a document that had pictures and texts on it and pressed the quick scan and print (photocopy) button on the printer. The scanning of the document was super quick and when the printed copy was complete the print quality was again very good. The text was sharp and defined and the pictures looked exactly as they had on the original.

Another good feature of the DX4450 is that it contains 4 separate ink cartridges, black, yellow, cyan and magenta, meaning that when one colour runs out you don't have to buy all three therefore saving you money. The cartridges themselves aren't too badly priced and retail at around £8.00 a cartridge although these can be purchased cheaper online or if you shop around, I usually pay about £6.00. It is also possible to purchase combination ink packs, which come with a complete set of colour cartridges, these usually cost about £22.00 but again are cheaper if you shop around. The ink cartridges also last a fair while; at a rough estimate I'd say that each will print around 200 sheets of text before running out, obviously however pictures will use up more ink. Furthermore Epson have also made the purchasing of ink cartridges easier as no longer do you have to remember a long number, simply a picture. The cartridges used in this printer are cheetah cartridges and are also used in other Epson printers so if you are considering buying two printers it is worth seeing if you can find two that run on the same cartridge. This way you can purchase multi-pack cartridges and save more money, which is always a bonus.
NOTE: The printer does come with a complete set of colour cartridges and a black so you can start printing straight away.

All in all therefore I have to say that I am quite impressed by the Epson DX4450. Despite it being a little slow on the printing front the print quality is excellent and it's scanning functions more than adequate. It's defiantly the best printer I've ever had.

Summary: Better than all the rest