Excelent Value for money all in one (Epson Stylus Office BX300F)

Member Name: maa1506

Product:	Epson Stylus Office BX300F
Date:	14/06/09 (312 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Easy to use, cheap to buy

Disadvantages: Can be a bit noisy

I have been using this printer now for approximately three months and to date have been quite impressed with the results. The first thing you need to be aware of with this model is that you do get what you pay for. The BX300F is the at the very bottom end of the budget market and in some ways it does show. However, to coin a phrase, it does "What it says on the tin".

Epson Brand
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My decision to go with the Epson brand is primarily based on past experience. Firstly from experience, if a problem does occur, Epson after sales I have found to be very good and prompt!
When I had my old printer, it did develop a fault after about seven months of use. One call to Epson service resulted in a replacement sent for strait exchange via DHL within two days. No, hassle, and no waiting for days or weeks for a repair.
The other main reason for choosing Epson is the running costs after purchase. The cost of original replacement inks do in general tend to be a lot cheaper than other brands such as Lexmark and HP. Additionally, the availability of cheaper alternative inks is far greater for Epson than others. It should be noted however that Epson do state that using alternative inks can void the warranty.

Product description.
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This machine is an "All in one" device meaning that it has four separate functions. The main advantage of this being space saving in that rather than having four separate devices to print, fax, scan and photo copy, the BX300F does the lot! The obvious disadvantage to this is that if it breaks down, you loose all functions together.

Ease of use
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All features of this machine are very easy to understand and use. In conjunction with the software provided this machine will suit both the complete novice and the more adventurous alike. For functions such as photo copier and fax the machine is completely stand alone meaning that it can be used independently without the need to be connected to a PC.
General maintenance is very easy with the changing of inks made very quick and simple with clear instructions displayed either on the machines lcd display or PC screen. Loading paper into the rear of the machine can be a little fiddly at times mainly due to the sliding paper guides, however once set it is quite straightforward.

Printing
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This is by far the most used function of the machine.
Print quality in general is very good whether it be draft mode or colour photo printing.With other printers, in particular with my old Epson, printing in draft mode was next to useless. As the print was so fine, it was next to impossible to read. However this does seem to have been improved on significantly and now offers a usable fast document printing mode.
As with all other printers a variety of different page and envelope sizes can be selected up to A4 in size. When printing photo's there is the option to print "Border less" meaning that the print covers the whole of an A4 sheet rather than leaving a white surround or border.
The print speed it has to be said is not the fastest in the world. Whilst standard text documents are printed quite quickly, photo printing especially A4 size really is a case of set it to print, make a cuppa, sit down, wait and then wait some more!
The only negative point when the machine is printing, has to be the noise level. It is advisable not to print any documents whilst in a quiet room, doing so will quite probably scare you half to death! When the paper is first pulled through, your first reaction will be "What the hells it doing??" To say the least, it clatters and bangs like something out of the stone age.

Copying
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Copying is very strait forward with this machine and offers a choice of black & white or colour copies with no long winded menu's to navigate. Strait one to one copies are a simple one button press procedure. There are various other options available such as reducing / enlarging and contrast control.
What makes copying particularly easy is the use of the top document feeder. Instead of lining the original up on the glass tray, simply slide it in to the document feeder, press copy and the machine will do the rest.
Copy quality I have to say is very clear in both colour and black and white modes with copying speeds being comparable with a standard photo copier.

Scanning
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Thanks to the software supplied by Epson, scanning is also made very easy. By using the preview feature, there are various changes that can be made to the item being scanned prior to transferring the image to your PC. Although not as comprehensive as a full photo editing suite, it does allow you to change contrast and colour settings etc. making life easier and quicker for printing. Once again the clarity of scans is very very good. In addition even scanning on the highest resolution is very quick.

Fax
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Likewise with copying, the top document feeder makes faxing single or multiple documents very easy.
Although strait forward once you are used to it, I do think some sort of permanent label telling you which way documents such face (E.G. face up or down) would be a useful addition to the machine. Actual sending and receiving times does seem to be very quick. Very useful on the fax is that it stores several transmissions as data on the built in memory. This feature is very useful as the machine will receive and store incoming faxes even if there is no paper in it. Other features include delayed faxing allowing you to send a fax automatically at some point later in the day.
My only criticism with this side of the machine is the lack of PC software bundled for this facility. All faxing functions are carried out manually at the machine itself via the front control panel. What would have been a nice touch would be the ability to send faxes electronically direct from a PC without the need to print and load paper documents.

General Overview
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In general I have to say that I have been pleasantly surprised with this product. Build quality seems to very good and robust. It has proved to be a really good all rounder both meeting and exceeding expectations.
Admittedly there is room for improvement in some areas, particularly noise level, however you do need to bare in mind the original budget purchase price. It would be a bit like comparing a Smart car to a Bentley, both will get you there, but one does it with a lot more finesse.

Summary: Good machine if your on a tight budget

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