Choosing/Buying a Printer
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We needed a new printer at home, and seeing as my parents Kodak one had decided to pack in for the 2nd time in the past year I decided I would buy them a new printer as an early Christmas present. I had already decided that I definitely wasn't going to get a Kodak printer after such bad experience with the printer and the customer service team at Kodak. One evening we went to our local Curry's/PC World store to see what range of printers they had. We decided to go here as we could also see the printers and see how they worked and what size there were as well. I always prefer looking at products before buying them you so can get a good idea of what you are actually buying. They had a good range of printers available mainly Epson, with a few Canon and Kodak one's which happened to be on offer, how-ever I refused point blankly to get a Kodak one, especially after the sales assistant in the shop informed us that he had received many complaints about Kodak printers over the last few days. The Epson printer caught my eye due to the small, sleek design of the printer and how compact and small it looked. My parents wanted an all in one printer as my dad often uses it for printing, scanning or copying documents for work. My dad also decided that he wanted a printer where he could insert the memory card from his camera so printing off pictures would be much easier. After spending approximately 15 minutes in the shop and looking at the price of cartridges for the printer IO purchased this printer for them along with a 3 year cover.

The Printer
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The printer is an all in one printer which includes a printer, scanner and copier with an LCD screen. The printer is black in colour and made by Epson whom make a large range of printers and other computer accessories. The printer can be used wirelessly or with a cable and can also be used for mobile printing or e-mail printing. This particular printer is one of Epson's smallest ever all in one printer and offers cost effective printing for home users who wanted the added benefit of Wi-Fi connectivity, LCD screen and mobile printing. You can print photos and documents wirelessly from tablet PC's and smart phones or you can print for anywhere else in the world simply by sending photo's or documents to directly to the printer to print. The printer has individual coloured cartridges which means you only eve need to replace the colour used, meaning it saves you money. The design on the printer is very nice and sleek looking in a matte black colour with a shinier black surface used on the lid which lifts to reveal the scanner. There is a memory card slot on the left hand side which takes SD memory cards. There is a small panel on the front of the printer which is the on/off button, home button, directional buttons and a stop and start button. Most of the buttons are self-explanatory; how-ever you can look in the book which comes with the printer if you are unsure of what these buttons do. There is a small LCD screen on the panel which measure 3.6cm; this is the perfect size for viewing photos when printing them off. The new Claria Home ink for this printer is ideal for affordable, reliable printing which produces crisp, clear text documents as well as glossy, lab-quality photos. The printer is mainly used for printing off documents but is occasionally used for printing off photographs as well so were pleased this this would apparently print crisp pictures.

Price/Availability
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I purchased the printer from my local Curry's/PC World store for £59.99, which is good value considering the RRP should be £79.99. The three year cover (approximately £11) which comes with the printer means if the printer goes wrong or becomes faulty it will replaced free of charge with a new printer. The replacement cartridges work out about £12.99 each, how-ever you can also buy the cartridges in a multi-pack for approximately £45 which includes all 3 main colours as well as the black. The replacement cartridges are Daisy T18 which is also available in XL sizes which cost slightly more money, but this does means the cartridges will last longer and will print more.

Setting up the Printer
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In the box with the printer should be a leaflet which unfolds to A3 size which tells you how to set up the printer. There should also be a sealed small bag which contains an installation disc as well as a booklet about the printer and what to do if any problems occur when using the product. There should also be a power cable with the printer as well. Please note that it does not come with a USB cable so if you decide not to use this wirelessly you will need to purchase one of these. We actually had one of these from the old Kodak printer so we didn't need to purchase one. We weren't intending to use the printer wirelessly just yet. The printer was packed well in a box with polystyrene to protect it from getting damaged. At first we couldn't find the power cable for the printer, how-ever this was inside the printer where the paper comes out. This was a little awkward to get out and took a good few minutes to take it out carefully to avoid breaking anything on the printer. There is also some blue tape on the printer holding some of the doors down.All the tape and pieces of polysterene need to be removed before plugging the printer in. There is also a pack of cartridges which comes with the printer. The printer was very easy to set up following all the instructions on the pull out leaflet included in the box. During this process we learnt how to install the cartridges and initialize the printer. The cartridges which come with the printer only have enough ink to print off about 80 sheets of paper and then you will need to purchase new ones. When you open the lid to install the cartridges there are colour codes on the printer tray which shows you where to put the corresponding cartridge in place. Once this has done you can then plug the USB cable into the printer where it may or may not install drivers onto your computer. At this point we put the disc that came with the printer into the computer to install. You have the option of what items you would like to install onto your computer. There are various different things such as a user manual, which we chose not to put on. Once the selected programmes have been chosen and they have finished installing you then get the chance to register your product with Epson which takes just a few minutes. We chose to do this as it also put's your name into a prize draw to win the money back from the printer you have just purchased. I actually made my mum do most of this so she could learn a bit more about the printer and how to install the cartridges, etc. as she would be using it more than me. The whole process of setting up the printer and registering the product took approximately 5-8 minutes.

Scanning Documents
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The scanner can fit upto an A4 document on to scan. To scan a document simply use the directional buttons on the front panel. Simply use the right arrow to select scan and then press ok. You will then need to select which device to send the scanned picture to which in this case is the PC via USB cable. After you have chosen the appropriate selections simply press the green button on the scanner to start scanning the document. A small screen will pop up on your PC screen to say how long the scanning process will take. I actually scanned a DVD insert cover to see how well it scanned due to all the bright colours on the cover. Scanning the cover took slightly longer than it would to scan a simple document, how-ever the scanner was very quiet when scanning, compared to our previous Kodak printer. The image appeared on the screen after it had scanned looking bright and sharp. The colours were fantastic. When you scan a document it automatically saves to 'My Pictures', but you do have the option to change this if you wish. I could then print the document or save it to print off later.

Copying Documents
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You can copy document or photos very easily. Simply lift the lid to the scanner and place the item face down onto the glass. Ensure that the item is in the bottom right hand corner and then simply select the copy option using the directional buttons on the panel of the printer. You can go into the settings and change the density and quantity of the copies if you wish. You can also choose to enlarge the item or make it smaller. Simply press the green start button when you are ready to copy the document or photo. We have only used the copier once since purchasing it. Depending on how detailed the document or photo is depends on how long it will take to copy, it takes just a few minutes to copy the document or photo.

Printing Photo's
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You can choose whether to print photos from a memory card which fits into your camera or from a picture already on your computer. For some memory cards you will need to purchase an adaptor so it fits into the slot in the front of the printer. When you insert the memory card a small green light will appear, don't force the card into the slot. On the panel on the front of the printer you need to select Print Photo's which is the camera picture. You can then go through the photo's using the left and right button to look for the photo you want to print. The pictures appear on the small LCD screen. If you want more than one copy of a photo you can simply press the up button to select more copies. When you have chosen the photo simply press ok, choose the paper size and then press the green button to start printing. You can also choose whether to have a border around the image or not. At any time if you need to stop the printing you can press the red button on the panel. The photo paper is very easy to load into the back of the printer. I had some Kodak glossy photo paper, so I used this to print my chosen photo out. When the picture starts to print you will see that a small box appears on the screen this show you the progress of the printing and you can also see the ink levels in the printer as well. The printer wasn't very loud when printing and the photo came out looking fantastic and just as good as it would if I had gone to boots to print a photo out. The photo was crisp and clear and the colours were fantastic.

Overall Opinion
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The printer is very small and compact which was a reason for buying this particular printer. It also has the memory card slot in the front of the printer which is what my dad wanted so he could put his memory card in and print photo's straight from that. The LCD screen on the panel is a nice size and is very clear when you are looking through photos on your memory card. The printer was very simple and easy to set up and didn't take long. I can't comment on using the printer wirelessly as we have only used it with a cable, how-ever from reading the instructions on the manual it sounds and look fairly simple. Although the manual that comes with the printer doesn't go into too much detail it gives you basic information on how to Scan, Copy and Print Photo's. These are represented in the manual as pictures and writing in a range of different languages. In the manual it also tells you how to replace the ink cartridges, sort out a paper jam and there is other information if you are having other issues with the printer. As of yet we have had no problems with the printer so haven't needed to look up this information in the manual. The print quality is fantastic, especially when printing photo's on glossy photo paper. The photos appear crisp without any blurry lines or edges. My mum isn't very good with using the latest technology; how-ever she can use the printer really well and finds it really easy to use. At the moment I haven't actually found any downsides to this product as nothing has yet failed or gone wrong with it. In terms of value I think the printer is good quality and reasonable value when comparing it to other available printers. The cartridges can be purchased from other places for a slightly cheaper price, how-ever for the best print quality it's best to use Epson cartridges and not other cheaper makes or brands. The disc that comes with the printer does install an Epson programme on your computer which allows you to edit, re-size and take red eyes out of pictures before printing them. I have used this a few times when printing photo's but it's not my preferred programme. Overall this is a brilliant printer and one that I hope will last a lot longer than our previous Kodak one!

Technical Information:
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* Print Technology - Inkjet
* Print Resolution - 5,760 x 1,440 dpi
* Formats - A4, A5, A6, B5, C6 (Envelope), DL (Envelope), No. 10 (Envelope), Letter Legal, 9 x 13 cm, 10 x 15 cm, 13 x 18 cm, 13 x 20 cm, 20 x 25 cm, 100 x 148 mm, 16:9
* Speed (ppm or sec) - B&W: up to 33 ppm, Colour: up to 15 ppm, Per 10 x 15 photo: approx. 38 Seconds
* Scanner Resolution - 1,200 x 2,400 dpi
* Format - A4
* Compatible Memory Cards - Memory Stick Duo, Memory Stick PRO Duo, Memory Stick, Micro M2, Magic Gate Memory Stick Duo, SD, SDHC, Micro SD, MicroSDHC. For all other cards you will need to purchase an adaptor.
* Computer Interface - USB 2.0 Type B, Wireless LAN IEEE 802.11b/g/n
* System Requirements - Windows 7/Vista/XP/XPx64, Mac OS 10.5.8 or later
* Dimensions - 145 x 390 x 300 mm
* Weight - 4.2kg



(review may also appear on ciao)