Is The Budget Epson A Worthy Purchase, Or Best Left On The Shelf (Epson Stylus Color 580c)

Member Name: JavaSkunk

Product:	Epson Stylus Color 580c
Date:	06/07/01 (135 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheap, Good Software, High Print Resolution

Disadvantages: Slow Printing Speed, Only a USB Interface, Results Not 100% Impressive

Epson are one of those companies who will probably always remain synonymous with the word "printing". Having been one of the companies who survived from the early days of DotMatrix printing, its not surprising to know that they know a thing or two about making a good printer.

Recently released is the 580, the successor the the 480 and thankfully using the same cartridges. It has a maximum print resolution of 1440, which compared to my old printer, is a fantastic figure, especially giving its price.

So is it good news or bad news? Well its kind of a bit of both. For a start - its not the most attractive looking of equipment i've ever used. Granted, printers aren't supposed to ooze sex appeal, but it is a bit "yerg" looking. Also the fact that its made of lightgrade plastic probably doesn't do it any favours.

Looking around the back displays another possible problem - unlike its bigger brother the 580 _only_ offers a USB connection. Fine for those with ninja PCs, but if your buying a budget printer, its likely you have a PC that might not support this standard. Note: in most cases you will have to purchase the USB cable separately, which will cost about £10.

Onto the printing side, and again its a 50/50 score. Whilst printing pretty impressive prints (compared to other inkjet printers ive used) it takes a long time. Pictures in a high resolution often take around 10/15 mins to come out, and the higher the photo size - the less impressive the outcome. Don't get me wrong, for simple graphics and pictures the 580 does a good enough job, but don't expect the results of a £300 printer.

The printer uses a variety of different sized ink blots to create the picture, but whether this actually causes any improvement is actually hard to say. Also i noticed my black ink especially seemed to drain quite quickly, which will probably be a trait of all printers using these cartridges.



Luckily the software is very good. You can do pretty much everything you need from its control panel (which is lucky, as the printer itself contains nothing in the way of controls) and I found using it to be very simple and effective.

Overall - if your looking for a printer which isnt going to be put to much use, maybe mainly for text documents and the occasional picture, then the 580 will probably serve its purpose. However, if you think that it'll might be pushed to keep up with your demands - your probably right.

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