Wot...no dots! (Epson Stylus Photo 890)

Member Name: Alfo

Product:	Epson Stylus Photo 890
Date:	10/02/01 (1505 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Unmatched quality, price.

Disadvantages: nothing of note

I've been looking into getting an inkjet printer for photos, for a couple of months now and for those that read my review of the HP 990C, know I didn't find it there.

So I turned to Epson, the masters of the photo! I had previously owned a stylus 600, and was really pleased with that - it was just so noisy! I had seen the Photo 870 and was really impressed with that, and noticed on their website that a new printer was on the horizon…the 890.

It took me a week or so to find one, and when I did there were no print samples to be had, so I took a leap of faith and bought one. I was surprised by the price, most printers of this spec normally retail for £200+; I picked mine up for £175 - excellent value!

Got it home and set it up, sometimes setting printers up can be a complete headache, not so here; it was really easy and clear. Any first timers should have no trouble at all, the set-up guide and on-screen help make it a doddle.

After about 10 minutes I was ready to print my first photo, I couldn't wait to see what it looked like.
I wasn't disappointed. The quality was superb, I just can't fault it! I have printed about 5 or 6 photos with it so far and on every photo there is a distinct lack of dots, you just cannot see them. Print outs are sharp; colours are really rich it really is the best photo printer I have ever used! I use a colour laser to print things at work sometimes, although the laser is quicker, it doesn't touch the Epson for colour reproduction, sharpness and just general quality - and at a 10th of the cost it really is amazing.

In use, the printer is not quite as quiet as the HP range, but it's not too far off. The amazing quality is achieved by an alarmingly high 2800dpi (hardware, not software enhanced - take note HP), and 5-colour ink plus black! The two extra colours in the system are not different colours but thinner versions of cyan and magenta, which helps the print
er to blend areas of colour together.

It's pretty fast 9ppm colour and 9.5 black. To put that into real terms, it took me about 3 minutes to print an A4 photograph.

One really good thing which people sometimes overlook when buying a printer, are the running costs. Epson ink is fairly cheap, when compared to say HP or Lexmark. A black cartridge runs at about £16 a colour one is about £15 (compare that to £30 for Lexmark!). If you hunt around on the net you can get them even cheaper than that. According to Epson you should get approximately 500 A4 letters (@ 15% coverage) and around (although this figure is very dependant on the photos printed) 100 4X6" photographs from a colour cart.

Ok, so it prints photos, what about everything else? I run a couple of letters off and was very impressed with the results, high quality text, so it does letters too! However this is a photo printer and if you're just doing letters and the odd picture you may be better off with a cheaper model.

I have mainly been using Epson's own paper range for my printing, and I have to say the results certainly justify the cost. Although it certainly doesn't hurt to try other makes, and judge the results for yourself, but bear in mind for photos using Epson paper and Ink make them Lightfast for 10 years plus! So they shouldn't fade, which I have experienced in the past, when using substandard ink on my stylus 600! The one letter I printed on cheap photocopy paper looked as good as you would expect, text was a little soft, but I think that would be the case on any printer!

The printer is also supplied with a roll holder, so you can attach a roll of photo paper and print all your photos with edge to edge printing in one go.

The unit itself is constructed well and feels really solid (unlike the newer lower Epson range), it certainly looks as if it will last and keep printing for years to come!

I really can't pr
aise this printer highly enough, if you are looking for a printer to mainly print photographs then this is for you. If you need to do larger prints Epson also makes an A3 version the Stylus Photo 1290.

Well done Epson!

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