| Product: |
Epson Stylus Photo R1800 |
| Date: |
29.08.06 (594 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Fast and silent...
Disadvantages: Top loading a bit of a pain
So eventually the torture is over, I’ve bitten the bullet and brought another A3+ Epson after one too many torturous moments of trying to cajole my Epson 1520 into action! Following past Epson experiences I didn’t expect to ever be persuaded to buy another one, but somehow it just happened! With a lack of choice in the A3+ inkjet printer affordable ranges, I reluctantly invested more money into the Epson empire. Although, now that I have this one I have to say my thoughts have changed. Sometimes it’s worth giving that second chance in life…. Even to printer manufacturers!
Price:
There seems little point in telling all of the ins and outs of a printer, without first telling you what it will cost. As with all things, its best to scour around for the best price, but most seem to range between £330 and £360 for this printer. Its relatively new out, so the price may drop a bit, but when compared with other A3+ inkjet printers this one is pretty good value for money.
What you get with the printer:
Well unbelievably, not everything you need!
Opening this printer took me straight back to childhood and the sad memories of receiving a toy for Christmas ripping open the box only to discover I couldn’t play with the thing as batteries were not included. In this printer, Epson have done the printer version of just that. Although they have happily provided a power cable, set up guide, all of the printers add on paper holders, all 8 cartridges and even some sample sheets of paper they did not provided a USB cable.
So after all of the unwrapping, assembling and excitement of the new printer arriving I ended up having to head over to a stationary shop and purchase a £3 lead! Why Epson, why?
So take heed, if you are changing over printers and the old one did not connect via a USB port, then put in an order for a USB lead when buying the printer!
Compatibility & Installation:
This printer as with all Epson printers, is compatible with PC or Mac.
NOW, with regards to installation, before you connect the printer, Epson recommends installing the printer driver included with the pack. I’m not sure what would happen if you plugged the printer in first, but if you do it the Epson way installation is pretty straight forward. Put the CD in and an installation box opens with easy to grasp instructions and bright straight forward graphics. There are two types of installation, ‘easy install’ or ‘custom’. Personally I opted for easy, which was exactly that. Within 2 minutes the printer was installed, a prompt appeared to request the printer to be plugged in, a new icon appeared in the printer folder, and the printer was ready to be used.
Appearance
As with all things computer related these days, the old and uninspiring beige is gone, replaced by the oh so fashionable grey/black tones that just blend into our modern world and inspire confidence that this is a modern addition to any computer network.
Overall the printer has a robustness about it, everything is chunky, the buttons large enough to locate the red flashing light of error from a distance and the feeder trays sturdy enough to hold an ample stack of paper.
The only area which is slightly weak is the output tray, or really lack of one! After printing the paper is designed to come out of the front of the printer, supported on what can only be described as an unsubstantial flap, which is neither strong enough, nor long enough to be able to hold even one A3 sheet. So if you do not fancy the flap breaking or your beautifully printed paper falling straight onto the floor, then desk space at the front of the printer is an absolute must. As printer is top loading, thankfully no additional space is required at the back of the printer.
Print Sizes:
As with all A3+ printers, it is possible to print A4 landscape and portrait, A3 standard size paper or roll and A3+, which is really useful if you require an image or document to be printed to the absolute boarders of A3. The real addition on this printer is its ability to print directly onto CD disks via a special slot in the front of the machine. This must be used with specially coated disks that can be printed onto though, such as Sony or I think TDK, there may be other CD manufacturers out there but the important part it to check that the CD is compatable.
Loading the Paper:
As I mentioned, this is a top loading gravity feeding printer (unless printing onto a roll, in which case there is a point for the roll to be attached at the back of the printer). The printer tray is telescopic to offer support for A3 sheets, when not in use this closes up to act as a dust stopper. The printer also comes with a special attachment that clips onto the attached paper support to aid printing onto matt paper. There is also a back loading option for individual sheets.
The only real inconvenience of this printer that I hadn’t considered till buying it is that unlike other A3 printers I have had it isn’t really a good idea to leave cheap paper on the printer tray during long breaks between prints (well if this goes into days more than hours). As the printer is top loading, gravity tends to distort the shape of the paper when left ready to print for long periods. Not really a problem in itself, but if like me you are used to leaving the paper in the feeder tray, you may have a habit to break!
Performance/Print Quality
As an inkjet printer, blocks of colour are of course not as good as they would be on a laser printer, but then you would never find a laser printer for the price of an inkjet, so it’s a bit horses for courses really.
Personally, I have found that the quality of the output of this inkjet is as good if not better than any other inkjet I have used. If the printer is set to the maximum print quality of 1440dpi and gloss paper is used then the appearance is perfect. If you are printing text or like me mainly lines, then the printer produces immaculate documents at a pretty fast rate.
One thing to definitely mention is that in my experience if you really do want the best quality prints from this printer then you really do have to shell out for Epson’s cartridges rather than the cheaper alternative of compatible cartridges. If however you are likely to be printing just in black and white and basic prints then compatible is fine.
Although I am very pleased with both the speed and quality of the printer, the best thing about this printer is its silence, set it to print and you will not hear a peep out of it, bar perhaps a small low sound that unless sitting on the printer you really have to strain your ears to even here over the noise of any computer.
Running Costs
As I mentioned this printer uses a grand total of 8 cartridges, which if replacing them all at once would really hit the pocket. But as the first set of cartridges are courtesy of Epson unless you prefer to bulk buy cartridges you are really very unlikely to face buying them all at once.
Again as with the cost of the printer, the price of the cartridges do vary from supplier to supplier. The cheapest I have found so far for Epson’s own brand of cartridges is £10.50 for each cartridge. Strangely, unlike other printers the black cartridge isn’t any cheaper than the coloured ones, but as the price is quite competitive then it doesn’t really effect the overall running cost.
The fact that this printer does use 8 separate cartridges, rather than opting for one black and one combined colour also means that the rate of replacing colour cartridges seems to decrease. Due to the fact that each colour can be replaced on its own if you tend to print images with a lot of yellow for example (such as I do with my yellow logo!) then it is possible to replace just the yellow rather than have to bin all colours once the yellow runs out.
Reliability
Well all I can say is so far so good. I have been using the printer now for about 3 months and it hasn’t had a single mis-feed so far. And considering on average I print about 20 plus prints a day I don’t think that’s too bad at all. I haven’t tried using the roll yet, but have tried everything else without a single hitch (well other than the human error of not putting paper in the printer!).
So to sum up, this printer is definitely on my highly recommended list! It’s a reasonable price to buy, the cartridges are pretty reasonable too and as they are individual allow for one colour to be replaced at a time. Whether it lasts the test of time, well only time will tell but so far so good!
Summary: Best Epson I have owned!
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