Great print results (Epson Stylus Photo R265)

Member Name: eclipsehater

Product:	Epson Stylus Photo R265
Date:	09/01/07 (1430 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cannot beat the borderless printing or the CD print loader

Disadvantages: Expensive print costs mean this is not an everyday printer to use - printer expired before the carts

This is a mixed review, some good and bad points. I Purchased this printer end of November (ish) 2006 from my local PC World for a tad under 90.00, after having my HP printer commit hari-kiri and go mental I decided to break ranks and go for a 'cheaper' printer, and what a mistake that has turned out to be. Beware of greeks or even geeks bearing gifts, especially if their name is Epson.

This printer comes with everything you need to connect it EXCEPT a USB cable, the most fundamental item you would expect in the pack is missing, lucky for me although i threw out the dead HP in the trash, I did keep the USB lead and what hindsight that was.

Setting up is simplicity just slam the disk in and follow the idiot prompts on screen, then plug in said printer to spare USB socket and off you go...

Simple eh? No, not quite. Nowhere on the box or the on-disk manual does it tell you what nasty surprises and I mean nasty expensive surprises Epson have in store for the unsuspecting punter who buys this arthur daley item of the printing world.

First off, you do get a full compliment of cartridges with it, all six yes SIX, as this is primarily a photo printer that does borderless printing, unlike my old HP which left a nasty white band at the edge which needed lopping off with a guillotine.

So, you plug all the carts in after spending 3 hours unwrapping them, select some pictures and using the dozen sample 7 x 5 sheets you start printing, and yes, very nice,as good as if not better than some high street photo labs, even from a 2 megapixel camera the interpolation and colours were striking to say the least, 10/10 and very impressed, do a few documents, a word document here a few PDFs there, print out some more pictures (the ink is disappearing quicker than new labours promises). If you use the CD print option (CD printable or DVD) then this sucks the life out of all 6 cartridges.

Then BANG, the 'pop-up' comes along, ink low, and then gradually goes to 'printer-stops-so-go-buy-some-ink' mode, this printer will not allow you to combine colour cartridges to make black like the HP's do,oh no, it demands you go out an buy another cartridge at a cost of 9.99 for black from PCW or 7.99 as I found from my local cartridge world, who can't re-ink them as yet due to the fact the printer is so new on the market.

I get a black cartridge, get home plug in after removing old one, nothing but flashing lights and now It tells me (which it DIDN'T when the Yellow cart was sitting nicely) in it, that I need to get a Yellow one now, my GOD!!!

So, no printing, no letters, nothing until I pay homage to the god of Yellow cartridges, and conveniently EPSON do not tell you this in the manual or anywhere on the box. great eh? Maximize the input of money from people, so at 9.99 x 6 you're looking at nearly 60 quid to replace them all, and believe me, they don't last long at all.

This is a nasty feature and totally unwarranted, and try as you might you will NEVER get it to print only in black, UNTIL you replace any other cartridge or cartridges that are out. This is a bad way to make money out of people and the fact that you can't refill them yet means even more heartache for the wallet.

This 'feature' is just a money grabbing exercise from Epson, and that's not all ... I had a bundle of about 100 6 x 4 photo sheets made by HP, so i tried using them, the Epson ink wouldn't even permeate the surface, so whatever chemical composition of the ink is or isn't don't ever try and use HP stuff on an Epson, the results are disastrous, they really do know how to make money out of poor joe public.

Overall this printer gives stunning print output, but at an extremely non cost effective price, this is not an everyday printer and certainly not one to let little hands on print out out full colour gloss prints of 'My little pony' for the bedroom walls! Epson have very cleverly made the printer make it money by being so stubborn, that if one, just one ink cart is empty the whole thing refuses to play ball.

One thing I do know is that when I can afford it, i'm going back to the HP camp. No wonder PC world had them on offer, and probably subsidized by Epson too.

10/10 for image quality - it beats my HP hands down - period.

5/10 for user settings, the buttons are too 'plasticky' and don't 'click' or give any notion that they're going to do something.

2/10 for the total footprint of it, this is by far the biggest printer I have ever bought, it is at least as large in depth, width and height as a laser printer, and just as heavy, the power lead fits side on at the back under a crevasse, which is NOT user friendly.

1/10 for the super duper 'top-up feature of BUY MORE IN NOW!!!! courtesy of the ink vampires at Epson UK.

Overall 3/10 which is low but I am so narked at being robbed by a piece of machinery it's just horrific to have to keep shelling out.

Want to print in just black when the others are out .. The Computer Says NO!!! (from Little Britain)

Due to the exorbitant high running costs - unimpressed overall and best avoided unless you have a large wallet, unlimited funds and don't mind endless trips to your local inkjet supplier who will greet you with a cheesy smile when he finds out you are the 'proud owner' of an Epson Stylus Photo R265, who then promptly does cartwheels out the back when you've just crossed his palm with the best part of 60.00 as you leave the shop in tears ...

The tagline to the item above tells you that you can 'keep costs low' by replacing just one cartridge, no you can't, you HAVE to go and buy another one just to print! Epson should be ashamed of itself for this.

NEWSFLASH 26th JANUARY 2007

I have been told by several inkjet companies that as of yet no one is reinking these. However, I found on ebay a supplier of a set of compatible cartridges that I have purchased and I am VERY impressed. The price was 18.99 plus a few quid for postage, for all SIX, yes all 6 of the little blighters, they came individually wrapped in their own air-tight blisterpacks, are colour coded, all you have to do is tear off the top strip, remove a little protective piece of sponge on the clip, shove it home and hey presto! one working printer again. Compared to the great EPSON RIP-OFF of 60.00 for all six from PC World, I got the darned thing re-inked for a third, a few quid postage for 48 hours service is a small price to pay. To be honest I can't find any major difference in quality between the inks of course the chemical composition will be different but I'm not complaining. The ebay user ID if they don't mind a free mention is ink-world and if you want to look at the item the number is 290073597691 . So, don't go near PC World or anywhere else buy from ebay and if you choose wisely you'll save tons of cash, so I can now print as cost effectively as my old HP!!! Chuffed to buggery I am.

NEWFLASH APRIL 2007

Now im not so chuffed as said printer has given up the ghost and died on me 'a USB device attached has malfunctioned' say Windows XP and try as i might it wont communicate now even with the drivers deleted and reloaded, so its back to HP for me. Never again with epson seiko crap. Not impressed now - not one bit. You'd have thought the damn thing would have lasted at LEAST a year before dying on you !!!

Summary: Large footprint, quirky ink-level system, easy to use but expensive to run - just like a Jaguar

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