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The Big Picture Machine Review with images 66 of 66 Ciao Users found the following review helpful
Rating from Floon 5 Stars ()

Advantages Borderless printing, speed, print quality

Disadvantages Not very pretty machine (but who cares?), No USB cable

*** The End ***

“Ah well, nothing lasts forever,” I told myself sadly, packaging up my faithful old Epson Stylus Photo 700 printer and passing it on to my son. It was still good for printing text but, with its heads showing signs of wear (a bit like mine, really), not much use for printing out digital photos. So it had to go. It had been given to me as a leaving present by parents and children of the little Lincolnshire village school where I’d been Acting Head four years ago and had done me proud over that time. At least it was going to stay in the family.

*** The Search ***

Not being particularly flush with money I decided to shop around and ask many questions before buying a replacement. I wanted something cheap and reliable (contradiction in terms!) with the ability to print high quality, preferably borderless photos.

The i450 printing a picture of an aesthetically pleasing machine!
Looking in the usual places I found a bewildering range of options, running from the Cheapo-of-Cheapos (Lexmark) to the Out-Of-Reach-On-Grounds-Of-Cost (top spec Epsons, HP and Canon). I ruled out Lexmark on account of the high cost of replacement cartridges (almost the cost of the printer, I kid you not!) and, more reluctantly, HP for similar reasons, though the quality of their prints is astonishingly
High and I like their design.

I decided against all-in-one machines as providing features I probably wouldn’t use – and anyway, I’m convinced that unless you pay a huge whack for one of these, quality has to be compromised to some extent. I also decided against a dedicated photo printer (with card-readers built in) on grounds of cost and because I prefer to edit my pictures via the computer before printing.

My head still spinning with the range of options left open, I phoned a friend who runs a computer business and asked his advice. “Epson Stylus Photo 830,” he said confidently. “Brilliant! We use them here all the time.” Unfortunately, he didn’t have one in stock but he quoted £82 or so when they did arrive.

I checked on the Internet and found that the 830 has been supplanted by the 830U which simply means that the parallel / USB connectivity has been replaced by USB only. I also found that I could buy one at around £75 via the Net. However, I’m reluctant to pay that amount of money out for an Internet purchase – as a grumpy Old Man, I remember a time when money meant big chunks of metal in your pocket making you walk with a list to starboard; it was precious stuff and the idea of letting it vanish into cyber-space still bothers me!

I therefore phoned all the Lincoln stores that might sell the beast in question. A couple of them said the 830 / 830U was about to be phased out to make way for something even better. Others had them in stock at about £80. The bloke at Staples said they were out of them but reckoned that the Canon i450 was just as good and cost £79.99.

I looked up Choice Stationery’s website (see my op on them). They used to provide me with ink cartridges for the aforementioned Epson at ridiculously low prices. Could they do the same for either the 830U or the i450?

Detailed Rating

Picture quality
Printing speed
Colour sensitivity
Reliability
Ease of use
Design
Range of extra features / functions
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The Author

Floon since 16 Jan 2003

Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like bananas. more

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for Canon i 450
The i450 printing a picture of an aesthetically pleasing machine!
by Floon Floon

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Previous page Next page Page 1 of 14 | 1 - 5 out of 67 comments
  • jesi 01/03/2011 00:06
    Rated this review as
    Very Helpful

    Yes, that picture DOES look pretty good . . . but then, I'm a sucker for steam! . . . are you still using this machine seven years on? . . . and have you replaced the heads? . . . ♥jesi ♥

  • wildtinsey 04/12/2006 16:35
    Rated this review as
    Helpful
  • moviereviews 13/07/2004 21:48
    Rated this review as
    Exceptional

    tons of info, well setout and easy to read. good work!

  • mysteryshopper2 16/04/2004 09:34
    Rated this review as
    Very Helpful
  • C_W_Monkey 12/04/2004 11:13
    Rated this review as
    Very Helpful

    lools like a good printer, minus the USB!

Previous page Next page Page 1 of 14 | 1 - 5 out of 67 comments

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