Epson DFX 5000+

Author's product rating:   

Picture quality	Very poor
Printing speed	Very fast
Colour sensitivity	Poor
Ease of use	Satisfactory
Value For Money	Good

Advantages:	Lightning fast, cheap ink
Disadvantages:	LOUD, V .  low resolution

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Background Information

Ok-- I'm sure the first thing on your mind is, 'Why the heck would you buy a printer that old for that price!?', and indeed that was my though exactly when this printer was recommended to me. Dotmatrix printers are generally used in places like shops, but why use one in an office? Well, infact the question that I should have been asking, is why not? I honestly could not come up with one good reason why we shouldn't. And nor could the boss when I asked him!! It wasn't long at all before we decided that we couldn't cope WITHOUT the printer, so we bought it-- And haven't regretted it!

First Impressions

My first impressions upon getting it out of the box were that it was big, heavy, awkward, and looked like something from the 80's (Probably because it was:)), but looks can be decieving, and you can't judge a book by it's cover:) After lugging it onto the desk by the computer we were going to link it to and booting it up, I began to feel rather pleased with myself for choosing it; I got that feeling when I make a good decision. It printed the test page so quickly I barely took my finger off the mouse button by time it finished! Though, being the 9-pin printer it was, it wasn't great quality... But the boss was impressed, which meant I was happy:) I'd give it a 9/10 for first impressions.

Performance

Well I wouldn't say the printer was the best performer on the market, at a hefty over-£1000-out-of-budget price, but it was a good investment for it's speed. At 9-pins, it just can't really do pictures, or fancy fonts... But it performes quickly with little hastle. I'd say it's best for printing messages for all the office workers, but it is not recommended to sending to other companies-- It gives a bad impression, that's more of a laserjet job:) Also one thing that disappointed me was that the printer could not print signatures... This was a big X on my sheet... So I'd give it 8/10 for performance.

Ink consumption and running costs

Obviously as a dot-matrix it uses little ink, and cartridges are very cheap. Well, when I say it uses little ink I meant per page it uses little ink, but you'll need to replace the cartridge often because it's always running out:) But that can only be excpected with the sheer speed that it prints at... As with all printers it often needs unjamming and unblocking, but I've never had any serious problem with it in the last 2 years, so we've not had to pay to get it repaired:) Apart from the usual things like electricity consumption, oil, paper and ink etc, there are no other major running costs. I'd give it a 7/10 for ink efficiency, and 10/10 for running costs.

Quality

Well, the quality is far from perfect... A dotmatrix printer (For those of you that are unfamiliar with the dinosaur of a machine) is a printer that uses metal pins to print... Inside the print head is a collection of pins. The pins are pressed to a ribbon infront of the paper, and the dot is imprinted onto the paper. So, as I'm sure you can imagine, the resolution is little more than a few dots on a line... This can be seen by looking at any shop receipt you might have lying around... The quality is a little better than that... But not much better! However as for printing quality the printer very rarely smudges, or skips lines like my old dotmatrix used to. It is always nice and sharp text, so for quality I'd give it a 6/10.

Overall

Overall this printer is nice-- It's a hefty price, and it's large, bulky, awkward, and runs hot, but it's got great ink efficiency, and lightning fast printing speed. Never needs repairing, though needs oiling every now and then. Only 9-pin, bad resolution, but good enough to pass around in an office. Overall I'd give this printer 9/10 because of the speed and cheap ink price-- Buy it now!