If you've ever been a student, you'll know how difficult it is to tackle exam revision, coursework. and homework assignments. Not to mention the pressures each subject can take upon a person. You'd also realize the amount of emphasis in recent times on using computers and IT related utilities in order to accomplish the aformentioned tasks. My sixth form department recently purchased this, the Epson EPL 6200N, a laser printed designed for medium sized workgroups within any office or school.

A quick query to the librarian told me the printer cost about 270 pounds inc. VAT, though unfortunately I cannot quote the place of purchase. Thats pretty pricy for a printer, but since it has a 1 year warranty (and will be used an awful lot in that time) whos to complain?

Its a quintessential modern printer, easily compatable with Windows 9X/ME/2000/XP aswell as Apple Macitosh 8.1 or later, our computers were running Windows 2000, which worked extremely well with the printer, displaying useful info about printer progress, more on this later.

After gaining permission to fiddle with its settings, I got a chance to print off a variety of sheets, notably some articles for Politics from the Guardian's webpage, and also some business studies/economics data from an American research-ish page...thing. Pictures and graphs were included, but as the title says, the printer is monochrome, so no colour here sadly.

The results were nothing short of remarkable, the ink dried super quickly, and in a matter of seconds I had all my revision sheets in my hand, ready to read and revise from. Also, the noise levels were extremely low too, with just a faint humming sound emitting from the device itself.

The Epson 6200N's real disadvantage is that it lacks any special features aside from printing, supporting the fact it is made strictly for office use, nothing else. The printer can print, but is largely inept to print out labels, photos and thus lacks any software to assist it in accomplishing such endevours. As stated, due to the industrial nature of this printer, such a lack of any bells or whistles is understandable from a business point of view. It does have an "image enhancement" facility, which supposedly improves quality slightly, though.