I bought this 3 in 1 to replace an older epson 580 printer, which eventually expired after 3 years use.I like Epson printers I think they give good value for money and the print quality is good for the price range.My old Epson 580 was very noisy the cx3200 is noticeably quieter, and is of a superior build quality.
The cx3200 represents great value for money combining a printer,scanner and stand alone photocopier,a very usefull feature you do not get with all 3 in 1 machines.(no PC connection required).
The cx3200 falls somewhere bettween the home user and the small office user and would be at its best in a home business environment, where it is robust enough to cope with sizable print jobs, without being overlarge and industrial for the home environment.
The one overwhelming problem with this printer is the cost of the ink carts £20, and £28 for the original Epson cartridges . Also the cartridges are fitted with an intelligent chip which records the ink levels inside the cartridge. This chip is designed so that the cartridge must be thrown away and a new one purchased as when you refil the cartridge the chip does not register the refil.without this information the printer will not function.
As with most printers compatibles can be purchased for half the price, and refil kits seem to be the only affordable way of running the machine.This leaves the problem of the intelligent chip, which renders the cartridge unusable after use. This problem has been overcome by at least one ink supplier on the web who sell for about £10 a chip resetter which means you can refil the Epson cartridges that come with the machine about 10 times before it wears out, and if you buy your ink refil bottles at the right place you can refil your cartridge for about £1, as opposed to Epsons £28 a time refil for colour and £20 for black.I think this works with the other new Epson printers which also use this new system of cartridges.
With this problem overcome it makes the cx3200 a very attractive prospect being ecomomical to run and producing very high quality images.
I have been taking some digital macro photography recently and the printed photos from this printer have been very crisp and detailed indeed.
At the other end of the scale I have also been using it for b&w text copying which it does very clearly and quickly.
I have not owned a scanner before and have found this a very usefull adition. The scanner allows you to pre-scan the image to make sure you have the correct alignment and then offers a range of resolutions to scan the image proper. The best resolution can the be selected depending on the speed of your computer and size of your hard drive. I have found that with a laptop it is better to choose a lower resolution or the speed of scanning and saving becomes too slow to be usable.
I have found this printer works well with windows 98 on my laptop though I have read reviews to the contrary about windows 98, I have had no problems.
There is only one real problem I have had with this printer and that it can be prone to paper jams for no apparent reason. The settings for the paper preferences are not very specific and do not cope with all kinds of paper I have tried. I used a cheap unbranded paper for a while which I found was very prone to jamming, probably because I have not found the correct paper setting, but this is very much trial and error as the paper settings on the machine are very vague. I have also used Kodak and Epson paper for which the machine is opptimised and had no problems at all. I do not think it is a serious problem but this aspect of the machine could have been better designed
I would recommend this machine to anyone upgrading from an ordinary printer to a 3 in 1,or just replacing an existing multi function printer.
More details
Ease of use
Very easy
Design
Excellent
Range of extra features / functions
Good
Instruction manual
Good
Manufacturer Support
Needs improvement
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