Epson Stylus CX6400

...certain colour, so got the Epson Stylus CX6400, which has individual colour cartridges.

SETTING UP

Setting up the printer was easy. I had to attach the control panel, the paper support, the feeder guard, and the USB cable. Interestingly, the USB plugs into the CX6400 on the inside. You have to open the part where you would normally find the ink cartridges to get to it but this means that it's less likely to be yanked out ...
...compared to HP cartridges. These Epson ones are thin, but the black cartridge that I have is twice the width of the colour ones. Cost can vary but compatible cartridges are a lot cheaper than official ones.

When using compatible ink cartridges, the printer points this out to me every time on the screen and I can't disable this (i.e. "Do not show message in future" isn't available). Quality seems just as good with the compatible ... more

INTRO

This has been out for quite a while now although I remember buying this from Comet for £159.99 a few years back (Should be much cheaper now) . Having used an HP Deskjet 840C and a separate scanner, I wanted a multifunctional printer to do both. I didn't want to have to spend a fortune on ink and waste ink whenever I ran out of a certain colour, so got the Epson Stylus CX6400, which has individual colour cartridges.

SETTING UP

Setting up the printer was easy. I had to attach the control panel, the paper support, the feeder guard, and the USB cable. Interestingly, the USB plugs into the CX6400 on the inside. You have to open the part where you would normally find the ink cartridges to get to it but this means that it's less likely to be yanked out by mistake.

To attach the printer to my computer, I had to install the software. It did come with a lot of software but there is the option to not install some of it.
Ink cartridges are easily installed. To install them, I just had to lift open the scanner unit, lift up plastic holder, insert cartridges into the appropriate slots by pushing down till I heard a click, then close the lid. The printer then 'charges' the ink, which takes about a minute. I also aligned the cartridges and printer heads.

DESIGN

I think the printer looks pretty sleek but a bit on the bulky side. Actually, I think it looks more like a small grey photocopier. Still looks good though. Most of it is grey, with a dark grey control panel and trays, and some dark grey at the front of the scanner lid. With all the buttons and the LCD screen at the front, very modern-looking in my opinion.

Paper feeder is at the back, which is different to what I'm used to with my previous printer. It comes out at the front as usual. The paper tray needs to be pulled out or the printouts will fall to the floor. I don't really like the vertical tray though. It seems to be more prone to paper jams and the printer taking several sheets through the feeder all in one go! Also, adding a page during a print job sometimes just makes the printer spit out the page even if you wanted to print on that particular page.

The vertical paper tray is annoying especially if you want to add paper in the middle of a print job. If you want to print on the back of a particular sheet of paper, sometimes, it spits this page out and prints on the next page in the tray. That's irritating.

On the bright side, when it works, it works great. Copying and scanning stuff is easy and it even has slots for memory card, which you can choose to print the pictures off without the use of a PC.

INK

The printer uses four cartridges. Black, Cyan, Magenta and Yellow and it comes with one of each although they seem very small when compared to HP cartridges. These Epson ones are thin, but the black cartridge that I have is twice the width of the colour ones. Cost can vary but compatible cartridges are a lot cheaper than official ones.

When using compatible ink cartridges, the printer points this out to me every time on the screen and I can't disable this (i.e. "Do not show message in future" isn't available). Quality seems just as good with the compatible ink I'm using though so I don't care if I don't use their 'official' ink, which is rather overpriced.
Even if you have something to print that only uses the other cartridges with remaining ink. Also, it knows when you're not using original EPSON ink. It'll keep reminding you that print quality may vary or something when you send a print job, and asks you whether you want to continue.

PRINT QUALITY

I think that print quality is excellent so long as you choose the higher quality settings and so long as you use the right kind of paper. Printing photos on plain paper does not give you the best result whether you choose to print high quality or not. You need glossy or high-resolution paper for that. It's pretty good most of the time although you need to clean the print heads every once in a while or you're left with white lines. The software gave me several warnings when checking the 'Borderless' option, telling me that the top and bottom areas might smear. This doesn't sound too good but I haven't had any problems with that.

SCANNING

The scanning function works just as any scanner would. Nice and quick. I've used it on a PC with only USB 1.1 and it was quite quick doing a normal scan. Increasing the resolution does increase the scannign time though. It supports scans up to 1200x2400 dpi. I've never gone that high though. I've scanned photos with resolution of up to 300 dpi with very good results. OCR software is also included so that I can scan in printed text and convert it to an editable format but this is limited as usual, since OCR is only 99% accurate and the scanned text must be crisp clear.

PROS
- All-in-one so space saving
- Border-free printing. Works up to A4 so you can fill the whole page.
- Separate ink cartridges
- Ink level indication
- Use as standalone copier
- Print straight from memory cards

CONS
- Bulky compared to some other All-In-One Printers
- Loading tray in the back is difficult to load and inconvenient if storing printer under desk
- Borderless printing is only supported for some types of paper.
- When one colour runs out, it doesn't let you print at all
- Complains each time you print if using re-manufactured inks

CONCLUSION

I think it's not bad as a printer/scanner. I have a small room so being able to get rid of my scanner is good. It also has all the things that I wanted such as ink level monitor, separate ink cartridges, and the ability to cancel print jobs without it shooting out gobbledegook in retaliation like my old HP Deskjet. The built-in card reader is a bonus!

The paper jams are annoying but are easy to deal with but I'd prefer that they don't happen in the first place. I'd rather see a horizontal tray but I think all Epson printers have vertical ones.

It's an okay printer, seems pretty reliable but there should be better ones on the market now. I'd recommend getting something with a horizontal tray to save you the stress of the paper jams and for the printer to print on the page that you want to print on. In conclusion, I don't recommend it for the reason that there are better ones on the market and I've actually gone back to HP already!

Thanks for reading!  

...less