After having my Epson Stylus DX4000 for a few months I needed a change and decided to upgrade to the next model in the series. As with the other printer it is an all-round great product and has many different features that you are able to use. I found that the printer has many qualities that are same as the DX4000 which include ease of use because it is very easy to use and the printing quality, although it is slightly better than the previous model.
The Epson DX4200 offers a complete printing and copying solution for all of the family. It's ideal for nearly everything. It's compatible with all applications and can be used for school projects, web designing, and right down to photo printing. It can be used connected to your computer
or you could use it as a standalone printer that allows you to copy documents in black and white or colour. It's your choice. The printer is very easy to use and will meet everybody's needs.
Here are the specifications of the printer: Up to 5764 x 1440 dpi print resolution Up to 20 pages per minute in black ink. Up to 19 pages per minute in colour ink. Print photos direct via picbridge. Borderless printing up to A4. 4 individual DURA bright ultra ink tanks up to 1200 x 2400 dpi scan resolution Standalone copier Hi-Speed USB 2.0 interface Windows and Mac Compatible.
I found that the specification of this printer was better than the spec of the printer before it. Well it would be quite silly to have the next product in the series being worse. Well this is the upgrade and has better features than the previous printer of its series. I find that it is a lot better than the one before it. And when I say a lot better I mean the quality of the picture and the printing speed. Although it actually prints three pages less per minute than the DX4000 it actually prints seven more colour pages per minute.
A new feature to the model is picbridge printing. This allows for you to connect your camera to the printer via a cable and then print off all of the pictures that you select. I though that this was a very good idea because it saves a lot of time when you are working with large amounts of pictures and images off a camera etc. even though the pictures are coming directly from the camera there is no quality loss when you are printing pictures this way, it just means that you can not apply the touch-up affects that you may use when you scan the images into your computer and then use software such as Corel.
Borderless printing. Another feature that is great to use. Really its self explanatory, it allows you to print pictures or images without a border. This is ideal if you are wanting to frame a picture etc. with this functionality it allows you to use all of the paper and therefore making, in some cases the picture look better than what it would have done otherwise.
With the functionality of having four different cartridges it means that you will save a lot of money on ink cartridges. Each cartridge has a single colour and a slightly larger cartridge for the black as most printers do. With this it means that if you run out of one colour then you can just replace the ink. Whereas with some of the older printers if you ran out of one colour you may be throwing away half a cartridge full of ink because it was all in one. I have found that it is a lot easier to handle the ink as separate colours and I have also found that the ink is a lot cheaper.
One of the main reasons that I have found ink cheaper is because I buy my ink online from a website called inkcartridgedirect.com. This means that all my ink needs are at the click of a button and I no longer have to search forever round shops to try and find my ink because PCWorld doesn't stock it. Ink for the printer can be purchased at most good computer stores but as I say I get mine off the internet. Ink from retailers will cost you around £6.99 a cartridge. Where I get my ink from it costs me about £15.00 and then usually 99p postage which isn't really that much considering size, as they do send a free black ink with every purchase.
As this printer is an all in one it means that I can use the scanner bed to either scan images to the computer or I can copy them on to paper at the click of a button. I found that this was very useful because of all the forms that I have to fill out I just make a master copy and then photocopy it right from my computer desk. Meaning I don't have to go to the local newsagents and pay 5p a copy. The quality of the scanner is actually quite good. It picks up most detail that is in pictures and does a really good job. It has not yet failed me.
The thing that makes this printer even better is that it can run on almost any operating system. It can run on Windows 98SE / ME / 2000 / XP / Mac OS 10.2.5 or later. It can run on a great amount of operating systems and since XP is now the most widely used operating system that is even better for the user.
I thought that the printer is great and would be able to suit anybody's needs. The only downfall that I have found with it is that it doesn't have the ability to fax. To me it doesn't really matter as I don't fax but it is a slight downfall of the printer. I purchased my printer for £40 off e-Bay and thought that this was great value for money. If you are not a fan of e-Bay you can purchase the printer at PCWorld for £69.97 with free delivery as it is in the clearance zone.
To conclude I think that this is a great printer and I would recommend it to potential buyers.
Thank you for reading and I hope to see you reading my other reviews.
Pictures of Epson Stylus DX4200
DX4200
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
great review,I am thinking about updating my CX3200,this looks like a good choice,thanks
anonymili 03.02.2007 11:51
LOL Can't believe you upgraded from the DX4000 after only a few months. My printers stay with me for years! I'm really amazed that Amazon were selling this for £40 and PC World for just under £70, that's a huge difference! Good review. x
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