| Review for the Epson R265 Printer.
1 Why another new printer?
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Yes you may well ask that question.! After all, my significant other asked that question the moment she spotted it on the desk !
I even asked myself the question, since the Epson C86 it is replacing is not even a year old yet.
And you may have noticed a review of an Epson Laser printer I own, and that machine is only just a year old this week.!
Well the story goes like this - ( well rehearsed to cope with family taunting ) - The laser printer is superb and really meets with most of my printing needs. However, it cannot print on photographic paper, and the family all want photos printed on photographic glossy paper.
Plus the fact, that having a working printer, is so essential to me, that I simply must have a back-up machine to the laser.! There you have it ! I needed the R265.!
What was wrong with the C86, they all cry.??
Well, the yellow print head had clogged.! - is my calm answer.
Well it is still under warranty, so why not get the technician out ? - cries the unsympathetic family.
Well, he was here a fortnight ago to fix the laser printer - he made a comment about being here before, and I couldn't bring myself to call him out yet again !
AND, then there was Epson's special offer.! Trade in any inkjet printer that is still under warranty and you can save up to £100 on the cost of a new printer ! I had just a few days to clinch the deal before my warranty expired - who could resist.!?
So THAT is why I bought this one - and paid less for it than a complete set of cartridges for the C86. Even Gordon Brown would reckon that I was prudent, I suggest.
If you are determined to buy one yourself, you too can do an exchange at an Epson Express centre. If you do not have a printer to exchange, then you can buy one of these in a store like PCWorld, for about £70.
2 Why Is This A Good Choice ?
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The specification of the R265 is impressive.
Print Speed :
Take print speed - an important indicator of how good a printer is.
It is reckoned that this Epson can handle 33 sheets of A4 mono printing every minute. Can it do it, though?
Yes it can, if you print in draft mode with very little text on the page. But throw a full page of text at it, and a more realistic figure is about 15 pages per minute.
Epson claim colour photos can be produced in 13 seconds. Again it is possible to produce a colour print in 7 seconds, but only in very poor draft mode. A mediocre print takes about 40 seconds and a full photo quality
print takes me nearer to 2 minutes.
Print Quality :
If you are eager to have a photo quality printer, then it is quality more than speed that counts.
The quality is stunning - it is why I keep returning to Epson.
It uses 6 individual colour cartridges to print photos and does so at resolutions up to 5760 dpi x 1440 dpi, in both mono and colour.
You can print borderless prints too, and they are frankly, better than what you would expect from a colour lab on the high street.
Using their new generation, Claria ink technology, Epson reckon that these prints will hold their colour for 200 years.! I have not been able to prove that yet - but promise to update this review in 200 years time, if I can.!
CD Printing :
The other useful ability of this series of Epson printers is that they can print on CD/DVDs and so provide a nice photo image for you to identify the contents of all those anonymous discs that are floating around the house or office.
So along with the software CD, a complete set of cartridges and a power cable, you get a CD holder that you line up with the appropriate markings on the printer tray, and you can decorate your discs.
Paper Handling :
Most printers can do the same as Epson here.
It can handle 120 sheets of paper in the tray and all kinds of paper weight, up to light card. Size wise you can feed in envelopes from C6 to B5, and paper just greater than A4 down to just less than A6.
I have had no feed problems so far, and will leave an update if I do have jams, as this is an important issue.
3 Is It For You ?
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There are a few things to take into consideration before you rush out and buy one.
Size :
This is a bigger machine than those I have had previously and I fear that it could be a bit too big for some cluttered desks.
Roughly speaking, it is 45 cms wide and deep and about 22cms high.
However, pull out the paper tray at the front and the paper loader at the back, and you have a bigger footprint again.
Running Costs :
Epson are making a big issue out of the fact that printers like this have 6 separate cartridges and you only need to replace each individual one as you need to.
They also advertise the fact that individual cartridges are available fro £6.99.
Just in case your maths are rusty, that makes a total of over £47 to replace the lot.!
It is possible - and cheaper - to buy multi-packs, and these can be bought from Amazon for about £31 and other places, a bit cheaper still.
If you go heavy on enhanced, high quality photos, you will find yourself spending a lot of money in a short time.
Noise :
The Epson figure is 49dbA and just looking at that figure on a box may not be too meaningful. It is loud enough to be heard from one room to another, and if that room happens to be baby's nursery, you should maybe think about the impact.!
USB cable :
I mentioned this in other reviews, and it is worth repeating. I am happy not to get another USB cable as I cannot find room for all the spare cables I own of various sorts.
But if you are a first-timer with a printer that uses USB2, it is very annoying to discover that you need to purchase a cable to link the printer to the PC.
Servicing :
Epson do provide a year's warranty.
You can phone for help, but like every other support service, it is unpredictable and slow.
However, you can go online, and those clever Epson people can test your printer remotely for you, while you sit at your PC and follow their instructions.
They do send out service engineers if their online help does not fix the problem, and I have nothing but praise for the guys who come out and their workmanship.
But you need to be at home when they call, and they offer very broad timeslots - so you could be taking a whole afternoon off work to be there.
Breakdown can be best viewed as death and burial time for the printer if it is out of warranty. Printers are so cheap nowadays, that they have become disposable items.
The fast rate of development of printers adds to this sad reality.
The R265 cost me less than its predecessor - but works much, much better.
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