 "Epson Stylus CX2800")
Epson recently launched their lineup of MFDs out of which the CX2800 was the entry level model. The one thing that makes this one stand out of the extensive competition in this segment, is that it uses individual ink cartridges for each individual color (four cartridges in total). Lets see how it fares against the competition in our performance tests.
Build
The Epson Stylus CX2800 looks cute and stylish with its white plastic (read: iPod inspired) body and a comfortable size at 430x172x345mm. It looks great on any desktop, whether at home or a small office, though the former would be more suited location for an entry level MFD.
It has some basic functionality like “B/W copy”, “Color copy” buttons placed on the top of the unit for convenience.
Features
The one feature I appreciate the most is being able to use the MFD for making photo copies without the need of connecting it to a PC. This makes it extremely convenient when you need urgent photocopies, but can’t afford to waste time turning on the PC first.
I would have appreciated a Pict-Bridge feature, but I’d let that go considering, once again, that it’s just an entry level model.
As I mentioned earlier, the Epson Stylus CX2800 uses separate ink cartridges for each color, which makes perfect sense as you change only the color you run out of. What’s better about this is that each cartridge costs only Rs. 250, making them quite affordable. With the drop in price there’s also a drop in the cartridge’s ink capacity. How much that affects the long-term cost of the printer is what we find out in our performance tests.
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Performance
The Epson Stylus CX2800 was an overall average performer in our tests—not too good, but definitely not bad either.
As a printer the CX2800 gives sharp prints with sober colors. All the colors came out pretty much accurately, without any extra saturation that most home printers these days indulge in. Moreover, it definitely had one of purest and deepest blacks I have seen from an entry-level model. Personally I think this was a great way to go for Epson, but a lot of home users may prefer a model that makes their prints look a lot more vivid.
The ink dots were hard to spot with a naked eye, which made the prints appear extremely sharp and fine. Very high quality stuff here.
As for the scanner, it has the same problem that I see in all other entry-level MFD scanners—it performs poorly on objects with a little depth. the scanner gave some great results as long as you’re scanning straight from a photo, magazine or any other standard paper, but as soon as I tried scanning paper with a little embossing and things suddenly got dull.
As a copier the CX2800 works great in color as well as black and white copies. In color copies, the colors were quite close to the original and the speeds were one of the best we’ve seen at just a minute and fifty four seconds. The black and white copies came at around forty seconds, which may not be the fastest, but was still pretty good.
Full A4 sized photo prints were produced in close to eleven and a half minutes on an average, which again is pretty good for a starter level MFD. But surprisingly it took twenty seconds for a regular black and white document print, which is pretty slow. Looks like this one’s made for color/photo prints.
The black cartridge ran out after 72 prints, which may seem extremely low at first, but then considering that a new black cartridge will only cost you another 250 bucks, it doesn’t look as bad. If we take 72 prints as an average, then you will get 288 prints out of cartridges worth Rs. 1,000, which works out a little better than an average-sized cartridges lifespan anyways.
The CX2800 does give you the option to use the other three colors to make black ink instead, once the original black ink tank nears total depletion, which I think is a great option for emergencies.
Conclusion
The Epson Stylus CX2800 has an MRP of Rs. 5,899 but you’ll easily be able to get it at a street price closer to Rs. 5,000. At that price, I think the CX2800 works great as a solution for homes. It’s passable performance as a scanner makes me advise SOHOs and everyone else to check out other higher-end options.
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