Epson Stylus SX100 All In One Printer

i bought this printer for two reasons- 1, the price and 2 the fact its epson. im not what you would call a heavy printer i only do random things like print off email confirmations, colouring in sheets for the kids ect.i found it very easy to set up when it arrived- i even put in the cartridges all by myself lol. the quality of one photo i printed wasnt amazing but still good,basicly what im trying to say is if you just want a family printer/copier/scanner then i think this is brilliant. if you want excellent quality then maybe you should save up a bit more money.but its just what i needed

This is a cheap & cheerful printer and definitely not for anything other than occasional printing. The normal black ink cartridges only seem to last a week or two before they are empty. We do not seem to get anything like the published number of sheets per cartridge.

Admittedly we are a family of four but we do not print off a huge amount of stuff. Cartridges are very cheap but when you use so many the total cost soon mounts up.

The best part of this product is the scanner. Very easy to use - an absolute doddle!

I must confess to be an Epson fan and this is one in a long line of Epsons that I have bought.

The requirement for this device was one where good quality photos could be printed, every now and then, and low to medium home usage.

It meets these goals admirably.

However, I'm not going to give it five stars, only four, as I feel that one should be taken away for speed. When I compare this to a higher end BX300F Epson Stylus Office BX300F All-in-One Printer with Fax , it is definitely slower, but then it is half the price.

Despite what some other reviewers have said, it does work as a standalone copier in photo (very, very slow), colour (OK) and black & white (fast) modes.

If you've used Epsons before, then the scanning software and process are the same as before and it works well and reliably.

Likewise print quality, if you set it up correctly, is excellent, especialy with the genuine Epson wax based inks Epson T071540 original durabrite ink cartridge Multipack - Cyan T0712 , Magenta T0713 , Yellow T0714 and Black T0711 .

NOW THE GRIPE OF MANY REVIEWERS - INK USAGE AND COST....

I have seen many reviews where people have complained about getting as little as 17 pages from a set of cartridges. Having used Epson printers for quite few years now, I can honestly say that the cartridges do last well if you follow five simple rules.

1. The first is bit obviously really, but printing photographs does take a lot of ink. Cutting back in this area is one thing you might consider - don't give me any credit for this one, it really just plain common sense, the rest are better...

2. Leave your printer switched on the whole time. If you switch your printer off, you will waste loads of ink. As part of the power on sequence, Epson printers clean the print heads. This uses a lot of ink. Indeed it would even be possible, just by switching off and on, to use a complete set of ink cartridges without printing a single page! But, I hear you say, what about the environment? Well, this printer is "Energy Star". This means it has its own energy saving mechanisms built into it to help reduce the power consumption when it is not in use. At least this quells my conscience.

3. Do not replace the ink cartridges when the printer tells that they are low. Epson printers are very pessimistic about the state of ink in the cartridges. Indeed, my prompt today to write this review is that I have just replaced a cartridge; nearly a month after I was first warned about the ink being low. I've printed close on 200 pages of mixed text and graphics in that time with it telling me that the Cyan needed replacement...

4. This is linked to (3) above. Only replace the ink cartridge when the printer refuses to print. You won't lose any quality as you get near to the end of the ink. The printer will not compromise on print quality. The main point to note here is that you should order spare ink when you're warned that it is low, but only replace when the printer actually stops.

5. Finally, this one saves you both ink and makes printing faster. Change the default print quality to text for most of your usage. Unless you are printing photographs, this is probably perfectly acceptable quality for the vast majority of your usage. You can always change the print quality on an as-needed basis when you do want really top quality. The added bonus is that printing is also faster.

(To change the default quality, go into <Control Panel>, and then right click on the printer icon. Then select and you can then change the printing preferences - I suggest <Text> is a good option. When you come to print, you can always change the setting for that job only by clicking on the tab as part of the print dialogue.)

I hope you find this useful.