Good, but my HP970 is preferred
Written: Mar 29 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Lower cost than competitors, paper roll feeder included
Cons: Photo print quality not as good as competitors
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| pushijima's Full Review: Epson Stylus Photo 870 InkJet Printer |
First I had an HP PhotoSmart, then and Epson Photo 750 quickly followed by an HP 970. Each time an improvement in quality. I was excited by the announcement of the Epson 870 - a fast, six color, photo quality printer. Unfortunately, I come away disappointed with the experience.
The Printer
The Epson 870 has an impressive list of features. It is fast. It can print a 4x6 photo in about a minute and a half. It has a roll paper feeder for printing on banner paper and four inch wide photo paper rolls. The photo paper roll is neat because you can print edge to edge on the sides of the roll which means much less trimming. Like previous Epson (and HP) printers, the ink is stored in one black cartridge and a single multi-color cartridge. The ink is superior to other printers' ink in that it is lightfast. In other words, it will maintain its color for several years as opposed to other inks that fade within a year or less in some cases. The printer features both USB and parallel connections for use on Macs and PCs.
The Printouts
The photo printing was the primary reason that I bought the printer. My previous experience with Epson photo printers was that they were less sharp that ones from HP. The 870 features a smaller ink drop than previous models and had six colors to boot. I figured this would mean a print that was much superior to any other. I found that my assumption was wrong. In warm midtones to shadows, the printer has visible dithering. This isn't something that should be readily visible in a six color printer. Also, the print driver tended to wash out the colors of my images if set to automatic color modes. Colors were way off if digital camera correction was chosen in conjunction with the "Standard" color profile. This is with several pictures that were captured with a variety of digital cameras. Image sharpness has definitely improved from the Photo 750 model and colors in midtones to highlights in all color ranges are nicely rendered. It was really the dark colors, especially reds and greens that had problems. The HP 970 that I use has no such problems in any colors, provided I print with PhotoREt turned off. PhotoREt is a proprietary HP print mode that simplifies the image that is sent to the printer. Turning it off forces the printer to print at a much higher quality (and much slower too.) Text printing is about as fast as the HP 970. Overall speed with printing Web pages is 5 pages per minute. You can get about 8 ppm when printing black text. The text isn't as crisp or as dark as the HP.
Overall
The Epson Photo 870 is a good printer. It is less expensive than the HP which is good for the pocket book. The paper roll feeder is an added bonus. I find that I use my HP's auto duplex often, so I think that I would rather have the duplexer than a paper roll. The prints are excellent, just not as good as the HP. The printer is speedy and quiet.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
pushijima
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Location: Chicago, IL
Reviews written: 23
Trusted by: 41 members
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