Printer Reviews

The 980 is the 5th Epson Color Inkjet I have purchased (I like the Epson Printers). I bought the 980 because it is virtually identical to the 900 that I've had for 18 months, and I needed another printer off-site. The speed and quality are superb, but there is a bug in the installation software that will lock up your computer (happened on 2 of 3 computers I tested it on). Epson is aware of the bug, so be sure to download the revised driver from their internet site. Except for that problem it would rate 5 stars.

I purchased my Epson Stylus Color 980 over one year ago (...). I had read one review in a computer magazine prior to that purchase and the comparisons and specs sounded great. The new printer was to replace a H-P color inkjet, purchased in 92 or 93; A model 500C, I believe.
The new Epson was purchased to print faster, better documents for my new business and to take advantage of the newer, better color printing for photos. It has done everything that was written about it and more. The E980 is very fast, has near laser clarity and is by far the most economical way to produce color prints and documents that I have used. It sips ink slowly and will make hundreds of color 8x10's with a single color cartridge.
The mystery ? First, the store tried to talk me into a different brand and cheaper copier than the Epson. Lastly, I have seen almost nothing written or advertised about the Epson SC980 since that purchase. Yet this is a very, very fine product.
As Jerry Seinfeld says,"What is the deal ?"

This printer is awesome...totally awesome.....I am trying to find another one to buy just in case the one I have now decides to part company. I cannot believe the results of my printing. I scanned a photo and print it on the Epson photo paper, later I showed it to my wife and ask her to pick the original; guess what? she picked the printed copy from my Epson; I had a hard time convincing her which was the original. My dear EPSONSTYLUS COLOR 980, I love you.

I order two ink cartridges from your company recently for my Epson Sytlus Photo 820 (Black and Color). Neither one of them have been worth the money spent. They do not provide ink. I purchase alot of ink for my printer and was hoping to find a suppler to fulfill my needs but your product flunked big time.

I purchased 3 Black Epson T007201 Inkjet Printer Cartridges through Amazon.com in January -- best price I've seen. The first worked perfectly. The second failed to work at all and my printer kept telling me that my ink cartridge was empty or not an epson ink cartridge. After powering off and on my printer, deleting it, reinstalling it, and restarting my system several times, I finally gave up and opened and installed the 3rd new cartridge. It worked perfectly. Now I'm trying to figure out how to get a replacement for the defective cartridge and I'm not having any success even finding a way to contact amazon about the problem. I'm hoping they respond to this review. If they stand behind the defective cartridge and send me a replacement, they get a 5 star review. Otherwise it goes to zero. Two out three means that my $18.94 cartridge (plus shipping) really cost me almost $30 each. For less than that, I can run down to Office Max and get it instantly - and return it instantly if it's defective.

I print mostly color photos with my Epson 890 (which I love!!) I've noticed that you can watch the color ink cartridge level drop as you print, but the black and white cartridge keeps on kicking. The quality of photos you get with the printer makes the price of the ink cartridges well worth the price (especially on Amazon[.com]).

I have had this printer for about 6 months now and have been very happy with it. I used it while on a job search and printed out at least 100 resumes and cover letters, all with excellent quality.

Photographs look fantastic on Epson's glossy paper (only slightly less fantastic on other brands). I honestly think the pictures I print look better than the same pictures from the photo shop.

CDs too look excellent. I haven't been able to get the labels *perfectly* centered, but they are pretty close.

Minus one star for speed. While the quality is great, it takes a very long time to print a photo or a CD.

What can I say - Epson has done it again. This printer prints black text excellent - Color Photographs excellent - and prints directly to DVD and CDs excellent also...This is a must purchase for anyone needing to print DVD's. Instead of a paper label - print directly to the DVD.

This printer was purchased to replace an older Epson printer. When shopping around, I was also impressed with a Canon photo printer for a much higher price. The decision was made to go with the Epson because of the ability to print directly on CDs. I made the right choice. After installing the printer, I was instantly able to print photo quality prints that are indistinguishable from the prints from the local photo shop. In addition, the printing on CDs is easy and produces great quality. I highly recommend this printer.

The good news.... OK it prints on white paper, and if you set it to its highest quality (slowest printing) it will turn out pretty decent photos. And on the off chance that you are able to load the CD/DVD tray into it exactly the way it wants, it will print on CD's relatively well.
Now for the real review of this printer: Text is abysmal, even on its best setting. I have a Canon i860, which in every way (text and graphics/photos) blows the doors off this Epson. Printing CD's which really is the ONLY actual reason anyone would buy this over ANY Canon, is a chore at best. You must print them one at time (choosing more than 1 copy craps out the tray alignment for the next copy, which brings on the error message) and it takes a REALLY LONG TIME. Don't get me wrong, the quality in "Best Photo" on CD's is pretty great.... but the hassle with the tray never being happy and the S L O W print speed is just not worth it. WAAAAAAAAYY better results are achieved using the Avery Afterburner kit and printing labels with ANY Canon printer. I had an Epson several years ago, and upon buying Canon, will never go back to Epson. The quality difference is measured in light years. But alas Canon has no CD printer in the U.S., only Europe. So if you're contemplating this as your primary printer, and just every once in a while will print to CD's... move on to another brand that is actually capable of printing clean black text. If you just need a printer to print 2 or 3 CD's a week, this will suffice.

When I first read about this printer in a computer magazine, I was immediately impressed by its functions and price point. CD/DVD printers cost $100's more and even then, they usually just serve that single function. Later that day, I went out and bought one.

The R200 not only prints directly onto the discs, but is also a quality photo printer. You can print out crisp images with that function as well as carry out normal day-to-day tasks like homework and other documents. It's great because the printer has an extra USB port on the front of the machine for easy hookup to a laptop. The software for the printer is easy to install and there really was no printer alignment necessary. It did all the work for me.

The only thing you really need to buy, if you don't already have one, is a USB cable because it doesn't come with one packed in the box. Yeah, I know. I was disappointed in that too, but the features made up for that. Speaking of features, in order to successfully print onto a disc, you must use an Ink-Jet printable disc. Otherwise, you'll have a disc with a pool of ink on it.

I needed to purchase a color inkjet printer for photo printing. I have been a die hard HP fan for years (my HP LaserJet 4L is still my workhorse for B&W). My photographer recommended Epson for quality and multiple ink cartridges and I also read the online reviews. This printer had 5 star reviews because of quality and ease of installation, so I purchased it.

The installation was truly a snap (and not intrusive like users complained about HP's installation) and literally took about 2 minutes. The photo quality of the pictures are out of this world. I bought Epson photo paper in bulk at Costco ($20 for 120 sheets) to insure good results. Yes, after printing out about 100 8x10 full color, best quality images, I have to go and buy a Yellow Toner Cartridge, but what can you do? A photo lab here in L.A. wanted to charge me $2 per 4x6 print!

I have had to play with calibrating my color management with Photoshop to match what's onscreen with what prints out, but that's a Photoshop issue and not an issue with the printer. Just read your Photoshop manual or get a Visual Quickstart Guide for Photoshop.

This printer is quiet, compacts nicely (when not in use) on my jam packed desktop and installation and the quality of prints is amazing! I cannot recommend this printer enough!

This cart produces photo-realistic color...you wouldn't know the difference between lab prints and your own. The only drawback is that it runs out fast, especially if you do a lot of high-resolution printing or photo printing. You'll definitely want to stock up on an extra just in case.

Also, it is a little confusing to install. Remove ONLY THE YELLOW TAPE. Don't try to take off the blue tape, or the transparent tape covering the ink wells on the bottom of the cart. It will ruin the cartridge if you do.

Epson Ink is the best I've used so far - better than HP by lightyears and definitely more impressive than anything else on the market.

Since I last reviewed this product, I have had a misfortunate accident. I was simply poking around with my new printer, and wanted to remove the ink carts to look at the print head system. What I did not know at the time is that once an Epson Ink Cart is installed, it cannot be removed until it is empty. If it is removed before this, it cannot be used again, whether or not it there is ink remaining. It's a one-time-good deal. So don't waste 45 dollars worth of ink and keep your hands off until you're computer tells you otherwise :-)

Through the years of owning printers,I've had the pleasure of using Top Brand name printers,HP,LEXMARK,EPSON. Because I run alot of graphic software,and print from my camcorder to make stills of my Family.Nothing is close to the photo print quality you get from Epson and their ink.When I take a scan and copy the picture with 1200 dpi,on photo paper(also Epson)you cannot tell them apart. I have given away my HP and Lexmark printers and Hands down I'm sticking with EPSON. Thanks for a perfect product.

Old model, but worth considering, if found. Small yet dependable. Not especially a colored ink hog, but all 6 colors in one cartridge (black ink seperate, of course.)

I really shouldn't even call these printouts; on photopaper at the highest resolution settings, output actually looks better than typical photo-quality. I don't think I will ever bother getting photo enlargements from a local film developer again... this printer is that good.

I disagree with the people who say it's hard to configure. The instructions are easy to follow, and I hope Epson doesn't give up the versatility of the configuration settings just because a few people have trouble reading the manual.

Another great feature is it's ability to print up to 9" X 44". The only downside, it seems to use a lot of ink. Still, in terms of features, quality, price, power and - yes - ease of use ... you can't beat this printer.

Kodak, look out! Grab some of that photo glossy paper, made for photos and print your phots with the 750. It is UNREAL how good it is! Use your digital camera, or scan some images, and print them on this printer, you simply wont believe it is from a computer printer. Downside: prints are not instant. the computer does some work to get you there. Another downer: the black color makes it hard for me to see the front panel in my (often) dimly lit study. Summary: You cant go wrong with buying this printer.

I really liked this piece because it was fairly inexpensive, easy to put together and blends nicely with other pieces. The quality seems to be pretty good as well. The piece seems sturdy and we have our printer on top and I am not worried. A lot of times I find that less expenisve pieces are not of very good quality and I do not find that to be true about this one. The only complaint I have is that most mission style furniture comes in darker wood tones like Oak. I wish that this line also came in oak, cherry, or even mahogany. Also, I do not like the drawer pull and it does not come off so you can not change it. Other than that I completely recomend this piece. It is is also nice that it can hold legal or letter size files and the extra shelve is a nice bous.

For the price you will not find anything with the class and style of this piece. After reading horrific reveiws on the shipping quality, I was hesitant to order this sent to me - but no worries. It was in perfect condition, ready to assemble. <br /> <br /> I ordered two and put them both together in just over an hour. They're larger and sturdier than you would imagine from mail-order furniture. Just be prepared to have a power drill or power screw-driver on hand as the drawers will need special attention and muscle to get them right. <br /> <br /> One awkward note is that if you intend to use this for files, the plastic labeling tags on the hanging folders stand up enough to make a scraping noise on the inside of the drawer whn you open and close it. On the plus side, the drawers are easily converted from legal to letter size rails. <br /> <br /> And if you want a good chuckle, there is an included disclosure statement that looks to have been translated from English, to Vietnamese, and back to English with the usual less-than-perfect results.

Hey, for a "put it together yourself, comes in a box deal" this cabinet is far better than the cost! Easy to put together, sturdy and the bottom drawer can be used to store things not just for files (we use it for music equipment and CD's) the middle shelf we use for storing old vinyl and the top is for our turntable. It's pretty large, bigger than it appears and worked out PERFECTLY for it's intended purpose.

Lexmark's waterproof black ink seems to degrade very quickly. After having a cartridge for a few months, the ink starts to smear badly when touched (even after drying for days or weeks). After 3 cartridges, I'm convinced that this is a consistent problem with Lexmark's ink. Unfortunately, with no alternative available, those of us with Lexmark's printers (that use this ink) are stuck with smearing ink, and no help from Lexmark (repeated emails have yielded no interest in resolving the problem. They say "some minor smearing is normal," and don't address the major smearing). The ink is good and can be used with Z11 (the printer I have) . The ink is waterfproof and hasnt given me any problems except that if you are printing transperencies you got to let it dry...otherwise it smears(atleast it did for me).

The colors are crisp and overall I would recomend this( I guess with lexmark you can use only this ink).

Overall a good p[roduct..not that we could buy something else for teh printer ;)

The ink cartridge is good and can be used with Z11 (the printer I have) . The ink is waterfproof and hasnt given me any problems except that if you are printing transperencies you got to let it dry...otherwise it smears(atleast it did for me).

The colors are crisp and overall I would recomend this( I guess with lexmark you can use only this ink).

Overall a good product..not that we could buy something else for the printer ;)

This is the easiest cartridge to install I have ever used. Also, the colors are great!

I ended up getting an iView USB KVM for $80 (not including extra USB and video cables) that allows me to control 4 computers, including a web server running Linux, and 2 IBM ThinkPad laptops. All computers respond to the extra buttons of the IntelliMouse.

See my review of the Microsoft Natural Pro keyboard for more information.

If the little beep that occurs when you switch between your machines is the biggest complaint you have about this unit, then you're reaching for things to gripe about.

I previously tried the little IOGear MiniView 2-port KVM unit. Nowhere on its package could I find what OS's it would work with, so I had to bring it home. Evidently, the IOGear either choked on Windows 95 that I am running on one of my boxes or it choked on the optical mouse (I am using the PS/2 adapter with it.). Either way, it didn't work out. So, I returned it and ordered the Belkin.

The Belkin worked the first time out without a hitch. It recognizes both computers (both OS's) AND the mouse even with its adapter. If I did have a complaint about the Belkin unit, it would be the fact that it does look like a techno spider once you have everything plugged into it. Other than that, I'm very happy. It does just what I need it to do.

This switch is wonderful. I was worried at first that is was so inexpensive (many KVMs are much more) but it works well. I use it to switch between two computers, one running XP Pro and the other running Server 2003. Both are set to a resolution of 1280x1024 at 85Hz refresh rate. I found that the monitor works best if both computers are set to the same resolution. Switching between the two is painless, using either the switch on the KVM or the keyboard shortcuts. The KVM can also automatically switch but because I leave my computer running Server 2003 on all the time I need to manually switch back and forth. Considering all the cables ar eincluded I think this is a great deal. Just be sure you need the PS2 model. If you have a USB mouse or keyboard then get a KVM that takes USB inputs.

I used the MFC just a little over one year, and its main circuit board failed resulting into malfunctioning of the fax. Cost of repair over $200! A few months later the copier started giving problem - a vertical band on the right hand side and uneven (faded) ink on the left hand side of the document. I changed the toner but no result. Scanner does not produce good quality on photographs. Tech support were not successful in solving the problems most of the times.

I was very surprised at the one star review here. I have had an mfc9600 for over a year with excellent results. I scan, print, copy and fax documents using it, running as much as 1,000 pages per month and the reason I was browsing this website is that I am considering buying a second one. The only negative I have had with it is sometimes the feeder scans a tad crooked, but that is a problem I can live with. Otherwise, I think it is extremely well designed and I use all the features on it regularly except for the video capture. Based on my experience with this machine I am also considering a Brother color laser printer.

In contrast, I also have an HP R80xi multi-function inkjet machine. I am extremely unhappy with that one and have hardly used it at all. Actually, it works pretty well, has good color and a good scanner. But here are the negatives -- and these are serious problems for me because I have to connect my laptop to several different machines: (1) won't work with printer switches; (2) won't work with USB/Parallel converters; (3) won't work with any other TWAIN devices; (4) won't work with all sorts of other software, including communications packages, virus scanners, etc. (5) has a really small paper tray. (You can get a >second< paper drawer for the MFC9600!!)

I don't have anything against HP products in general and I have an HP Pavilion laptop that is my primary work machine. But I think the communications of the HP R80xi were really poorly thought out.

I have used the Brother MFC-9600 for over three months now and I absolutely love it! All printed output quality has been quite high and it prints rather quickly. I love that it can recognize different telephone rings and only picks up when its "number" is called. This feature is critical for a person like me running a home-based business that can only afford two lines (one office line and one for the home). It enables me to assign two numbers to my home line without having to answer every call to figure out whether it is a fax call. A big selling point for me was that it had a flatbed with a decent-sized automatic sheet-feeder tray. This makes both single- and multi-page copying and faxing a breeze. Although I don't need to scan for my business, I found it easy to use when I tested it.

I have run into some minor problems when using features for the first time. It took me some tries before I was successful in printing on cardstock and then the paper would sometimes go through crooked. Also, a minor glitch is that I can't leave the USB plugged into my laptop (which runs Windows XP) when I shutdown--it causes my system to hang. I consider this minor because I just unplug the USB cable when I'm finished my print job.

I think that a lot of the problems others who have given this machine a low rating have had are due to them not carefully reading the setup instructions/manual. There are instructions for every Windows program in the manual (with the exception of XP). (XP users should be aware that, per the product instructions, they must not, under any circumstances, load the software that came with the machine.)

This is a fantastic piece of equipment and I recommend it for anyone who needs one machine to take care of everything.