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Posted: Mon, September 15, 2003
Epson Stylus C62: Stylish by name, sweet by natureBy Matt Pearce Epson's budget
A4 colour inkjet
printer, the Stylus C62, is not only stylish by name. The curvaceous two-tone machine looks far more handsome than the model it replaces, particularly when sat next to my new Epson scanner. And
the good news? Its prints are equally good to look at.The specs for the C62 might be fairly basic, but they are impressive at this price point; Epson's recommended retail price is £58.72, but you'll find it retailing for anything up to £79.99. The optimised resolution is 5,760 x 720 dpi (selected via the 'best photo' button), and the results (using the right paper) live up to the promise of those figures. Images are truly vibrant, with strong colours and excellent levels of detail that will surely keep most users happy (let's remember that this is aimed at the home user). It certainly does justice to a 3 million pixel digital camera. The text output? Not quite as dazzling, with occasional distortion, but certainly up to scratch for this class of printer. What does impress about text output is its speed. Epson claims a 14 page-per-minute maximum output in black (draft mode), and a 13.9 page-per-minute maximum output in colour. In practise, the printing speed is a huge improvement over my old Epson, with even lengthy essays pushed out in under a minute. However, with speed comes noise. The sound levels quoted as 48 dB during printing, and this sounded pretty noisy to me. On the plus side, the printer does have a decent 100 sheet paper feeder capacity, and it accepts a wide range of paper sizes, plus envelopes and transfers. What makes this printer so likeable is that it is so easy to live with. Set-up is a doddle. Software installation is a pain-free, computer-friendly process, and completely automatic. Basic photo enhancing software is included in the package (PhotoQuicker 3). Like many of these programmes, it covers the basics well, although I think I'll still stick with Photoshop. The initial ink cartridge installation also redefines effortlessness, thanks to on-screen cues and diagrams plus a nice big set-up poster. Epson has also been considerate in its provision of both USB and parallel port connections - handy for old computers without USB or those with too many USB devices attached ( although annoyingly, no cables are supplied with a new printer these days) . As you'd expect, the printer is perfectly system-friendly, being Windows 95/98/2000/NT 4.0/Me/XP and Macintosh OS compatible. My only gripes with this printer had to do with the two-cartridge ink system (one for black ink, one for colour ink). First of all, Epson cartridges are pretty expensive, but that's not unusual. What some will find slightly annoying is the use of a three-in-one colour cartridge. When one colour runs out, the whole cartridge has to be replaced (the C62's big brother printer, the C82, has a three cartridge colour system, so you can replace individual colours). But then, there's always the alternative of injecting ink. What's more irritating is that (like my old Epson) the printer refuses to print if either the black or colour cartridges run out of ink. This is frustrating if you just need black printouts and don't feel the desperate need to have a full colour cartridge. However, these are fairly minor gripes. They are easily outweighed by the printer's speed, ease-of-use, and its excellent print quality. If you want a reasonably priced printer for the home PC that can print out your documents fast as well as printing your digital photos in full splendour, I would definitely recommend this printer. And won't it look nice on your desk! Where to buyDabs.comhttp://www.dabs.com Simply Computers http://www.simply.co.uk Insight UK http://www.insight.com/uk/index.php MicroWarehouse http://www.microwarehouse.co.uk Savastore.com http://www.savastore.com Further informationEpson UKTel: 08702 416 900 E-mail: enquiry@epson.co.uk Web: http://www.epson.co.uk |
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