- Average user rating: 4.0 stars out of 6 reviews Back to product review
- My rating: 0 stars
Full user review
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7 out of 7 people found this review helpful
4.5 stars
"Fabulous desktop printer"
Pros: Absolutely gorgeous prints, large ink cartridges, archival ink
Cons: No roll feeder, same port for photo and matte black inks
Summary: I am an advanced enthusiast and I recently looked at several desktop photo printers, read lots of reviews and finally jumped in to buy the 3800. After several weeks of daily printing, I have been incredibly happy with my choice. The 3800 works right out of the box with my MacBook Pro and either Adobe CS or iPhoto, producing killer prints on a wide variety of media and is very fast for the quality you get. Both the color and advanced B&W prints are stunning.
There are only two main drawbacks that I see. The first is the lack of roll feeder, which really doesn't bother me much as I usually print direct to sheets. The second is a slightly bigger issue and that is that although the 3800 has both the matte black and photo black cartridges loaded, they use the same port, so you need to purge the line to switch. This is done automatically through the software, but wastes 1.5-4mL of ink each time you do it. So...save up all of your matte printing jobs, switch inks and print it all at once before you switch back. Definitely a design flaw they need to address in the next models.
I considered purchasing either the 2400 or the 3800, but chose the 3800 after several reviewers pointed out that the price differential was made up by the cost of the ink included in the 3800 and future ink replacements are much more cost effective- $0.75/mL vs $0.94/mL. So for the cost of the ink, you get a better printer which is more cost effective to run- which is good, because when you see the prints, you'll use it a lot!
Epson Stylus Pro 3800:
