Tanks of ink run $19.99 for black and $12.34 for each of five colors. According to Epson's estimates, ink costs about 3.4 cents for a page of plain black text, and about 17.9 cents for a lightly covered page of graphics, on the high end compared to similar products. A heavily inked full-page photo would use more than that, of course, but if you print glossy, high-quality photos, the cost of paper might dwarf that of the ink.
You can use this machine to print from your enabled smart phone, PDA, notebook computer, or camera cord-free via Bluetooth, if you add a $70 adapter that plugs into the printer's parallel port. And if you want to pop this machine onto your Wi-Fi network, Epson sells an external 802.11g server for $180--a rare option. This and the office-oriented Dell 962 are one of few all-in-ones that offer such an add-on.
SpeedThe Epson Stylus Photo RX620 disappointed us when we clocked it printing text at only 2.1 pages per minute (ppm); that's less than half the average speed of photo multifunctions we've recently benchmarked. However, the RX620 printed our high-resolution glossy test photos about 30 percent faster than most, at 0.41ppm. It scanned grayscale documents at 4.5ppm and color documents at 4.1ppm, nearly a page slower than average. And on monochrome copies it slipped to 1.5ppm, far behind similar machines.
Quality
We might overlook the RX620's overall slow performance if it compensated with excellent image quality. However, while the output we saw would be good enough for casual use, you can find better. Text was less dense than with other printers, and letters had jagged, stepped edges at all sizes, likely due to poor bidirectional alignment of the printheads. With color graphics printed on inkjet paper, the printer produced smooth gradients and realistic shading and textures, but we found washed-out colors and a soft-focus look throughout. Our high-resolution photos on glossy paper demonstrated good detail, but colors didn't pop out, due to low contrast. The washed-out look extended to both our color and grayscale test scans, which were also blurry.
(Longer bars indicate better performance)
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Copy | |
Color scan | |
Grayscale scan | |
Photo | |
Text |
(Longer bars indicate better performance)
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Color scan | |
Grayscale scan | |
Photo | |
Graphics on inkjet paper | |
Text on inkjet paper |
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The Epson Stylus Photo RX620 includes a meticulously illustrated setup poster and an 80-page manual that covers using the transparency adapter, printing various layouts, and working with camera cards; the manual also has an extensive troubleshooting section. The utilities and applications have their own onscreen manuals in a mixed bag of help file, HTML, and PDF documents. For such an inexpensive device, Epson's support policies include a generous one-year exchange warranty with paid shipping and lifetime free tech support, available weekdays on an automated toll-free line. Live phone support with a human, on the other hand, is available only weekdays from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. PT--a drawback if you're diving into weekend photo projects. Epson provides documentation and driver downloads, FAQs, and e-mail access to technicians on its Web site.What You'll Pay
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Quick Specifications
- Release date01/28/05
- Office Machine Functions Copier Printer Scanner
- Printing Technology Ink-jet
- Media Handling / Max Original Size 8.5 in x 11.7 in
- Scanner Optical Resolution 2400 x 4800 dpi
