Epson Ships Hi-Definition Inkjets
Even though they were supposed to come out in September, Epson is now finally shipping their three “high-definition” printers that they announced over the summer. The models are the Epson Stylus Photo R260 and R380 and the Epson Stylus Photo RX580 photo all-in-one.
These three inkjets are supposedly the fastest on the market and Epson says they “offer nearly three times the photo print speeds of comparable HP models.” According to their test, the Epson models could print a 4×6 picture in 32 seconds while it took the HP models 88 seconds. One of the HP’s they compared it with was that Photosmart D7160, which costs about $120. The Stylus Photo R260 is going to retail for $130, so it’s a pretty fair comparison. Incidentally, these tests were conducted by Torrey Pines Research, a local company here in San Diego.
As with any fancy new printer these days, Epson touts some technology they made up and gave a weird name. This time it’s a MicroPiezo print head with DX5 technology. Awesome, huh? Of course it doesn’t really mean anything and the fact that it can produce drops as small as 1.5 picoliters isn’t all that impressive since there are a number of other photo printers on the market that can make that claim. So you kind of just have to trust Epson that this print head is somehow different than every other one before it.
Other than being high definition, these three printers don’t have any unique features you can’t find elsewhere. They all have the standard connectivity features and what not. The Stylus Photo R380 does have a 3.5″ LCD, which is pretty huge, but who knows if people even use those.
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One Comment about “Epson Ships Hi-Definition Inkjets”
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October 27th, 2006 at 2:56 pm
Picked up one of these R260 printers back near the end of September. Print quality is extremely nice. I really only bought the printer for direct to disc printing. After about 20 or so dvds the ink is out, all 6 of them. Replace ink costs almost as much as the printer. Between $100-$120, the difference being standard or high yield cartidges. The other problem being that no one carries the ink. Only found one online retailer that reported carrying the ink at the time. A week after placing the order I get told they can’t get the ink from Epson.
Bottom link - Excellent print quality. Very expensive ink. You could almost throw the printer away and buy another for the price of the ink. And no one carries the ink. You can only buy from the maximum profit margin Epson Store.