Epson WorkForce 600 Review

Okay, so up for review is the Epson Workforce 600 all-in-one printer. Paul helped me review this product since I couldn't physically review it, I had him lend me his hands and just fed him instructions through email. So first off, thanks to Paul and second, thanks to Epson for giving us the chance to review this product.


DESIGN


Anyways, according to Paul, the first time the Epson WorkForce 600 arrived in the mail, his first reaction was--"whoa, this thing's huge". He had trouble making it fit in his desk so he had to move things around. Though the Workforce 600 is massive, the design is pretty sleek. It has a 2.5 inch LCD in front so you can do some fast printing and copying without booting up your PC. My previous all-in-one printer from HP was white and after one year, it's now a grayish white even if I regularly dust it. The black color suits those who, like me, don't have time to clean up their printers.


FEATURES



I have to make this review short and quick so let's get down to the important details. First off, the Epson WorkForce 600 already has a built-in WiFi. In fact, I think Epson specifically made the WorkForce 600 to be used on WiFi networks since they didn't include a USB cable. You have to connect the Ethernet cable with your wireless network but set-up is basically a breeze, according to Paul, you just have to follow the step by step instructions. For those who still don't have a wireless network, you have to buy a separate USB cable in order to set this up but USB cables come pretty cheap, I'm just wondering why Epson didn't feel the need to include it.One of the features that Paul liked best about the Epson WorkForce 600 is that you can already view your pictures from the SD card directly on the LCD screen. And for those who'll ask if the Epson WorkForce 600 has the ability to print directly on CDs, sadly, no.



PRINTING SPEED



One of the most important feature that printer buyers look for when buying printers is: printing speed. Here's the print speeds of the Epson WorkForce 600 as well as pictures of the sample printout.All I have to say is that some printer manufacturers tend to exaggerate when bragging about their print speeds. Epson's claims versus the actual print speed is pretty close which, I have to say is pretty amazing.

Actual Print speed vs. Epson's claims:

Black text documents, draft: 36 ppm vs. 38ppm
black text documents, normal: 30 ppm vs. 27ppm (Epson's claim for laser quality prints)
Colored, draft: 35 ppm vs. 38ppm
colored, normal: 25 ppm vs. 19ppm (laser quality)


Print speed from first boot-up:

Black text document, normal - 4 seconds
Color graphics, normal mode - 11 seconds
Colored graphics and text, normal mode - 15 seconds
Print speed for photos using Epson's Premium Photo Paper – 2 mins and 15 seconds.

SCANNING SPEED: (Using the default settings on the Epson WorkForce 600)

Colored graphics: 46 seconds
Black documents: 40 seconds

COPYING SPEEDS:

Black text (normal) - 15 seconds
Colored docs (normal) - 17 seconds

OTHER THINGS WHICH YOU MIGHT LIKE

Aside from the Epson WorkForce 600 being a very fast printer, Paul wants to add that he really liked the fact that the ink dries quickly on this printer so you'll be able to get laser quality documents on an inkjet printer less the smudge. Also, he wants to add that like me, he likes the fact that the Epson WorkForce 600 is black in color so there's less stain visibility.

CONCLUSION

All I can say is that for $199.99, this is probably one of the best printers in this price range. Not only does it have good print quality but it's also fast as well. Kudos to Epson for being truthful about their product claims, I was surprised that the pages per minute of the black documents only showed a difference of 2 pages. Sure, there are already a lot of cheap monochrome laser printer out in the market but come on, during these times of financial crisis, would you settle for a monochrome laser printer that only does one thing or the Epson WorkForce 600 which does not only print laser quality documents but can scan, copy and fax as well?

For more information about the WorkForce 600 please click here.

Epson Artisan 800

Epson has recently introduced a new line of all-in-one printers. The Epson Artisan 800 has almost every features that can be fitted into an all-in-one printer. The Epson Artisan 800 has WiFi fax, automatic document feeder, 7.8" smart touch panel, 3.5" LCD, and capable of printing ultra HI-Definition photos. If you have kids in your home, the Epson Artisan 800 has a feature that can make your kids busy: it can turn photos into personalized coloring book pages.

The Epson Artisan 800 will be available this September and has an estimated retail price of $299.99.izes to match users’ printing needs.

HP Photosmart D5460 Printer

The HP Photosmart D5460 Printer is one of HP's newest printers on their line-up. The HP Photosmart D5460 has a compact design, perfect for everyday home printing. It utilizes HP's five-ink printing system so you can print out high quality photos with vivid colors as well as professional looking documents.

Features

The HP Photosmart D5460 has a 1.5 inch display so you can get access to your printer without having to boot up your PC. A multiple memory card slots also ensures that you can be able to print your photos stored on a variety of media whether the photos are taken through a cell phone or digital camera. The HP Photosmart D5460 can also print designs, text and photos direct onto CDs and DVDs and also has the ability to print multiple sized photos through an automated photo tray that can automatically select the size and type of paper so users can switch effortlessly between photo and document printing.

HP's newest printers now utilizes individual ink cartridges, something which Epson printers have been long doing. This allows consumers to truly save on ink as they only replace the colors that really need replacing. The HP Photosmart D5460 can also handle a variety of media types and sizes so users can print business cards or Greeting Cards though probably not as professional looking as the greeting card pictured below from cardsdirect. Besides, even with HP's supposed high capacity ink cartridges, I bet the cost per greeting card you make on this printer is nowhere near $1.25. Print speeds of the HP Photosmart D5460 is around 33 ppm for black and 31 ppm for colored documents.


Outlook

The HP D5460 is a low cost printer that is perfect for any home. At a suggested retail price of $99, you can't go wrong with the HP Photosmart D5460.

Ricoh Aficio SP C420DN

The Ricoh Aficio SP C420DN is the latest color laser printer from Ricoh designed for business users. The Ricoh SP C420DN gives users high productivity printing with low consumption rates.

According to Ricoh, The Ricoh SP C420DN will be able to print color or black and white images at 31 pages per minute and can churn out documents at a high resolution of 1200 x 1200 dots per inch. First print time for colored pages is around 15 seconds while it’s only ten seconds for black and white prints. The Ricoh SP C420DN is also equipped with PictBridge so users who want to print their pictures just needs to connect their PictBridge compatible digital camera or mobile phones.

The Ricoh SP C420DN is one productivity power horse. It has a high paper capacity and can hold up to 2,300 sheets and paper weight up to 57 pounds. The Ricoh SP C420DN can also handle a variety of paper sizes including 8.5 x 14 inches and banner sizes up to 8.5” x 35”. This makes the Ricoh SP C420DN perfect for printing return address labels, envelopes, cards, etc. Though I suggest rather than shelling out a huge amount of money on laser printers just to print out labels, if your printing jobs only involves printing any of the above, then you can probably save more by using online printing services like VistaPrint.

The Samsung CLP-660ND

The Samsung CLP-660ND is another color laser printer from Samsung which has been recently released.

Specifications

The Samsung CLP-660ND is a bit on the bulky side with dimensions of 17 x 17 x 16.8 (W x D x H) and weighs around 56 pounds. This color laser printer has a Samsung 533 MHz and SPGPxm graphics processor with a memory of 128MB expandable to 640MB. The Samsung CLP-660ND can connect via USB 2.0 and is network ready with its 10/100 Base-TX Ethernet.

Printing Performance

From the product specifications of the Samsung CLP-660ND, printing speeds of black and color prints can take up to 25 pages per minute while first page print out will take less than 14 seconds if the printer is on Ready. Printing resolutions is 2400 x 600 dpi and it has a monthly duty cycle of 80,000 pages per month. The Samsung CLP-660ND can handle 250 sheets in its cassette and 100 sheets on its multipurpose tray, an optional paper cassette can further increase its paper input capacity to 500 sheets more. This color laser printer has an output capacity of 200 sheets and can handle a variety of paper sizes ranging from 3 x 5 to 8.5 x 14 as well as different paper types from plain paper, envelopes, to card stocks. If your office handles large documents everyday, the expandable memory of the Samsung CLP-660ND printer will ensure that there'll be no delays in printing.

Pricing and Availability

The Samsung CLP-660ND is already available nationwide with a suggested retail price of $699.99.

Overview: Canon Pixma MX850

Just recently announced, the Canon Pixma MX850 is an all-in-one printer for your home or small office. Since it IS an all-in-one printer, expect the Canon Pixma MX850 to be bulky, but its design is sleek and curvy.

FEATURES:

The Canon Pixma MX850 has printing, faxing, scanning, and copying capabilities, and a built-in Ethernet port so you can share it throughout your home or in your office. It also has an automatic document feeder so you can scan both sides of a document. What might make the Canon Pixma MX850 a printer worthy of your office is that it can scan and print at the same time so using it in conjunction with the automatic document feeder means faster copying and scanning of files. The Canon Pixma MX850 would be a great investment rather than buying a separate copying machine if your office or home only needs few documents copied once in a while.

There's also no need to attach the printer to your PC in order to crop scanned images as you can erase frames around the scanned document right on the Canon Pixma MX850 control panel, thanks to its large 2.5 inch LCD display which can view scanned documents.

Aside from being mainly for office use, the Canon Pixma MX850 can also be a powerful photo printer. Canon has incorporated its five color individual ink system on this all-in-one-printer so it is capable of resolutions up to 9600 x 2400 color dpi. The Canon Pixma MX850 also allows you to directly print your pictures straight from your memory cards or PictBridge compatible digital cameras.

CONCLUSION:

With all that features and if Canon stays true to their claims: Quickstart feature that will allow you to start using the Canon Pixma MX850 in a matter of seconds and their claimed 21 second print speed for a 4 x 6 borderless colored photo, then the Canon Pixma MX850 will be a welcome addition to any home office.

WHERE TO BUY:

Shop CNET to compare Printers specs and prices side-by-side.

Samsung ML-1630 Review

Let's face it, when we talk about printers, we just think of them as good for what they are---printing. We don't look at printers the same way we do at cell phones, which is look for one that can match your style or good to show off to your friends. The Samsung ML-1630 would change the way we look at printers when it comes to design.

ADVANTAGES:

If you're office is all about style, the Samsung ML-1630 is the perfect laser printer to complement your Mac PC or Gateway One. It has a sleek, glossy black finish enhanced by Blue LED lights. The Samsung ML-1630 is so pretty you want to take it around with you. It's fairly easy to set-up, and quite portable, not in the sense that you can carry it with you to complement your laptop, but easy enough to transfer from room to room. It also has a fairly low printing noise level. Text print out is mediocre but suitable for business needs and ink consumption of the Samsung ML-1630 is average compared with other printers of the same price.

DISADVANTAGES:

Style aside, the Samsung ML-1630 is rather slow compared to other laser printers of the same price range. I was also disappointed with the paper tray capacity on this machine, only 100 pages and it does not take legal sized paper. Another disappointment of the Samsung ML-1630 is that you can't print business cards or envelopes as it doesn't support thick paper lest you want to encounter frequent paper jams.

CONCLUSION:

The Samsung ML-1630 is hands down the prettiest printer I've ever seen and if your business is all about fashion, design, and style, this printer would be a great addition to your office space, however, if you're more into functionality and you want fast print outs and exceptional print out quality, there are other suitable laser printers out in the market.

Samsung ML-1630
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Fujitsu ScanSnap S300M: World's Smallest Color Scanner

Why does Apple products get all the coolest accessories? Take the Fujitsu ScanSnap S300M which is the world's smallest color scanner, it is only compatible with Mac OS X Leopard

The Fujitsu ScanSnap S300M only weighs 3.1 pounds and measures 11.2" x 3.7" x 3.0" and has a one touch button for converting scanned documents to PDF files. The Fujitsu ScanSnap S300M also features business card scanning, multi-sheet scanning, double sided color scanning and automatic color detection.

The Fujitsu ScanSnap S300M will cost $295 and will be available after March 15th, 2008.


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New Ricoh GX2500 color printer

Ricoh Announced its new GX2500 color printers for small office use. Specifications of the Ricoh GX2500 boasts of a 1200 x 1200 resolution, claimed print speed of 28 pages per minute for black and color pages and less than 35 seconds warm up time.

According to Ricoh, The GX2500 is one of their first pritners with GelSprinter technology which allows printouts to be waterproof and fade resistant. Another notable feature is the Level Color Mode which, according to Ricoh, allows the GX2500 to reduce the cost per page of colored printouts by utilizing less ink but still maintaining the image quality and graphics.

The Ricoh GX2500 is now available for $169.

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First Look: Samsung ML-2851ND

Samsung has just unveiled their new compact monochrome laser printer, the Samsung ML-2851ND. The Samsung ML-2851ND's height is only 8.5 inches and has 1200 x 1200 dpi output, and a 160MB expandable memory.

Printing speeds on the Samsung ML-2851ND is about 28 pages per minute with first page output speed of 8.5 seconds. The printer also has Samsung's TonerSave mode which, according to Samsung, can extend the cartridge life of the Samsung ML-2851ND up to forty percent.

The Samsung ML-2851ND has a 250 sheet cassette, 150 sheet output capacity and can handle media sizes of 3 x 5 up to 8.5 x 14 inches.

The Samsung ML-2851ND is already available nationwide for $329.99.

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