Epson Stylus Photo R285 review

The Epson Stylus Picture R285 is among the bulkiest printers on this month’s Labs, however it’s anyone’s guess why. It doesn’t take outsized paper, nor does it have a very capacious sheet feeder. It doesn’t actually have a duplex unit, whereas the Canon Pixma iP4500 manages to squeeze one right into a smaller body – for an virtually equivalent price.

Neither is it quick: in our standard-quality print exams it got here final, averaging simply 4ppm. Picture printing was laggardly too, with solely the Lexmark taking longer to supply our 10 x 15in print and A4 photomontage. The HP Photosmart was an unbelievable 5 instances faster.

It did do nicely in a single take a look at. In draft mode it averaged 17.5ppm, overwhelmed solely by the HP Officejet Professional K5400n. However, that solely redeems the R285 for those who do nearly all of your printing in draft mode. And with this printer we wouldn’t advocate that, as print high quality in draft mode was palms down the worst we’ve seen. Black textual content got here out a muddy brown and letters had been crudely and inaccurately rendered, impeding readability.

High quality leads to our different exams had been, fortunately, higher, however the R285 nonetheless struggled to compete with HP and Canon. Customary high quality textual content got here out darkish gray, and letter kinds had been inconsistent, with smearing clearly seen. Color printing on plain paper was brilliant, however strong colors had been full of tiny speckles.

As you’d count on, the Stylus Picture R285’s strongest efficiency by far was within the photographic exams. Colors had been vibrant, gradients easy and darkish areas had an actual solidity to them that was missing from the Canons’ efforts.

One other plus: the Epson in all fairness low-cost to run. The R285 takes six cartridges (cyan, magenta, yellow and black, plus gentle magenta and lightweight cyan), and we had been in a position to print 100 photographs earlier than they began working out. They don’t value a lot to interchange – beneath a fiver every, exc VAT – however there’s lots of them, bringing the general value as much as 19p per picture. Not unhealthy, however larger than the Canon Pixma iP4500’s 13p.

All informed, it’s onerous to advocate the Epson Stylus Picture R285. Its solely sturdy go well with is picture output, and that’s neither quick nor compellingly economical.