Thread: Espon - Stylus Photo P50 review

Small, compacted as well as good-looking, the Stylus Photo P50 from Epson set out from the best part of inkjet printers as well as MFDs in that it's astoundingly light on features.

The facade of the printer is comparatively clutter-free, with just three buttons as well as no LCD screen. Given that the Stylus Photo P50 is mainly a photo printer, we were a little astonished to observe that Epson has determined not to contain some memory card slots. There's also no wired or else wireless network module, so connection to PC or Mac should be made by the use of USB.

A flap at the facade folds out to expose the output tray. It's a comparable matter with the input tray, which sits at the back of one more flap on top of the printer. Opening these flaps does make the complete thing look somewhat awkward, but it also allows for it to be stored carefully away when not in use. A CD/DVD tray is also placed at the front of the printer, allowing you to print labels onto well-suited discs.

The Stylus Photo P50 makes use of Epson's Claria dye-based inks, which the corporation claims results in longer-lasting prints. There are six inks in total, all housed in its individual cartridge as well as costing £9.10 to reinstate. If you desire to save a bit of cash, Epson also package all six inks collectively in a whole pack for £46.92, a saving of just below £8.

When printing in draft mode, the Stylus Photo P50 is good-looking quick; we administer an imposing print speed of 25ppm when printing text. When in draft mode, although, the printer is also extremely noisy, with a deafening clunk heard every time it take in a sheet of paper. On one time this caused it to by chance grab two sheets of paper in its place of one, but it cunningly spit them out before carrying on as normal.

Slip out of draft mode as well as the speed of text documents drops right down to approximately 8ppm, with the first page taking about 25 seconds to make the output tray.

But this printer is intended for high-quality photo prints, so it's doubtful you'll be using it exclusively to produce text documents. And, as you may expect, photo printing is a greatly lengthier procedure. An A4 photo print using the uppermost quality setting took presently over five minutes to appear. If you're happy losing out on quality, quicker photo prints can be acquired using the standard settings, as well as we managed a 6 x 4-inch print in immediately within 30 seconds.

The excellence of the prints when using the maximum setting is very good. Using Epson's Premium Glossy Photo Paper (a model of which is built-in), colors are rich as well as feature is well definite. Our only grievance is that the photos be liable to come out looking a little soft. Still, for a photo printer costing in £100, the quality is remarkable.

Epson package a choice of software with the printer, as well as its Easy Photo Print application, while the driver lets you maintain an eye on ink levels and apply features such as red-eye reduction.