Epson Stylus DX4800 review

17 October 2005 11:17 GMT / By Doug Harman

As the All-In-One (AIO) market grows to the point where it is now exceeding that of ‘normal' inkjets, Epson has unveiled its latest compact AIO offering. The DX4800 is a neat, relatively compact and stylish machine that features four colour Durabrite inks for prints that can last under glass in excess of 80 years.

You get a built-in memory card reader for direct printing (or uploading to a connected PC) from Compact Flash (inc MicroDrive), SmartMedia, MM/SD, MemoryStick, xD cards and directly from PictBridge cameras too. There's also a copy without PC, print index sheet function. Here you print an index sheet of images in your camera or on a memory card, select the ones you want, scan the index sheet and bingo! Out come the required prints.

This highlights the main shortcoming of the DX4800 though - the lack of a colour screen. However, given the price, it's not something to be expected on a sub £100 AIO. The 4800 also lacks a USB cable for connection to PC (at USB2.0 speeds), which is a shame.

Scanning quality is good at 1200ppi, making it useful for most basic scanning of flat documents. Copies from the scanner are quite fast and adequate for most needs. In terms of print quality from its four cyan, magenta, black and yellow inks things look better; it is surprisingly good. But output is slow taking almost 11-minutes for my one ‘full-out' A4 photo quality print at the optimised 5760dpi print setting, on premium glossy paper.

Inks are not too expensive at around £24.20 for a set of four (around £6.05 per tank), which makes it one of the least expensive AIO inkjets in terms of ink on the market.

Verdict

It might be a tad on the slow side but the combination of kit, the price and the 4800's size combine to make it a great machine. It's very easy to use and its ink's are not too expensive either. Photo output is more than adequate and is actually some of the best I've seen from a four-colour inkjet of any persuasion.

Score

Review Recap

Made by: Epson
Price as reviewed: £99
The good: Good photo print quality, simple to use
The bad: Lacks a colour LCD screen and connect-to-PC USB cable, slow output on top quality photos
Quick verdict: The DX4800 hits all the right points in terms of output quality, size and price, though it’s a tad slow
Score