As a homeschooling mom, teacher, and digital scrapbook designer, I have been known to put our printers to the test. More than once I have emptied a black printer cartridge in less than 2 hours printing for an upcoming class or event. While designing digital scrapbook elements there is always the need for a “quick” quality check throughout the design process. This all equals a printer that gets a workout, not one that sits around bored collecting dust! For the past several years we have used various Lexmark printers but the quality of printing doesn't come close to our new Epson NX 400 all-in-one.
Reviewed by: Donna Brown
Reviewed on: Jan. 6th, 2009
Right out of the box I noticed the sleek, stylish design. The shiny black printer looks awesome in our recently redecorated office / homeschool space. It has a compact footprint of 17.7 x 13.4 x 9 inches and weights in at 15.2lbs, less than our cat. (And incidentally, with the slightly sloped top makes a less comfortable bed for said cat than our previous printer...) Compact is important in our office space BUT features are important are as well! The NX 400 is a full featured printer designed to fulfill any household's everyday printing, scanning and copying needs. Set up was easy using the disk and instructions provided in the box. Installing the printer cartridges the first time was a bit tricky, but after a quick re-read of the instructions (and then following the instructions!) was a breeze!
So, after we completed setting up the printer, I starting putting it through the paces.... I love how the NX 400 uses a 4 ink cartridge system. That way if I have to print a lot of yellow documents, and deplete the yellow ink, I am only replacing the yellow cartridge and not tossing out a lot of good red and blue ink. What a money saver! Also, right out of the printer the ink is dry on the page and smudge proof! The ink is an all pigment ink and is fade resistant up to 6 times longer than leading competitive prints. This is important if you are printing pictures at home. You want those memories to last!
The first things I printed were about a dozen full-page or 8 x8 scrapbook spreads. All printed beautifully with no pixels dropped or splotches. Next, I printed half a dozen borderless 4x6 prints with black backgrounds and they look beautiful. The prints are crisp with rich vibrant colors and look professionally printed – all done in the comfort of my home... no rides to the store to pick up digital prints – how easy is that! The NX 400 prints at up to 5760 x 1440 optimized printing dpi – what does that mean to the average home consumer? Beautiful pictures.
We do a lot of scanning and copying around here during a typical homeschool day. The NX 400 has a large tilt up LCD screen so you can copy, scan and print photos right from the printer. (The NX 400 has a built-in, high-speed, multipurpose card slot that supports all popular memory formats.) Scanning is a breeze and copying is just as easy. You can enlarge copies from 25 to 400 percent and print in color or black and white. When printing directly from the printer, auto photo correction will enhance your photos, correct color, fix red eyes and sharpen your images. You can even restore photos using Epson Easy Photo Fix right on the printer! All this gives you stunning photos every time.
The NX 400 comes bundled with Arcsoft Print Creations software for designing personalized greeting cards, invitations, calendars and photo albums. It's easy to use and kids love it!
So far we have been using this printer for about a week and a half. We have printed a multitude of homeschool projects, web documents, photos etc. It's handled everything we have used it for beautifully. (The original ink cartridges are still halfway full to our amazement even after all the photos we have printed!)
So, if you are looking for a all-in-one home printer thats affordable the NX 400 is a good bet. It's easy to use and well worth it's price. ($99 estimated street price)
What's good:
- Impressive printing and copying speeds (up to 34 ppm black & color text, borderless 4x6 photos in as fast as 26 secs., copies up to 30 cpm for both black & color)
- Exceptional DURABrite ink (Instant drying and smudge proof! Crisp and vibrant colors)
- Versatile features for everyday projects (Easy to use the printer without a computer utilizing the 2.5 inch LCD screen, individual ink cartridges, one touch stand alone copying)
- Auto Photo Correction for stunning photos every time.
What's bad:
- missing a fax machine
- missing Wi-Fi
What's the bottom line:
With all of its features, the Epson NX 400 at such an affordable price is a deal. You can't go wrong with this printer. If you are looking for a home office printer this is one that you need to look hard at! It's sleek, it's easy to use, and it produces beautiful prints.
Key Features:
- Epson’s exclusive MicroPiezo print head technology: Epson’s unique print head features DX3 technology with smart nozzles that can each produce and precisely place three sizes of ink droplets. As a result, fewer nozzles are needed to quickly create exceptional photos and documents, making the nozzles more efficient than those that can only produce one droplet size.
- Individual ink cartridges and one standard set: For added value and convenience, the Epson Stylus NX400 features individual ink cartridges to allow consumers to replace only the colour needed. Additionally, having one standard ink set for both documents and photos eliminates the inconvenience of having to switch cartridges based on the print job.
- High-speed, multipurpose card slots and preview monitor: Supporting all popular memory formats, the Epson Stylus NX400 has high-speed card slots and a 2.5-inch tilt LCD to easily and quickly transfer files, as well as select, copy and print brilliant photos without a computer.
- BorderFree photo printing: White borders can be eliminated from photos with the Epson Stylus NX400. The all-in-one supports BorderFree photo printing in various sizes, including 3.5” x 5”, 4” x 6”, 5” x 7”, 8” x 10”, and letter sizes.
- Auto Photo Correction with advanced face detection: This innovative technology is similar to having a photo lab technician built into the printer. It sharpens and corrects dark or poorly exposed images, while distinguishing people from scenery to enhance skin tones and increase the richness of the scenery in photos.
- Epson Easy Photo Fix: Consumers can restore the colours in old, faded or discoloured photos back to their original brilliance with the Easy Photo Fix scanning technology. This software, combined with the all-in-one’s hardware, makes it easy to scan, restore, print, and share old memories.
- PictBridge compatibility: Printing superior images directly from a digital camera is straightforward and effortless with the PictBridge interface.
These printers are bulky. I wanna have a lightweight, wireless, portable printer that can goes well with my mobile lifestyle. I do printing services for my schoolmates once in awhile.
Posted by: azala | Thursday, June 11, 2009 at 04:18 PM
Though, ninety nine bucks isn't that bad...
http://www.2theprinter.com/
Posted by: azala | Thursday, June 11, 2009 at 04:21 PM
It's a good heavy duty printer, i used to print hundreds of pages daily in my shop. I got it from
http://www.dashingmall.com/sf1/Product-1996009.aspx
Posted by: Account Deleted | Thursday, August 27, 2009 at 09:15 AM