Epson Stylus S20 review

Epson's Stylus S20 is a cheap printer with a bare minimum of features and a level of simplicity uncommon in a modern printer.

It's compact, and finished in black plastic, with a rear paper tray capable of holding up to 80 sheets of A4. While most budget inkjets have flimsy extending paper trays, the Stylus S20's trays are solid pieces of grey plastic that clip securely into position. It has just two buttons and two LEDs.

The ink cartridges are easy to install the first time. However, the only way to change a cartridge before the printer thinks it has run out is by clicking on the Ink Cartridge Replacement button in the driver's Maintenance tab. This isn't the first place you would think to look, and we'd have preferred the more standard option of a button on the printer to move the cartridges into an accessible position.

The Stylus S20 had one of the worst colour print speeds we've seen. It took over an hour to print a 24-page colour document. Its mono text print speed of 2.7ppm is faster, but it's still unacceptable when compared with other budget inkjets. Photo print speeds weren't quite as bad, although they were still slow. We had to wait well over half an hour for six 6x4in prints, which we'd expect to take little more than 10 minutes.

When the prints emerged, we were pleasantly surprised by their quality. They were clear and sharp, with bright colours and natural skin tones. Standard-quality text was dark and clear, and the diagrams and illustrations in our mixed-colour prints were excellent, with beautifully solid colours and no trace of grain or banding. Only the faster 11.7ppm Draft mode produced pale, poorly defined text.

The Stylus S20 costs less to run than most budget inkjets. Epson uses animal symbols to help users identify compatible cartridges. The S20 comes with low-yield Monkey cartridges, but it can also take Cheetahs, which in some cases last almost twice as long. We calculated print costs using the latter, which led to a mono cost of 2.4p per page and a total mixed-colour cost of 5.3p. The lowest prices we could find were £5.49 for a black T0711 cartridge and £6.97 each for three colour cartridges.

Surprisingly low print costs are one thing, but the S20 takes an incredibly long time to print anything and will drive you to frustration if you print more than a couple of pages at a time. Only those with infinite patience and tight purse strings should buy the S20.

Author: Kat Orphanides