Epson C62 review

Gallery

Verdict:

Review Date: 20 Feb 2003

Price when reviewed: (£70)

Reviewed By: Tim Danton

Our Rating 3 stars out of 5

Review
Specs

On paper, Epson's budget entry seems to have it all. In practice, it has a few too many foibles to recommend.

Design

The C62's folding output tray makes it compact from front to back, though wider than most. Our first disappointment came when we loaded the input tray. Paper isn't supported well enough, and will curl at the edges. But our biggest complaint about the C62 is the noise it makes - the whine gets irritating very quickly.

Print quality

Six-colour Epson printers are renowned for their photo quality, but the four-colour C62 can't quite match this. Its handling of colours was slightly disappointing, and despite the 'optimised' 5,760x720dpi resolution we could discern individual dots without looking too closely. But providing you don't inspect too keenly, you should be satisfied.

We were disappointed by initial results on coated paper, but switching off the default 'High-Speed' setting improved things dramatically. Text became sharp, and blocks of colour reproduced perfectly. Using the default settings on plain paper, text was feathery. Switching High-Speed off improved this, but not hugely.

Speed

To get decent results you need to switch High-Speed off - and then the C62 becomes a slow printer. A4 photos take 11 and a half minutes with it off, seven with it on. Draft mode produces letters at a rate of 10ppm - still 4ppm off its claimed speed - and results were poor.

Overall

Although the C62 produces decent results with the High-Speed setting off, we can't recommend it, as it then becomes too slow. The HP Deskjet 3820 or Canon S330 Photo are altogether better choices at this price.

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