Epson Stylus Color 670 review

Epson, it has to be said, has probably had more entries in our Top 50 than any other inkjet printer manufacturer.

It just keeps on producing economical inkjets that turn out exceptional quality documents. The question is, will the successor to the Stylus Color 660 - the Stylus Color 670 - live up to this family tradition?

Looking little different from its predecessor, the new 670 boasts Epson's latest Variable Sized Droplet Technology and 7-picolitre droplet size. Previously only seen in Epson's more expensive printers, this technology is aimed at making shading look smoother and more lifelike. By making dots smaller, the printer can avoid giving areas of mixed colour a tartan effect. The question is, of course, does the new technology add that much to a printer that was pretty damn good anyway?

Our test machine arrived with its cartridges already installed, simplifying the setup process. But, as usual, we took the time to run the head alignment and nozzle cleaning routines from within the driver's utilities section, just to be sure that everything was as it should be.

As ever, it's not easy to spot the flaws in the printed output - inkjets are just so good these days. That said, our Newsletter test, which features a particularly nasty colour-matching test, can fox even the best printer driver. Like 90% of the printers I've seen, the 670 managed to drop the ball on this one, although the rest of the page is, frankly, superb.

Unfortunately, when I timed the test I found that this quality does come at a price. The Epson took 7mins and 51s to complete the test, which won't win it any speed records.

Draft quality reports were much speedier. Our standard page was completed in 1min 32s, but the quality is still more than acceptable. Blacks are properly black and colour balance is very good, with flesh tones being accurately rendered.

The new driver allows you to tweak to your heart's content, with sliders for every possible setting, but you do have to be fairly determined to want to get at them. Indeed, for most people, the advanced settings will be something they never see, the simpler main settings being all they'll ever need to use.

Epson has done it again. The new 670 follows in the footsteps of the 660 and blends in the new technologies to give superb output, coupled with low running costs. At a street price of £74, it's hard not to recommend it. Welcome back to the Top 50, Epson!