Epson Stylus Color 580 review

Gallery

Verdict:

Good prints for a low price, but serious concerns over speed and installation mean it's best avoided.

Review Date: 1 Jan 2001

Price when reviewed: (£69)

Reviewed By: David Dorn

Our Rating 2 stars out of 5

Review
Specs

Epson has built a reputation for quality colour inkjets, but this one proves even the best can have an off-day.

Design

This printer has all the hallmarks of being built to a price - and badly at that.

It's made of lightweight, flimsy plastic. There's no power switch, no way to control the printer other than through the driver, and it was a pig to install, taking over ten attempts before it allowed us to print. Even then, the Epson Monitor software kept telling us that there was a communications problem, yet printing continued normally. This is very off-putting, especially for newcomers, to whom its price must look attractive.

Print Quality

After the bad start, we expected awful prints, but were pleasantly surprised. Photo-quality output is delightful at 1,440dpi, although not quite on a par with the 2,400dpi units. Colour balance was excellent, and skin tones spot-on. In our newsletter test, however, the driver proved unable to accurately render the headline - a shame. Text at speed is commendably black, as was the report test in standard mode. In draft mode, however, it fared no better than the BJC 2100 - it was awful.

Performance

This is the slowest printer on test this month, taking 43mins over the photo test, coupled with a slow 20mins on the newsletter. Even allowing for resolution, these times are not good.

Overall

I've been an Epson fan since the firm's first Stylus Color printer, but this one breaks the mould. It's slow, a pig to install, and expensive to run. Epson would do well to bin this one before too many people see it.

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