Epson Stylus Photo R800 review

There was a time when six-colour printers were all the rage, but now they're rather passe.

Epson's latest inkjet printer, the Stylus Photo R800, takes eight inks, but rather than opting for the regular half-strength photo options for the additional wells, it adds blue, red and matt black, along with a clear gloss that varnishes pictures printed on photo paper.

As a result, the prints should more closely mimic professionally printed photos, so we compared the R800's output with that of online photo printer Photobox, which uses Fujicolor Crystal Archive paper. Wilhelm Imaging Research has rated this as colour fast for 60 to 70 years, while Epson claims 80 years for its paper and UltraChrome pigment ink combination.

We also printed the same images on HP and Lexmark devices and compared each of the results. In each test we set the R800's driver to Best Photo with Photo Enhance, and used each manufacturer's recommended photo paper unless printing text. Even professional output will vary slightly over time, depending on the way the output device was calibrated, so our Photobox samples can be used only as an illustrative example.

Our first image was dominated by foliage and rusted steel. While this was rendered in a rich, wide gamut by Photobox and a HP Photosmart 7350, the R800's equivalent was lighter. Areas of shadow weren't as well defined, and differentiation between foreground and background shades of similar tone were less pronounced, giving the image a rather flat appearance.

Resolution in this image, as in all others, was excellent. The R800 boasts a drop size of 1.5 picolitres - the smallest on the market - so you have to look very closely if you want to spot the dots. There was no evidence of banding, and transitions across areas of continuous tone were smooth and free of stepping. A 7in x 5in photograph printed using the R800's Auto-gloss setting took a little over two and a half minutes.

Shot in the dark

In an internal shot of a darkened cathedral lit only by a shaft of sunlight, the R800 managed to lift out dull colours, but in doing so also cleaned up texture on the underside of a dome. Again, this gave the image a flatter appearance. The same shot printed on a Lexmark X5150 multi-function device, although grainier, was truer to the professionally printed output. The R800's output was warmer and smoother, but the darker background of the image produced by the Lexmark made best use of the shaft of sunlight, drawing the eye to those parts where it caught on the scene's darker background.

Switching to matt paper produced impressive results. Here, the R800's output was sharper than that of the online photo printer. Colours were more vivid and contrast more pronounced, which was surprising considering the gloss option was switched off when using anything other than photo paper.

In terms of speed, the R800 is fairly impressive, averaging 30 seconds a page when printing text to photocopy paper at the default quality setting. There was no banding and, even on low-grade paper, little evidence of feathering.

A 200-line spreadsheet remained clearly legible when condensed onto a single A4 page with 1cm margins all around, thanks in large part to the 5760dpi x 1440dpi resolution. Upping the line count to 250 led to some clipping of the lowest pixel on each character, but for draft documents it certainly does the job.

The R800 is a very good printer, however, at an expected retail price of around £297, it's not cheap, and its output is equivalent to significantly less pricey alternatives. If a glossy finish is of prime importance to you, it's worth consideration, but then the Stylus Photo 950 is a versatile printer that will suit all but the most demanding user for just £221.28.