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Epson Stylus Office BX300FW review

Our Rating :
Price when reviewed : £42
inc VAT

Specifications

colour inkjet MFP, 31ppm print speed, USB, 235x460x411mm

http://www.lambda-tek.com/componentshop

Epson’s Stylus Office BX300F is a stylish inkjet MFP that has a built-in fax machine.

The individual ink cartridges are also a luxury at this price, as most budget MFPs use combined tri-colour cartridges. Unfortunately, while individual ink cartridges usually save money, the BX300FW has relatively high print costs.

We were impressed by the standard-quality mono test, which produced clear, well-defined lettering that rivalled that of the laser printers. Print speeds of 3.7ppm were less pleasing, as was draft-quality text, which was too pale.

The BX300FW can produce stunning colour prints in its Text & Graphics mode. Our complex colour test document looked great, with rich areas of solid colour and fine shading. Unfortunately, high-quality document printing was slow, with our test print emerging at just 0.4ppm. Colour documents printed at Text quality were faster, but still printed at an unacceptably slow 0.7ppm and suffered from slight but visible streaks. Photo prints had smooth shading, sharp detail and vivid dark tones, but some bright colours looked muted.

Scan quality was excellent on photos and documents, with smooth and accurate colour and shading in our photo scans and clear, legible lettering on 150dpi document scans. A 1,200dpi 6x4in scan took over two minutes, but scans at lower resolutions were fairly quick.

The BX300FW has an ADF for multi-page scans and faxes, but it jammed constantly during our 10-page test, so we were unable to obtain either meaningful speed figures or correctly scanned samples.

We’d like to be able to recommend the BX300FW, but it’s undermined by relatively high print costs, a jam-prone ADF and slow colour print speeds. If you’re looking for a cheap MFP, Canon’s Pixma MP240 is better; if you’re going to do a lot of printing, the HP Officejet Pro 8500 Wireless’s low print costs will save you money in the long run.

Basic Specifications

Rating **
Maximum native print resolution 5,760×1,440dpi
Max optical resolution 1,200×2,400dpi
Output bit depth 48-bit

Quoted Speeds

Quoted speed, mono A4 31ppm
Quoted speed, colour A4 15ppm

Tested Print Speeds

Time for two 10x8in photos 1.0 20m 2s
Time for six 6x4in photos 1.0 58m 23s

Physical and Environmental

Standard printer interfaces USB
Optional printer interfaces none
Size 235x460x411mm
Weight 7.2kg
Noise (in normal use) 39dB(A)
Power consumption standby 3W
Power consumption idle 5W
Power consumption active 12W

Paper Handling

Maximum paper size A4/legal
Maximum paper weight 225gsm
Standard paper inputs 1
Standard paper input capacity 150
Maximum paper inputs 1
Maximum paper input capacity 150
Duplex (code, cost if option) No

General

Printer technology piezo inkjet
Supported operating systems Windows 2000/XP/XP-64/Vista, Mac OS X 10.3.9 – 10.5
Other inkjet features none
Other inkjet options none

Buying Information

Price £42
Consumable parts and prices 260 page black T0711, 535 page cyan T0712, 295 page magenta, 500 page yellow, £6.68 each
Price per colour A4 page 4.9p
Quoted life of supplied black cartridge 260 pages (ISO/IEC 24712)
Quoted life of supplied colour cartridge(s) 535 cyan, 295 magenta, 500 yellow pages (ISO/IEC 24712)
Quoted life of supplied photo cartridge(s) N/A
Warranty one year RTB
Supplier http://www.lambda-tek.com/componentshop
Details www.epson.co.uk

Print Quality

Number of ink colours 4
Number of ink cartridges 4
Maximum number of ink colours 4
Maximum number of cartridges 4
Quoted photo durability 40 years
Quoted photo durability source Wilhelm Imaging Research

Tested Scan Speeds

Full scan area preview 10s
A4 document at 150dpi 21s
A4 document at 300dpi 30s
6x4in photo at 600dpi 41s
6x4in photo at 1200dpi 2m 12s

Tested Copy Speeds

Time for single A4 mono copy 1.0 44s
Time for single A4 colour copy 1.0 1m 9s
Time for 10 A4 copies using feeder 2.0 Fail

Photo Features

PictBridge support Yes
Borderless printing up to A4
Direct (PC-less) printing Yes
Supported memory cards none
CD printing No

Copy Features

Maximum number of copies 99
Max mono copy resolution 1,200×2,400dpi
Max colour copy resolution 1,200×2,400dpi

Fax Features

Max mono fax resolution 200x200dpi
Fax memory (maximum mono pages) 180