Review

Epson Stylus Photo 870 ink-jet printer

By Lowell Conn, Cyberwalker Media Syndicate

The ability to print digital camera images can be just as important as spitting out black and white text reports for some small businesses and home offices. For this purpose, the Epson Stylus Photo 870 color ink-jet printer is a marvelous machine.

It is slick and a nice desk-top fit. It won't win any sprint awards but output arrives at an adequate speed.

You are not acquiring just a color ink-jet printer in the Epson Stylus Photo 870. You are purchasing a veritable photo lab that can take your digital camera stills and print them on glossy photo paper with a shine rarely yielded through home printing units.

Epson's Lightfast printing technology boasts near-photo-lab results. The company also further boasts that its printing technology ensures minimal fading over time. That claim is harder to prove.

Using this printer is as simple as it gets. The cartridges slip in and out easily and the printer comes with a snapshot roll of continuous paper. The roll allows you to print any size digital photographs -- including wide-angle panorama shots.

The print tray capacity -- 100 sheets -- could be more industrious. Any office can go through 100 sheets in no time. The 870 is not priced or designed for serious volume but this means the tray will need to be reloaded often.

There are five different resolution settings designed to ensure faster printing or better quality images. Printing a regular-sized photograph on the highest quality setting took roughly three to four minutes, an acceptable pace for quality photo printing. If speed is of the essence, however, you will need to look to Epson's Stylus Photo 1200 or other color printers that can output color prints in a minute or less.

Usually the price of photo-quality printers can be counted on to provide some source of discontent. Not in this case. With a price tag of $299 ($450 Canadian) and results that are simply fantastic, the Epson Stylus Photo 870 exonerates itself well in the wallet-lightening test.

Epson is clearly treading on the tails of Hewlett Packard and Lexmark in the category of color printing superiority. If the company continues to manufacture well-priced high quality gear like the Photo Stylus 870, expect Epson to catapult ahead of its competitors soon.

Reviewer's rating: 5 / 5

Comments: The Epson Photo Stylus 870 inkjet printer provides high quality color photo prints at good price and adequate speed.

System requirements: Drivers available for Windows 95/98/NT 4.0 (Parallel), or Macintosh system 8.1 or later (USB).
Software provided: Epson Film Factory, Adobe Photo Deluxe 3.1
Interface: Standard: USB, bi-directional IEEE-1284 parallel (nibble mode)
Optional: External Ethernet print server
Resolution: 1440 x 720 dpi; 720 x 720 dpi; 360 x 720 dpi; 360 x 360 dpi; 180 x 180 dpi

More info: http://www.epson.com

Price: $299 US, $450 Canadian