Epson Stylus C80

This printer is aimed at people who need a fast, affordable inkjet printer that delivers high-quality photo and text printing performance.

In order to do this, Epson has employed pigment-based inks, as found in its professional printers. The main advantage of these DuraBrite inks is durability. Epson claims its prints won't fade for 70 years and that the ink is waterproof.

Setting up the Stylus C80 is easy. You get a good handbook with troubleshooting, product information and how-to sections, as well as a simple set-up poster.

The driver CD kicks the install process off automatically, and getting it all to work is a simple matter of following the instructions presented.

The printer looks fairly large compared with other models on the market but that reflects its brief as a printer for a small office as well as the home. It's well designed though, with a paper input tray holding 150 sheets and 15 envelopes. Both parallel and USB ports are included, so you can connect up to older PCs too.

The instructions for changing the one black and three colour ink cartridges are printed on the top underneath the transparent lid and this makes the whole operation very easy. By using separate ink tanks, the printer saves a lot on wastage so this is a real plus point as well.

The switch to pigment inks hasn't pumped the price up either, with the black and colour cartridges costing around £25 and £11 respectively.

The quality of the prints we ran off in our tests showed the Stylus C80 to be a top text printer, with the quality of drafts only slightly lighter than normal. Printing standard black text, it pumped out 20 pages every minute, making it a seriously lively performer compared with cheaper rivals.

The quality of the photo prints was also very impressive and although not incredibly fast at just 1.5ppm, the quality of the end result justifies the wait. The maximum resolution of 2880 x 720 is pretty high and it shows in the sharp prints that emerge.

The C80 is a great performer and although quite expensive, it represents good value for those who do a large volume of high-quality printing.

ContactEpson UK: 0800 220 546 www.epson.comALSO CONSIDER

Epson Photo Stylus 895
Great prints and simple PC-free operation for less than £200.
£199 *****
Reviewed in Computeractive, Issue 89.

See also:

Epson Stylus C80

A fast printer for the seriously impatient.  01 May 2002

Lexmark X83

The latest and highest-spec multifunction device from Lexmark.  27 Sep 2001

Like this story? Spread the news by clicking below:

 del.icio.us     Digg this     reddit!