Epson Artisan 800 All-in-one Printer Review

I’m not one to find all-in-one printers very sexy. I have had a slew of them over my lifetime. Mostly HPs and more recently Canon which did do a good job of printing, scanning, and copying just fine - minus the few paper jams here and there and some network printing issues. The Epson Artisan 800 is looking to change all that. Not only is it a versatile printer but it’s also super sleek come hither and print with me good looks make it attractive and not just another piece of office equipment. The best part is that we were about to see if the good looks lived up to an even better all in one printer.

In the Box:
It may not be exciting to the average person but to me packaging is as exciting as whats in the box - because it makes you want to open the box. Upon opening the Artisan 800 box the first item that is revealed is another box, an Accessory Kit that holds the installation CD, a printable CD-R, 6 ink cartridges, and an extra bonus black cartridge too. An ethernet cable and power cable are also included along with some sample pieces of 4×6 photo paper. Once you remove the box that incorporates the accessories for the machine, you will find tucked in the box quite nicely, the Artisan 800 - easily accessible and nestled in between styrofoam. This set-up makes it easier to grab. The styrofoam sheet it’s wrapped in has a handle to easily grab it out of the box. Finally in front of me began the long arduous process of taking off stickers and wrapping etc…

Setup:
The process of removing the blue tape and clear wrap can be a pain but I’m used to it especially with printers. Don’t leave any stone unturned when removing the blue stickers. Be sure to lift up every lid, flap, tray and crevice to make sure you don’t leave any behind. If you do, you may be greeted with an error message later on while trying to print. Once I cleared everything of film I started placing the 6 ink cartridges into its each designated slot. Again make sure to rip off any additional stickers or tabs but be careful not to get ink on your fingers. I first installed the printer on my PC running Vista as a local printer via USB not through the network. If you want to do an installation this way you will have to purchase a USB cable as it is not included. As a rule of thumb never plug in the USB cable while the printer is powered on to your computer. A printer installation just never runs smoothly when you jump the gun no matter how plug and play it is. So I popped in the disk and the lengthy installation process began. It picked up the printer in a timely manner via USB. Then it preceded to install the software for the unit, which is ArcSoft the same software company that provided the video and picture software for the Kodak Zi6. Not only will the software work with PC but with the Mac as well.

Once I finished installing the printer on the PC I then attempted to install it on my iMac as a network printer. It installed flawlessly as it did on the PC. However I do suggest you attempt to do it with someone who is a bit tech savvy. It’s not difficult by any means if you follow the on screen prompts and screens, but if you miss a step and are not sure what to do next it may be good to have moral support to help you out.  In the end the Artisan 800 was picked up right away by my iMac and with all the same software options allotted to me on the PC install. This was certainly a nice change of pace because usually Mac users don’t get the same software options as their PC counterparts when purchasing a peripheral. The best part was that I was able to print from both a Mac and PC on the same network without ANY problems - on the first try, which is truly a miracle in itself.

Functionality:
The Epson Artisan 800 is not only meant to look stylish but it certainly works well too.

The standout feature is the color touchscreen interface. By the touch of a button on the touchscreen panel you can make a copy, scan, fax, or print to CD. You can also import images from the memory card slots. The touchscreen functionality is fluid and doesn’t lag at all. It is also very clear and easy on the eyes.  I dare say it works almost as good as an iPhone touchscreen… The touchscreen panel is also angle adjustable which is great for having flexibility for putting the printer anywhere in your home or office and still be able to operate it. The one thing that is a bit tricky is when you do adjust it upwards, which means basically you lift the panel with your hand. You then have to press the ‘Unlock button’ to make the panel go back down again. Don’t forcefully push the panel back down with your hands, even if by accident as you will hear a terrible plastic cracking noise which could lead you to breaking the panel off the printer altogether.When you are ready to operate the touchscreen panel and press the touchscreen’s buttons, there is a small ‘ding’-like noise heard to acknowledge the action.

So it has got a nifty touchscreen but can it do what it was meant too? – Like print?! Can it ever! I printed first on Epson Premium Photo Paper Glossy and it was gorgeous!! I choose a photo of roses that was bright and had deep colors to really bring out what this printer was made to do. The high-definition Claria ink not only made the images vibrant but it almost felt like the image on the page was real. It dried instantly and left no smudges either. Next I printed on Epson Premium Bright White Paper which would be typical paper used in any household. It printed the same image again in outstanding quality. The paper absorbed a bit more of the ink leaving it a tad soggy but it did dry rather quickly and the paper was only slightly wrinkled afterwards. However that wouldn’t be an issue for most, since on that type of paper only text should only be printed and serious images should be reserved to print onto photo paper. Finally I attempted to print on Epson Premium Presentation Paper Matte and it too printed excellently and without issue. I was blown away by not only the quality but also the speed of which everything printed. Epson claims photos print in as fast as 10 seconds and boy did it ever. Scanning was also very impressive, if you browse the gallery of images, I scanned in a EW magazine and the image that came through on the computer was as good as the original media that was scanned. It was just amazing - Such detail in less than a minute. So often manufacturers fall short on their speed promises, it was nice to see that Epson is true to what they advertise.

Another nice touch is that pictures can bleed off the page, meaning that you can produce borderless prints or stationary. There are no margins to cramp your style in creating those type of documents. The next exciting feature is the ability to print to CD and DVDs. On the front of the machine is a button to activate the tray. No more sticking CDs into weird plastic contraptions and then inserting it weirdly onto your printer tray. By the push of a button a CD printing tray ejects and then you can just insert the disk to be printed. It’s that easy! I printed an image from my SD Card onto the CD and the end results were terrific. You have a choice of several different patterns to print on your disk. So you can make a unique design all from the touchscreen interface of the printer.
The best part, regardless of how the print quality was, is the ease of printing as a local printer or as a network printer. On my PC, I set it up as a local printer without any hassle it printed within seconds. Whether it was a picture or a just a letter. The only thing I needed to set was the paper quality and it printed immediately without issue. After setting up the Artisan 800 as a network printer on my iMac, it was the same results. I also was able to print through Wi-Fi  quickly and efficiently. The iMac also had no issues printing, it was fast and painless.

Software:
I was very impressed with the software bundle included because not only did it work with PC but with Mac as well. Most printer software would allow the drivers accessible to both formats but not the actual printer software. However that was not the case with the Artisan 800, these programs included ABBYT FineReader 6.0 Sprint which is a great ocr program, ArcSoft Connect and Print Creations, and some Epson dedicated software for the Scanner and CD Printer. Out of all the included software, probably the ArcSoft print creations will get the most use as it lets you create photo calendars, greeting cards, etc…a great tool for birthday parties or for kids to get creative.

Conclusion:
The Epson Artisan 800 is everything you would want in a printer. It’s is not only great looking but it works well too. It sports an innovative touchscreen interface that is easy to use and look at it - it’s not at all frustrating to use by having to ‘touch’ things more than once. Printing with the Artisan 800 is a breeze as well as the setup. The software installation process on both the Mac and PC is a bit lengthy but it does include a lot of software options that other companies don’t include. The only draw back of the Artisan 800 I would say is the paper-tray. The overall quality of the tray seemed flimsy and it doesn’t hold that much paper. You can practically fit any type of media or size of paper in the tray or feeder on top. But it can get a bit frustrating having to constantly put more paper in the tray to print a big job. But in the grand scheme of things it’s a bit minutia to the overall quality of this feature packed printer. The Epson Artisan 800 retails for $299.99 which is a reasonable price for a such a great printer.

The Good: Great design with practical touschreen interface. Well rounded feature set. Quality and speedy prints. Wireless printing from Macs and PCs on the same network was a breeze. Software is included with full programs that worked for both PC and Mac.

The Bad: Flimsy paper-tray and lengthy software install.

Epson’s Stylish & Feature Rich All-in-one Artisan Printers

It’s a rarity for us to get excited about printers, but Epson’s new Artisan 800 and Artisan 700 are two of the slickest feature rich all-in-one printers we’ve seen in a long time. For starters, both the 700 and 800 are sporting a lovely piano black finish that makes them look good enough to be left in your living room if need be. Looks aside, the Artisan 800 features Wifi, an Automatic Document Feeder (ADF), and Ultra Hi-Definition photos. But what makes the 800 really stand out of the pack is its 7.8″ smart touch panel  that lights up only the buttons necessary. For example, when faxing a document - you’ll only see the buttons related to Faxing. You can also use the touchscreen for selecting, copying, enlarging, rotating, cropping, and printing photos all without a computer. Another cool feature of the Artisan 800 is its ability to turn photos or drawings into personalized coloring book pages and make personal notepaper with a photo as a background. [Read more]

Samsung’s Fall Digital Camera, and Camcorder and Printer Preview

Samsung has a bunch of digicam and camcorders set for release this September, all of which are looking to be feature rich and affordably priced. Amongst them is the TL34HD. The TL34HD sports an amazing 14.7 megapixels inside a surprisingly small body. Samsung has scrapped the traditional button based user interface and replaced it with a new 3.0 touch screen based interface that lets you do neat things like delete photos by drawing an X on the surface of the display. The camera also sports 3.6x optical zoom, dual image stabilization (optical + digital), smile and blink detection, a new Recycle Bin feature, and the ability to shoot 720P video with H.264 compression. The camera will retail for $329.95. [Read more]

HP Officejet H470 Mobile Printer Works Wirelessly

When we envision mobile printers, we envision printers that are likely to produce less than quality results. But the HP OfficeJet H470 changes all that. The H470 has a 50 sheet capacity, it yields up to 330 color pages per cartridge, it has a memory card reader and it features built-in wifi and bluetooth. As for portability, so it weighs 4.5lbs -as much as your laptop, but it’s still a lot lighter than your printer at home. Overall the H470 is a bit pricey at $249.99 but if you really need to have a mobile printer for your travels, the H470 looks promising.

Samsung’s ML-1630 Compact Glossy Black Laser Printer with Touch Sensitive Controls

It’s hard to believe that the Samsung ML-1630 is a printer just by looking at it. Measuring just 4.8 inches tall, It’s got a sleek and very slim glossy black exterior with touch sensitive controls and an LED read out which is quiet the deviation in design from other printers out there. Aside from being compact and slim in size, it also promises to operate quietly. The printer prints at 1,200 dpi at 6 pages per minute. And say goodbye to pulling open the paper tray, the ML-1630 has a semi-auto slide cassette tray that slides out with a push of a button. [Read more]

Dymo DiscPainter Breaks the Price Barrier for CD Printers

Throw away your lightscribe drive and your CD labels, an affordable color CD/DVD printer has finally arrived. Sure, there are also affordable Epson printers that can also print on to CD media but there has never been a dedicated CD printer that fell before the $1000 price tag. The DiscPainter produces high quality dpi in 60 seconds with Radial Print technology (whatever that is, it works). Dymo software is included to easily create the CDs. Or you can use Quark Xpress, InDesign, Photoshop, and Illustrator to design the CD. We just saw a live demo in person at CES Unveiled in New York City, and were mightily impressed. We also digged that the printer is small in size, it’s just a little bigger than a dedicated photo printer, it weighs just 2.65lbs - and it’s both PC and Mac compatible. Anyway, we hope you’re holding on to your seat. The expected retail price is $279. There will never be an excuse to write on a CD with a sharpie again!

HP’s A826 Home Photo Center Printer Uses a Stylus and Touch Screen

HP’s Photosmart A826 isn’t just a photo printer, it’s a “Home Photo Center”, or rather think of it as a mini kiosk. The printer sports an unusually large 7″ color touch screen from which you can view photos and thumbnails. The display also doubles as a digital photo frame that can present slideshows. A stylus is included which can assist you in drawing or writing captions directly on to photos (or you can just use your finger). You can also remove red eye, slim subjects, and enhance images, all without a computer. The A826 also sports a memory card reader, bluetooth support, and it can print 4×6″ as well as 5×7″  photos. The A826 Home Photo Center retails for $199 and is definately a nice change of pace from other photo printers, though we’re undecided whether or not the ability to draw directly on a photo via your printer is useful or just gimmicky. And on a related note, is it just us or does its design remind you of an old iMac?

Epson’s PictureMate 260 $99 Photo Printer

Perhaps you’ve been thinking about buying a photo printer for a while now, and you’ve been waiting for the prices to come down. Well it looks like now might be a great time to get one. Epson’s PictureMate Dash PM 260 offers a feature set that you would expect to find in a pricier photo printer. It sports a 3.6″ LCD photo viewer, you can crop resize and remove red eye right from the printer, it prints sepia, B&W and wallet photos, it has a memory card reader or it can print from USB keys, and finally it can also print wirelessly via an optional bluetooth adapter. As for speed Epson also claims that it can print as fast as 37 seconds. Overall, for $99 the price is very right for PM 260, and just in time for the holidays too.

HP Skins for Customizing your HP Computers & Electronics

SkinIt and HP have teamed up together to create exclusive skins to customize your HP products with. Whether you have a HP digital camera, a laptop, a desktop, or even one  of their printers, there are custom skins available for most of their popular products. You can choose from their own collection of designs which includes categories such as Video games, fashion and sports, just to name a few. Or you can upload your own design or photo. Overall, it’s great to see a big company like HP encouraging personalization of their products, even if it just a skin.

Zink Digital Camera Also has Built-in Photo Printer

The concept behind Zink is so obvious, we’re hitting ourselves because we didn’t think of it first. Zink is a digital camera with a built-in full color printer which can pump out 2″x3″ borderless high quality photos. You can also instantly view and select which photos you want to print. The specs on the camera are even decent - the camera features a 7 megapixel CCD, 3X optical zoom, it accepts SD cards and it has a 2″ indoor/outdoor color display. Zink should be released in early ‘08. The only downside we anticipate is the fact that it will only work with special Zink paper.

Lexmark x4550 All-in-one Brings You Wifi Printing on the Cheap

We aren’t the biggest fans of Lexmark printers, but if you’re looking for the cheapest possible way to take advantage of a Wi-Fi printer, than the Lexmark X4550 is it. For $129 the X4550 gives you built-in 802.11g wireless printing, as well as the ability to print up to 26ppm in black or 18 ppm in color. It also can make copies, print borderless photos, and scan documents up to 48 bits. But like we said, we’re not crazy about Lexmark, however if practicality is more important to you than print quality, this one is worth considering.

Belkin Network USB Hub Review

When we were first introduced to the Belkin Network USB Hub, the Belkin representative declared that the installation process was just 5 minutes. Call me skeptical, but I figured that was just a gimmick and that it was unlikely to take just 5 minutes to set up networking device that could be used with a printer. My experience with trying to use my printer over my home network until now has been totally futile, I’ve tried several devices and software applications and have never been able to share my printer successfully over my network.

Then comes alone Belkin’s USB Network Hub which promises a painless and quick way to share my printer on my home network, as well as a scanner, hard drive or media card reader, digital camera, or other similar device. The way the hub works is that it kind of tricks your computers in to thinking that the devices plugged in to the hub are local to that computer. Needless to say I was eager to try this device out.

The device itself is beautifully minimalist. It looks practically identical to Belkin’s white USB & Firewire hub, which i’ve been using for a while. I’ve always liked Belkin’s products’ design, they tend to create sleek, minimalist and modern devices that are very Apple-like.

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Belkin’s Network USB Hub Promises to Make Setting up a Print Server on Your Network Easy

Belkin unveiled a slew of new products this week, and we have to hand it to Belkin for always coming out with products that are always well designed and well thought out. For example, they’ve created the Hub-To-Go ($49.99) USB hub that can add up to 7 USB ports to your computer set-up. Designed to sit on your desk, the Hub-To-Go has room for holding paper clips, business cards and other accessories and it is also designed to hold Belkin’s Swivel Hub ($29.99) so that you can easily detach the swivel hub and use it as a portable hub when you need to. That is a perfect example of the kind of well thought out product that we are talking about. However, of their new products the one we are personally most excited about is the Network USB Hub. I’ve been unsuccessfully trying to share a printer over my wireless home network for years. Vista promised that that process would be easier than ever, and so has several software apps and hardware peripherals yet I’m still without the convenience of wireless printer sharing. The Belkin Network USB Hub promises to set up a print server over your network in just 3 minutes. It also allows you to share up to  other devices including multifunction printers, USB drivers, and scanners with everyone on your network. The device itself is almost identical to Belkin’s other Mac Mini’esque USB & Firewire hub, except the Network USB Hub has a black finish. The Network USB Hub retails for $129.99.

Lexmark’s Z1420 Printer Brings You Wifi Despite a Low Price Tag

Generally if we had to choose a printer, it wouldn’t be a Lexmark. Lexmark is kind of like the Ford of printers, they’re cheap and they do the job, but you usually don’t expect anything special. However, if you’ve been lusting after a Wifi printer, the $79.99 Lexmark’s Z1420 is very tempting. Having a Wifi printer is super convenient because that means that anyone on your network can print wirelessly. The Z1420 even comes with a quick set up process that configures your router and does all the dirty work for you. And it’s printer capabilities aren’t too shabby either - it can print up to 18ppm in color and it supports 4800×1200 photo printing on glossy paper.

Make 3D Creatures from Your Printer

Here is a great activity for a rainy afternoon. FormWild software helps you create 3-dimensional animals from print outs. While following the patterns is no simple feat, at the end you’ll have created a paper or plastic creature that is much more impressive then a simple paper air plane. Amongst the kind of creatures you can create are fish, spiders, farm animals, birds and much more.

Memjet Printing Technology Promises 60 Pages Per Minute at an Affordable Price

Aside from price drops, the printer industry hasn’t come out with anything revolutionary in almost 20 years or so. A New technology called Memjet is set set to change all that by being the first printing technology that actually excites us instead of putting us to sleep. M. David Stone over at PC Magazine has an article about the future of printing, and if MemJet’s promises ever to come through, then it will indeed be a great future for everyone except trees. Memjet claims to have the power to print a letter-sized paper at 60 pages per minutes, each with a 1,600- by 1,600-dot-per-inch resolution. Not only that, but Memjet will also be able to print across the whole width and length of a paper unlike most traditional consumer printers. Sounds too good to be true so it will probaly cause an arm and leg, right? According to the Silverbrook research, the company behind the technology, the printers will be available in 2008 for $200 to $300 while a photo printer using Memjet technology will cost about $150. We’ll believe it when we see it. In meanwhile, plan an early retirement for your inkjet if this ever really does happen.

Kodak Pushes Out New Photo Printers That Consume Less Ink

Kodak has come out with its new lineup of consumer printers, using KODACOLOR Technology. The all-in-one printers come in 3 flavors - KODAK EASYSHARE 5100 ($149.99), KODAK EASYSHARE 5300 ($199.99), and KODAK EASYSHARE 5500 ($299.99). The printers can print up to 32 pages per minute in black and 22 pages per minute in color, also, if you have a PICTBRIDGE-enabled camera - you won’t need a PC to print with them. The 5300 has a 3-inch color LCD display and a memory card slot, and the 5500 has a faxing feature, as well as automatic document feeder. They claim that with the new technology that they’re using, consumers can print the same number of pages at half the cost of other consumer inkjet printers. We think that the printers are a potential threat to the photo-labs at Walmart and such, as a regular-sized photo will cost you a dime. The 5100 & 5300 models will be sold exclusively in Best Buy in March, and the 5500 is coming out in May.

Brother’s MFC-845CW Cheap Color Inkjet All-in-one with 802.11

Brother’s MFC-845CW is the ultimate printer for someone who wants it all but can’t afford to spend too much. The all-in-one color inkjet includes built-in ethernet and wireless 802.11 b/g connectivity, a 5.8ghz cordless handset, and an answering machine, as well as the ability to fax, scan, copy, print and view files on cards inside of its built-in memory card slots. It’s also got a 2.5″ inch color LCD display for viewing photos, or whatever else you may be printing. And all of this will cost you $249 or less, depending on the retailer.

Brother’s MFC-845CW Cheap Color Inkjet All-in-one with 802.11

Brother’s MFC-845CW is the ultimate printer for someone who wants it all but can’t afford to spend too much. The all-in-one color inkjet includes built-in ethernet and wireless 802.11 b/g connectivity, a 5.8ghz cordless handset, and an answering machine, as well as the ability to fax, scan, copy, print and view files on cards inside of its built-in memory card slots. It’s also got a 2.5″ inch color LCD display for viewing photos, or whatever else you may be printing. And all of this will cost you $249 or less, depending on the retailer.

Laser Printer Comes with Built-in Mouse

Sorry, we couldn’t resist. We got these photos from a chain letter. That is soooo 1998. Anyway, in case you’re wondering, they ended up getting the mouse safely out and they then let him loose.

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