Almost Perfect!

When I saw the opportunity to review this Epson 810 All-in-One through the Amazon Vine program I jumped at it. I've used All-in-ones for almost ten years sampling a variety of printers from HP Canon Brother etc. I find this printer excels in a number of areas and fails in only one.



Here's my take on it:



PROS:



1. Print quality is as good as Epson claims. Whether these prints will actually last four times longer than drugstore prints is still up for grabs -- who has years to check out this claim? Nevertheless the text and photos are very nice indeed.



2. Although I may never use it again the coloring book feature is fun. For families with small children I'm sure this feature will be appreciated.



3. Being able to charge up my mp3 player from the port on the front of the printer is a nice little extra. Anytime I can avoid powering up the computer for such a small task I'm happy. And now I have a quick way to do that.



4. I love the bright easy to read control panel. The menu will easily take you where you need to go such as a quick check of ink levels (again without powering up the computer).



5. Ink usage appears to be very conservative. I've gone through a ream of paper without exhausting the standard (not high capacity) black cartridge.



6. This printer actually can use recycled paper. Over the years I've been limited in my paper to 24 lb paper as 20 recycled paper caused repeated jams with my other printers. This feature alone will mean a reduction in my paper bills.



7. The printer includes an automatic duplexer. You do have to setup this function on printer preferences but I enjoy using fewer sheets.



8. Included in the box was a single printable dvd. I tried making a color label and it looks great. I'll be buying printable CDs and DVDs just for the pleasure of having nice looking disks.



9. The printer itself is good-looking and fits in well with the other equipment on my desk. No reason a printer should be ugly is there?



CONS:



The scanner works only through a USB connection to my computer although you can save a scan to a memory card. Why is that? Is there something special about wireless that prevents sending a scan to a computer?



UNKNOWN:



I have not used the fax because my VOIP phone service does not currently support faxing.



Overall I'm a delighted user. This is a good printer for a family network.



Four stars!



UPDATE: November 25 2009



I reinstalled the software using the software downloaded from Epson. Voila! Epson Scan now appears on my desktop and my problem is solved. If it were possible to change the number of stars I would now award this printer five stars!



UPDATE: December 1 2009



Here's the trick. You must start the Epson Scan from your computer rather than from the printer (where you'll be standing when you put the photo on the scanner). Then you'll be able to receive the scan on your computer and without hitching it up to the printer directly.More detail ...

The Workforce 610 is fantastic but a little slower than 600. May be more eco-friendly.

This is a great printer. It's easy to set up and easy to use. I have the previous model the Workforce 600 and I thought this would be a better version. However it is not better. In fact it is slower than the previous version for laser quality prints. For draft quality it still does 38 ppm but for laser quality it does 15 vs. 27 ppm of the 600 model. And for color it does only 9.3 vs 15! Although I don't need the speed at home I can't imagine why Epson would slow it down. The printing quality seems just the same. I went over spec sheets of 600 and 610 with a tooth comb and the only difference I found was the slower speed and the fact that 610 can be recycled and uses slightly less power on standby mode (2.9 W on 610 vs. 5.5 W on 600). Since Energy Star specs change from year to year this update could have been just to conform to those specs.



The set up of this printer is very easy. You can do it through your computer or directly from the printer LCD screen by typing in your router password. I tried both ways and it worked. It prints from my Windows 7 and XP laptops and Mac desktop in different parts of the house. It took about 30 minutes in all from opening the package to printing out the test sheet over wireless mostly because the packaging tape took some time to get through. The convenience of being able to print or fax remotely from anywhere in my house is a big asset and the prints look great - both normal paper printing and photos.



The advantages of this printer:

++ Wireless printing. What a joy. It's the best thing ever. No more running to the printer with a laptop or buying a separate printer for the desktop. The whole family can use just one. It saves me so much time and it's so convenient as you can print (or fax from PC) from anywhere in the house - upstairs or from downstairs.

++ The top auto document feeder makes it really easy to photocopy or scan your standard sized documents. I can just start and walk away. It can hold 30 sheets at a time.

++ The feature I love is that you can scan all your important papers to PDF or JPG files on a memory card inserted into the printer card-slot. It takes pretty much any card from CF to SDHC etc. The card shows up as a drive (X or Y or whatever you designate) in your Windows explorer. I open my mail drop my bills in the auto feeder and select scan to memory card (choosing PDF option) and walk away. The printer does the rest. Later I access the card from my laptop wirelessly and copy over the docs to my hard drive folders. This is really great as all my filing is now paperless and I can save all important documents in PDF from school schedules to tax documents.

++ The color LCD screen on the front panel with the buttons on the side makes it easy to change settings or scan/copy/print photos etc right from the printer. To print photos you can print wirelessly from PC or attach your camera with USB or insert the memory card into the printer.

++ It comes with 4 full sized ink tanks - 3 high capacity primary colors and one extra high capacity (#97) black ink tank. The ink levels show up on your computer each time you print and indicate when you need to change the tank. They can be changed individually so you can replace them as needed which saves ink.

++ The ink dries very quickly and the prints are smudge free. This printer also printed really good photos using premium glossy paper.

++ You can hardwire this printer through ethernet or connect your laptop with USB cable if you don't want to use the WiFi option.





What could have been better:

-- Why oh why did Epson slow down the speed of this printer? The prints are great but it's a mystery why they chose to go slower than the previous version. If you don't print too much this may be not a problem for you. It's still faster than several other printers.

--It does not have real duplex printing you have to do it manually by printing one side and then turning over the stack of paper. And even this option is not available through Mac.

--Inks are expensive and there is a chip on each cartridge ensuring they cannot be refilled. For 600 the printer stopped if one ran out of any one color as the printer is set up to use all colors even in grayscale. There may be a way to bypass this but I haven't discovered it. Cheaper gray market ink cartridges are available on some sites but from what I read so far people have had mixed results and in worst cases got clogged print heads.



This printer is a workhorse and a solid performer although a little slower than the earlier Workforce 600. You can't go wrong with this printer for home or small office use. For the price it's the best all-in-ones available. And if you can find the Workforce 600 cheaper go for it.More detail ...