When my family upgraded our computer two years ago, we received a EPSON STYLUS 640 injet printer as part of the package deal. Originally, we were thrilled with this addition to our computer system. Now, after two years of usage, I am finally ready for another upgrade, and this printer will not be amongst the survivors in my system. I say this for many reasons.
On the plus side, I like the color quality and some-what sleek design of the EPSON STYLUS 640. However, there are now much sleeker printers on the market which makes this printer pale in comparison. In fact, it is somewhat bulky and barely fits atop my computer work station.
Another plus, is the overall ease of use. The first time we set up the EPSON STYLUS 640 we had absolutely no problems aligning the ink cartridges, downloading the software and printing. However, over time, we realized that this printer is rather difficult to change the ink cartridges. After several messy attempts, we finally mastered changing the cartridges, which are by the way, rather costly. The black ink cartridge, SO20187, costs approximately $24.99 in most places. And the color cartridge, SO20191, costs a whopping $29.99 or more in most large computer stores.
Although we use a very high quality injet and laser paper for print jobs, we have had more than occasional paper jams. We have tested this ’’problem’’ by using cheaper paper, photo paper and expensive higher quality paper with the same results of several pages going through at once.
The one area where I find the most fault with the EPSON STYLUS 640 injet printer is the noise. Yes!! This is the noisiest printer I have ever heard. Upon turning the printer on, the machine goes through a series of charging; lights flashing and strange noises emanating from deep within. It annoys me when I need to print something quickly, and have to wait one to two minutes for the machine to go through its process. The noise just makes me more frustrated and annoyed.
I definitely would not recommend this particular injet printer to anyone. There are simply too many higher quality, more efficient, much quieter injet printers on the market today. If you purchase your computer in a package deal as I did, do yourself a favor and decline the offer of this printer.