Before I purchased this Printer I did a lots of Research on the same, but NO Article Helped me Specifchandru021y for THIS Product. But, I take a Risk and Purchased this One. Now, I want to provide you a Very detailed information about this product which may help many other Confused buyers... :)
Well, I purchased it @ Rs.6750 /- from a local Shop. It is also available on various online stores like Flipkart(Rs. 7900), Snapdeal (Rs. 6500) and other stores. But my suggestion is to buy such products from direct shopkeeper.. why ? Because it will help you latter when it comes about service..
- Remember, You should bargain with your Local shop keeper, because the Price of THIS printer varies a lot starting from 6750 to 7500 with different shops (atleast in my case I experienced this).
Anyway, Now lets move to Printer driver set-up... OOf, its extremely tedious job, because when I tried this at my home after opening the Box I failed to install it properly. I have a HP Printer before, which was Extremely Easy to install and use.. But this one is so irritating.. I could not sleep that night due to its Problem. Next day, I take this printer to the shop and there they installed it with Proper SETTINGS, so that it can be worked in my system.
So, My Suggestion is "Install all the driver in the shop while purchasing this Printer. Yes, please take your laptop and after they install the driver, you make a demo page printing for your security..."
Now, don’t change the setting randomly, because that may lead to print bad printouts as happened in my case. So, better ask the EPSON Customer care Executive for help...
If You don’t have laptop, and You need to install it into your Desktop:
Please ask the dealer to install the driver at your Home or You can also call the Customer Care to send their engineer/executive to install the driver and made proper settings at your Home.
If You select to install the Driver by your own: follow the steps (not sure if it will work with you)..
1) First rotate the switch to Printing Mode (the CUT mark towards the Top).
2) Detach all the tapes from the printer.
3) Open the ink Tank slowly, do not pull it to more distance, this may break the ink pipes.
4) Open the valves of every ink tank (Black, Red, Blue, Cyan) one By One.
5) Open the cap of the corresponding ink bottle, break the Cap Top by rotating it (Just like FeviQuick).
6) Now, Open the seal of the ink bottle and fit the cap (top broken) into it.
7) Pour the inks into the corresponding ink tank and close the valves.
8) Repeat these steps for all the 4 colors.
9) Now, slowly close the ink tank system. Make sure that the CUT mark is still towards the Print Direction i.e towards TOP.
10) Now, its time to charge the ink.
11) For that, : a) Connect the Power cord behind the Printer (*Do NOT connect the USB Cord at ALL). b) Give the Power Supply. Switch on the Printer switch. c) See, if the Power LED Blinks, then fine that means the printer has automatchandru021y started ink Recharge. d) Else, Press the ink Button(side to the Power Button) for 3 seconds. e) Now, the Printer is in its ink charging mode, the LEDs will blink for 20 minutes.
12) Now, in the mean time (WITHOUT connecting the USB cord to laptop/desktop) install the Driver upto the stage it asks "if you have completed ink charging" .
13) Wait until the ink charging completes(20 minutes).
14) after ink charging complete, click next and wait until the s/w asks you to connect the USB cord.
15) when the s/w asks to connect the USB cord, you slowly connect the cord and let the 2 device communicate each other.
16) after 30 seconds to 2 minutes, the driver will be installed successfully.
Then You can start Printing...
But, I would like to reccomend you to call the Executive to install the Driver and let you learn some basic settings from him, which will help you in future.
Now Coming to Performance :
It is really very fast when you print on Draft mode, and also the color consumption is less. In this mode You can get around 4000 B/W prints with just one bottle of Blank ink as per their brochure. But Practchandru021y, I feel if You use only Draft mode in B/W printing , You can get atleast 3000 prints, that means 12.5 paisa per print. Which is a very nice Deal. The speed is high around 16 ppm. - The Print Quality in Draft mode is good, one can read the letters without any problem. - But, remember the colors may seems to be fair, I mean not BOLD and Aggressive.
Now, In Standard mode, Everything goes well, the Print quality is crisp and clear . But if You use this setting, you can achieve around 2000+ prints with the B/w printing. That means around 19 paisa per print. Which is again quite affordable. In this mode, the speed becomes little slower i.e around 10 ppm.
Now, in High Quality, the letters are seems to be Aggressive, I think You don’t need it in general. But, still it will make you to achieve 1500+ prints, that means25 paisa per page. Still a very good Deal. Yes, in this mode the Printing speed is very slow i.e around 5-6 ppm.
Now Coming to Color Printing :
In Draft mode, the speed remains almost same as b/w speed. The print quality is good enough. About cost efficiency, EPSON says that you can get around 6500 prints from color printing. That means for 4 color bottle, the price is Rs.374 each, so total 374 X 4 = 1496, let it be around 1500. so for each print the cost would be around 23 paisa. But, Practchandru021y it depends on your use... If we think that you will print in Draft mode and all are Documents (Word), then we can easily achive 4000+ prints which implies 37.5 paisa per page, which is extremely good.
In Standard mode, in color document printing one can achieve around 3000+ prints. so, its 50 paisa per page. Still a very good deal.
In High quality mode, you can yield around 2400 prints. so, its like 62 paisa per page. still a very nice deal.
So, all in all The Printer is Good for Document Printing both in terms of Economy and Quality. So You should Blindly go for it.
Finally lets compare this with any HP/Samsung/Cannon Laser Printer (Monochrome)
In any monochrome Printer, the yield is around 1500 pages in extreme condition its 2000 pages. Ok, lets know how much we need to invest for refilling ? Its around Rs.350. So if we calculate this, it can lead to "23 paisa per Print" or "17.5 paisa per print". Which is still more than our B/W print cost. Yes, if You use XEROX Phaser, then You can achieve 3000 pages, but the print quality is not that great. Again in Xerox phaser 3110, 3117 the Printing speed is not upto mark.
2ndly, In Monochrome laser Printer, we can’t print color printouts, so its a damn Restriction.
But, about Laser Printer, the one thing that is ahead of this one is the "RELIABILITY", a laser printer can print lakhs of Print. Undoubtedly, if You really want a B/W printer with Excessive printing i.e around 3000+ prints per month then Go Ahead with Laser Printer. But, I think You are buying this printer for Your home or small office, where the requirement is around 500-600 pages per month, then You should chose this One. Again, You can print color printouts at very reasonable price of colors, which is impossible for any Monochrome Printer. And to get such advantage you have to purchase a color laser printer, which is not less than Rs.15, 000.00 . So, You decide Your Need and chose the right printer for You. :)
Remember I have calculated page yield only for Documents (No image). One page image equals 20 pages documents.(docs = 5% of images).