Epson Stylus Office BX300FW review
Epson's Stylus Office BX300F is a stylish inkjet MFP that has a built-in fax machine.
The individual ink cartridges are also a luxury at this price, as most budget MFPs use combined tri-colour cartridges. Unfortunately, while individual ink cartridges usually save money, the BX300FW has relatively high print costs.
We were impressed by the standard-quality mono test, which produced clear, well-defined lettering that rivalled that of the laser printers. Print speeds of 3.7ppm were less pleasing, as was draft-quality text, which was too pale.
The BX300FW can produce stunning colour prints in its Text & Graphics mode. Our complex colour test document looked great, with rich areas of solid colour and fine shading. Unfortunately, high-quality document printing was slow, with our test print emerging at just 0.4ppm. Colour documents printed at Text quality were faster, but still printed at an unacceptably slow 0.7ppm and suffered from slight but visible streaks. Photo prints had smooth shading, sharp detail and vivid dark tones, but some bright colours looked muted.
Scan quality was excellent on photos and documents, with smooth and accurate colour and shading in our photo scans and clear, legible lettering on 150dpi document scans. A 1,200dpi 6x4in scan took over two minutes, but scans at lower resolutions were fairly quick.
The BX300FW has an ADF for multi-page scans and faxes, but it jammed constantly during our 10-page test, so we were unable to obtain either meaningful speed figures or correctly scanned samples.
We'd like to be able to recommend the BX300FW, but it's undermined by relatively high print costs, a jam-prone ADF and slow colour print speeds. If you're looking for a cheap MFP, Canon's Pixma MP240 is better; if you're going to do a lot of printing, the HP Officejet Pro 8500 Wireless's low print costs will save you money in the long run.
Basic Specifications | |
|---|---|
| Rating | ** |
| Maximum native print resolution | 5,760x1,440dpi |
| Max optical resolution | 1,200x2,400dpi |
| Output bit depth | 48-bit |
Quoted Speeds | |
| Quoted speed, mono A4 | 31ppm |
| Quoted speed, colour A4 | 15ppm |
Tested Print Speeds | |
| Time for two 10x8in photos 1.0 | 20m 2s |
| Time for six 6x4in photos 1.0 | 58m 23s |
Physical and Environmental | |
| Standard printer interfaces | USB |
| Optional printer interfaces | none |
| Size | 235x460x411mm |
| Weight | 7.2kg |
| Noise (in normal use) | 39dB(A) |
| Power consumption standby | 3W |
| Power consumption idle | 5W |
| Power consumption active | 12W |
Paper Handling | |
| Maximum paper size | A4/legal |
| Maximum paper weight | 225gsm |
| Standard paper inputs | 1 |
| Standard paper input capacity | 150 |
| Maximum paper inputs | 1 |
| Maximum paper input capacity | 150 |
| Duplex (code, cost if option) | No |
General | |
| Printer technology | piezo inkjet |
| Supported operating systems | Windows 2000/XP/XP-64/Vista, Mac OS X 10.3.9 - 10.5 |
| Other inkjet features | none |
| Other inkjet options | none |
Buying Information | |
| Price | £42 |
| Consumable parts and prices | 260 page black T0711, 535 page cyan T0712, 295 page magenta, 500 page yellow, £6.68 each |
| Price per colour A4 page | 4.9p |
| Quoted life of supplied black cartridge | 260 pages (ISO/IEC 24712) |
| Quoted life of supplied colour cartridge(s) | 535 cyan, 295 magenta, 500 yellow pages (ISO/IEC 24712) |
| Quoted life of supplied photo cartridge(s) | N/A |
| Warranty | one year RTB |
| Supplier | http://www.lambda-tek.com/componentshop |
| Details | www.epson.co.uk |
Print Quality | |
| Number of ink colours | 4 |
| Number of ink cartridges | 4 |
| Maximum number of ink colours | 4 |
| Maximum number of cartridges | 4 |
| Quoted photo durability | 40 years |
| Quoted photo durability source | Wilhelm Imaging Research |
Tested Scan Speeds | |
| Full scan area preview | 10s |
| A4 document at 150dpi | 21s |
| A4 document at 300dpi | 30s |
| 6x4in photo at 600dpi | 41s |
| 6x4in photo at 1200dpi | 2m 12s |
Tested Copy Speeds | |
| Time for single A4 mono copy 1.0 | 44s |
| Time for single A4 colour copy 1.0 | 1m 9s |
| Time for 10 A4 copies using feeder 2.0 | Fail |
Photo Features | |
| PictBridge support | Yes |
| Borderless printing | up to A4 |
| Direct (PC-less) printing | Yes |
| Supported memory cards | none |
| CD printing | No |
Copy Features | |
| Maximum number of copies | 99 |
| Max mono copy resolution | 1,200x2,400dpi |
| Max colour copy resolution | 1,200x2,400dpi |
Fax Features | |
| Max mono fax resolution | 200x200dpi |
| Fax memory (maximum mono pages) | 180 |
