Nx420 Ink - Epson Stylus NX420 Printer Review: The Epson Stylus NX420 colour inkjet multifunction provides good output, decent performance, and radio connectivity for just $100. Since its continuing ink costs are heavy however, it is not precisely a deal, making it best for light use only.
The Stylus NX420 sits squarely in the home and student user category. Paper handling consists of a low-capacity 100-sheet vertical rear paper feed and a straightforward, letter/A4-size flatbed scanner. The MFP lacks an automatic document feeder for scanning or copying multipage documents.
Nonetheless you'll find one or two amazingly advanced features, namely wireless connectivity and a 1.5-inch color LCD screen. The bundled Easy Scan and Easy Photo Print applications are able, though their utilitarian interfaces are more closely fitted for experienced users; beginners might wish for more hand-holding.
The control panel design is mostly intuitive, though having the Start/Cancel buttons pull extra duty as O.K/Back seems confusing. Setting up the wireless thru this interface went smoothly, apart from the boredom of entering the password on the display's minute electronic keyboard.
Compatible Ink Nx420: A quick reminder, and this can't be stated enough, always use specific Epson inks in your Epson Stylus NX420 All In One Printer. Doing so can not only protect the life of your printer,but it will also add to the value of your machine.
Particularly, Epson cut corners in the documentation: The HTML-based manual for this product lives only online at Epson's site-you can't even download it. In spite of Epson's reasoning that an online-only resource is always recent, we're of the opinion a manual on the installation CD is worth two on the Web.
The Stylus NX420 was a mediocre to slow performer in our tests. Standard-quality text pages revealed at below-average speeds of 4.9 pages per minute on the Mac and 5 ppm on the PC. Snapshot-size pictures imprinted on the PC at a midrange three ppm on plain paper and a subpar 0.8 ppm on photograph paper.
Our high-resolution, near-full-page photograph imprinted on the Mac usurped 3 minutes to print (0.3 ppm), another unimpressive time. An easy one-page copy took 17 seconds (about average), but a mix of full-page and partial-page color photo scans were clearly slower than the mean.
The Stylus NX420's print quality can suffer on stock paper, even the nicer-quality Hammermill Laser Print stock that we use for the majority of our testing.
At default settings our text samples looked realistically black but fuzzy round the edges, while pictures appeared washed out. When we opted for higher-quality print modes and Epson photograph paper, we were given far better results.
Ink costs, dependent on how much you print, will finally nullify the Stylus NX420's bargain price. Its standard-size cartridges include a $15.19, 265-page black, which comes out to a middling 5.7 cents per page; each $12.34, 340-page color cartridge costs a better-than-average 3.6 cents per page.
A 4 color page would cost just about 16.5 cents. While some printers offer a higher-yield option, Epson goes the other way by giving what they've deemed "moderate-use" cartridges, with even lower page yieldsâ"and higher costsâ"than the standard-size supplies: The $12.34 black lasts 200 pages (6.2 cents per page), while each $8.54 colour cartridge lasts 220 pages (3.9 cents per page), making for a 17.6-cent 4 color page.
The Stylus NX420 sits squarely in the home and student user category. Paper handling consists of a low-capacity 100-sheet vertical rear paper feed and a straightforward, letter/A4-size flatbed scanner. The MFP lacks an automatic document feeder for scanning or copying multipage documents.
Nonetheless you'll find one or two amazingly advanced features, namely wireless connectivity and a 1.5-inch color LCD screen. The bundled Easy Scan and Easy Photo Print applications are able, though their utilitarian interfaces are more closely fitted for experienced users; beginners might wish for more hand-holding.
The control panel design is mostly intuitive, though having the Start/Cancel buttons pull extra duty as O.K/Back seems confusing. Setting up the wireless thru this interface went smoothly, apart from the boredom of entering the password on the display's minute electronic keyboard.
Compatible Ink Nx420: A quick reminder, and this can't be stated enough, always use specific Epson inks in your Epson Stylus NX420 All In One Printer. Doing so can not only protect the life of your printer,but it will also add to the value of your machine.
Particularly, Epson cut corners in the documentation: The HTML-based manual for this product lives only online at Epson's site-you can't even download it. In spite of Epson's reasoning that an online-only resource is always recent, we're of the opinion a manual on the installation CD is worth two on the Web.
The Stylus NX420 was a mediocre to slow performer in our tests. Standard-quality text pages revealed at below-average speeds of 4.9 pages per minute on the Mac and 5 ppm on the PC. Snapshot-size pictures imprinted on the PC at a midrange three ppm on plain paper and a subpar 0.8 ppm on photograph paper.
Our high-resolution, near-full-page photograph imprinted on the Mac usurped 3 minutes to print (0.3 ppm), another unimpressive time. An easy one-page copy took 17 seconds (about average), but a mix of full-page and partial-page color photo scans were clearly slower than the mean.
The Stylus NX420's print quality can suffer on stock paper, even the nicer-quality Hammermill Laser Print stock that we use for the majority of our testing.
At default settings our text samples looked realistically black but fuzzy round the edges, while pictures appeared washed out. When we opted for higher-quality print modes and Epson photograph paper, we were given far better results.
Ink costs, dependent on how much you print, will finally nullify the Stylus NX420's bargain price. Its standard-size cartridges include a $15.19, 265-page black, which comes out to a middling 5.7 cents per page; each $12.34, 340-page color cartridge costs a better-than-average 3.6 cents per page.
A 4 color page would cost just about 16.5 cents. While some printers offer a higher-yield option, Epson goes the other way by giving what they've deemed "moderate-use" cartridges, with even lower page yieldsâ"and higher costsâ"than the standard-size supplies: The $12.34 black lasts 200 pages (6.2 cents per page), while each $8.54 colour cartridge lasts 220 pages (3.9 cents per page), making for a 17.6-cent 4 color page.
About the Author:
Jonny Evans is known as a blogger and writer on all points Epson printers and inks. For more information on the NX 420 inks for the Epson NX 420 All In One, click right here: Epson Stylus Nx420 Cartridges and Epson Stylus Nx420 Ink Refill.
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