My Newest Printer

For years, I have been a huge fan of the HP line of inkjet printers. I have had the old Deskjet 550C. I have had the 950C. Most recently, I had the 5180 AIO. All of them were pretty-much top-of-the-line printers in their day. And when I first got them, the "photo" quality seemed astounding. Really, it did. Unfortunately, my wife, being a photo-buff, was never all that impressed. She was typically underwhelmed and disappointed with my prints, which meant that all those digital pictures I was taking were sitting on the PC doing nothing.

Well, recently, my 5180 died (stopped recognizing new ink cartridges) and was already out of warranty. So I had a decision to make. HP or not HP, that was the question.

After some research, I decided to part ways with HP and move over to Epson. The Epson Artisan 800, to be exact. I just picked it up today. I'd like to give a first-day, first-impression review. In a word, "stunning!"

The printer setup was pretty much a breeze, though this beast is quite a bit bigger than my old HP, which was a challenge on my space-deprived desk. I managed to fit it in, though. Installation was smooth and error-free. I have it hooked up via USB on my main computer, but also via wired network for my laptop machines (2), which caused no problems. I didn't need to venture into wireless setup, which I assume would have been just as easy.

Printing photos on Epson's best paper in the best mode was, quite simply, the BEST prints I've ever seen come from a personal printer. And the best part came when I showed my wife some of the prints. Her response was a matter-of-fact, "I'm happy with that" statement that almost left me speechless. It was as if I had discovered the Holy Grail!

Now, I have not played with much yet...a scan here, a copy there and a few dozen prints in various quality modes on various papers. I have yet to see anything that I was not impressed with. This printer is absolutely fantastic thus far and I certainly hope it continues. And for the price I paid ($229), I cannot complain one bit.

After one short day, and I certainly hope this doesn't change, I have to whole-heartedly recommend this printer for anyone looking for true photo-house quality prints from their own desktop.