Epson Stylus C80

The other advantage the C80 has over HP and Lexmark's contenders is superb photo printing. With just a four-colour mechanism it doesn't produce results on a par with the Epson Stylus Photo 895 (see Reviews, issue 83, p152), but it still offers 2,880dpi printing on Epson's Premium Glossy Photo paper.

Using this media, the photo results are fantastic. All the detail is captured, even in darker areas, and there's virtually no visible banding or track marks. The only criticism is that some areas appear quite grainy at a closer look, but this is just in comparison with Epson's specialist photo printers, and the results still put the C80 ahead of both the HP and the Lexmark. Even at its highest resolution, the C80 took 13 minutes, ten seconds to produce an A4 photo so it's not too slow either.

Epson could have charged a lot of money for the Stylus C80, particularly as it won't be profiteering so much from the sale of specialist print media. But it costs just £170. This doesn't include extras like the duplex unit and automatic alignment that you get with the HP 990Cxi, but it buys you a good, honest business inkjet that excels at all its tasks. It's even relatively quiet, which means that it's only the C80's box-like looks that count against it. Epson has finally proved it can handle black text on plain paper and produce fantastic photos and graphics with the same unit without sacrificing print speed. All of this makes the C80 a first-class business inkjet.

Author: Ben Hardwidge