Epson Stylus DX9400F in Printers

This Epson may seem far more expensive than its incredibly cheap brother, the DX7400, but the price of £93 brings the DX9400F into line with the majority of all-in-ones on test this month.

The increased price does allow for several features that the cheaper Epson just doesn't have: there's an ADF that can handle 30 sheets, for instance, and full fax capabilities as well as an easy-to-use 2.4in LCD.

Print quality is good, too, with documents, colour graphics and photos all handled with aplomb thanks to the print resolution of 5,760 x 1,440dpi - the highest on test aside from the MP610.

Scanning and copying quality is good, too, with 150ppi documents providing the best result on test - along with the cheaper Epson above. Photographs at higher detail levels were handled well, with only the Canon Pixma machines, which produce superb photos, managing to beat the Epson for quality.

But where the quality is excellent, the speed is more variable. While draft documents were handled reasonably quickly, when we tested the DX9400F with normal-quality mono documents it limped to a mere 3.9ppm, compared with the 9.1ppm of the Dell V305w and 8.8ppm of the Pixma MP610.

Scanning speed isn't much better, either, with the Epson taking just over three minutes to scan a 1,200ppi 6 x 4in photo: it's only better than the cheaper Epson, which took a single second longer, and pales in comparison to the swift 35-second scan from the Pixma MP610.

The DX9400F offers excellent value. A low cost-per-page figure of 4.3p is identical to that of the DX7400 - both machines have individual colour ink cartridges. They last a relatively long time, too, with the cyan and magenta inks running out after 88 pages, far better than the poor 30-page life of the HP Photosmart's cyan.

Quality is good across all of the Epson's functions, there are plenty of features and the running costs are low. If you can put up with the variable speed, this is a viable small office alternative to the Canon machines this month.

Author: David Bayon