Epson Stylus Office BX310FN review

The Epson Stylus Office BX310FN immediately stands out thanks to its price. At £100 exc VAT it's a good deal cheaper than your average office multifunction device, yet it appears to offer most of the features you'd expect at the top end of the price scale.

The cut-backs are few and may not prove off-putting to many small offices. There's no wireless capability to go with the USB and Ethernet ports; memory card slots are missing; and instead of a proper screen you only get a two-line LCD on the front panel. The latter is the only one that will have a major impact on everyday use for most people, and the menu system it gives access to isn't the most intuitive.

But if that doesn't put you off you can make a substantial saving and still take home an impressively nippy all-in-one. It's one of the fastest inkjet all-in-ones we've seen, producing normal quality mono prints at 15.8ppm (although there's a superior normal mode that takes longer), and its scanning and copying is just as swift.

The scanner driver is one of the most comprehensive around, yet it's remarkably simple to use, and it took just 22 seconds to scan a 6 x 4in photo at 600ppi, while normal quality mono copy came out at 25 seconds - much faster than most rivals.

If you steer clear of draft mode - and with such as quick normal mode that's easy - you'll get excellent text quality and decent, unspectacular images and photos. Our test shots looked a little pale and washed out compared to the likes of Canon and HP, while solid areas of colour in charts had a speckled finish that limited their vibrancy. It's not a deal-breaker, though, and if you don't need a printer for printing high-quality photos the affordable price tag more than makes up for these deficiencies.

Bizarrely, the BX310FN comes with three individual colour ink tanks, plus two identical high-yield black tanks, both of which are installed at the same time. This brings black capacity up towards the level of the colours, and makes for a 6.8p cost per A4 page - not at all bad. And this helps to make the Epson a solid value choice for an office. Yes, it cuts a few corners, but you'll struggle to find a better office all-in-one at this low price.

Author: David Bayon