Epson's Stylus Photo RX685 is the largest printer in the group, so you'll need lots of space for it. It's also the heaviest printer in the group at 12kg. Fortunately, the output tray doesn't take up much additional space when extended, and stops even fast prints falling on the floor. Bluetooth printing and automatic duplexer units are available as optional extras.
Draft print speeds were fast, and the prints, though pale, weren't as bad as those from many cheaper Epson
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printers. Normal print speeds were fairly quick, and the resulting text was clear. The RX685's colour document printing was the fastest in the group. We had to perform a manual print head alignment before our colour prints were free of unwanted lines. Once we'd done so, the print quality was good, despite a few white specks in large blocks of solid colour.
The RX685 is the only printer in the group with light cyan and light magenta cartridges, as well as normal cyan and magenta. These make for more precise colours and shading, especially on photos. Photo prints were excellent, with perfectly smooth shading, dark blacks, bright whites and superb contrast. While all other colours appeared normal, red shades were oversaturated, making some skin tones look flushed. Fortunately, we corrected this by turning off ICM colour adjustment.
The scanner uses Epson's excellent scanner interface, which was both powerful and easy to use. Photo scans were precise, and colour reproduction was consistent, if not perfect. Low-resolution scans were quick and readable.
By Kat Orphanides
SPECIFICATIONS:
5,760x1,440dpi print resolution, 40ppm mono/40ppm colour maximum speed, 1,200x2,400dpi scan resolution, USB Hi-Speed, PictBridge USB interfaces
