Buying Epson Stylus NX415 All-in-One Printer

Inkjets have come a long way and the inks no longer fade as rapidly as in years past. The photo results can be beautiful. But most of the technology is in the print head cartridges and the business model of the makers is to sell as many of those as possible. Low cost printers like this one from Epson are viewed by their manufacturers as a loss leader whose main purpose is to addict you to buying their cartridges. To do this, they basically give away the printer. This Epson Stylus NX415 sells on Amazon for $69 including a full set of four colored ink cartridges. But when time comes to reload the cartridges - which will be sooner than you think - the replacement set costs $48! This is as if you bought some cool very low cost car for only $2,000 but then discovered it requires special fuel which costs $1,400 per tank!

Since the print cartridges are the real core of the function, you may ask what does it matter which printer you buy? It matters because the printer unit is what aligns everything to perfection and transports the media precisely - the mechanical stuff. Of course mechanical precision and robustness is exactly what you don't get with a very cheap printer. Since, exclusive of the cartridges, this entire printer with its internal computer, LCD and motors, and free shipping is being sold in effect for about ten bucks, you will not be surprised that it is constructed from very flimsy bits of plastic. Plastic gears, etc. It's not designed as a workhorse. Epson is subsidizing this to get you hooked on consumables, not unlike a cellphone contract. This is also why Epson engineers a few tricks into the mechanism to make sure you keep buying their own cartridges. Once you've removed an ink cartridge for example, it cannot be reinserted. The sole reason for this is to keep you from committing the sin of refilling the cartridge with third-party ink. Also, the printer is programmed to stop operating if any one of the four cartridges is low; you are not allowed to make your own decision whether to continue with black-only use for documents for example.

I don't know about you, but I find these marketing manipulations a bit offensive. The low initial price of the printer is misleading. Serious users of inkjet photos would be better off buying a better quality and more durable model. Over time, its higher cost is overshadowed by the cost of the ink anyway. Not only ink but high end photo paper is expensive; about a dollar per 8 ½ x 11 sheet. Taking into account that you may print a photo more than once to get it perfect, this is is not a cheap process. Better equipment saves paper from do-overs.

An inexpensive all-in-one inkjet like this is intended for households whose workload and usage are light. Most people who do lots of printing don't use inkjets at all. For routine daily text document printing, a small laser printer is a better choice. And for photos, you will get more permanent, less expensive results in the long run by printing on real photo paper (Fuji Crystal) using online services such as Shutterfly, Ritz or even Costco - with no cost for capital equipment and paying just for little bits of materials as you use them. The NX415 is a good match for the home or home office user who needs only occasional color photo printing, occasional document printing, occasional scanning, occasional copying, nothing to overstress the flimsy construction. Perhaps it would be placed with a computer you use only part time. Here's a rule of thumb; if you replace the ink cartridges on this unit more than once a year, it is not such a good deal.

I set the printer up and performed some color and black-and-white copies; this does not require a computer. Results were good and color copying was surprisingly accurate, close to the original with only a bit less contrast. For example this would be just right for copying a few old photos from grandma's album to give to other family members.

Scanning worked fine and the Epson scanning software for my MacBook with OS 10.6 operated smoothly. As an experiment, I tried scanning a small object - a steel ruler - at the highest resolution, 9600 dpi. This worked essentially as a microscope, giving a highly detailed magnified scan - quite fun and great for your kids' science projects!

Printing color digital images onto good quality Epson photo paper produced variable but sometimes lovely results with bright, soft colors and good skin tones. Overall the images lacked snap and contrast; they were not the very best I have seen from inkjets, but generally good. Also, I had trouble with banding. I adjusted the alignment and cleaned the nozzles in an attempt to eliminate the banding, but was not entirely successful, hence four stars. (Those plastic gears you know.) All of this playing around uses paper and ink.

Bottom line: Although it is probably not durable, I am giving this unit four stars because it does most of what it is advertised to do - printing, copying scanning - with pretty nice results for a price less than taking your girlfriend out to a good restaurant. But consider it a light duty, limited life unit. The consumables are very expensive - once you start replacing cartridges, you have fallen into Epson's marketing trap.Get more detail about Epson Stylus NX415 All-in-One Printer.