Epson Stylus TX550W Review

13 February 2010 1,373 views No Comment

Received a review set of the Epson Stylus TX550W. An All In One(AIO) machine which is easy to setup and use. Just does what you want and need out of this AIO. Wi-Fi connectivity is what got me attracted and request a review set.

Features

Lets start with a quick reference to the features which most of us will consider before purchasing any printer

1. 2.5” LCD
2. Multi card reader
3. USB, Wi-Fi and Ethernet connectivity
4. Individual ink tanks. 4 colours

The LCD panel can be used to do minor editing like cropping and zooming before printing. You dont even need it to be connected to a PC

More features and specifications on Epson’s site.

Installation

Installation was a straight forward affair on Windows. Just make sure you have the latest and the correct drivers with you. In my case, I tried it on my Windows 7 x64 and it went through smoothly.

I would suggest installing the driver before plugging in your printer to the PC via USB.

Mac users will find installation much easier. Plugin the printer and the Mac will do all the installation by downloading the latest driver automatically. I have tried it and works flawlessly. Again, this is via USB.

WIFI connection

Connecting to my Wireless is simple. Just go the Network Settings Menu and connect to your Wi-Fi. This printer also does Ad-Hoc connection whereby your PC can connect directly to the printer wirelessly instead of through the router.

Mind you that the best available wireless configuration is WPA-PSK. It is sad that there is no WPA2-PSK. It doesn’t matter to me though. Since I keep my Wi-Fi at WPA in order for my older laptops to be able to connect properly. The Wi-Fi light will turn on when successfully connected

Now to the fun part. Printing and Scanning via Wi-Fi.

Under ‘Networks’ in Windows 7, I could see the printer and scanner detected. But we cant do anything with it yet. Yes, the drivers are not set up yet.

Just click on Add Printer under Devices and printers. Select Network printing and Windows will find the printer and install the correct drivers.

Mac users will not find adding the Wireless printer and scanner that straight forward. You will need to install the Mac OS X printer and scan driver(2 downloads).

After which go to your System preferences and add the printer and select “IP” and key in the IP address. The printer name will be auto recognized and proceed to install.

To get the scanner working. You have to access the Utilities folder under Application and click Epson Scan Settings. Add the wireless printer from there and you can scan stuff with the Epson Scan under the Applications folder.

Print and Scan Quality

I don’t have a set standard procedure for testing like what tech magazines do. This is based on what I as a consumer deem to be of quality.

I printed this very blog article and other documents and find the print speed to be equivalent to other printers. If you have more images it is definitely going to take longer obviously. Printing text only files were super fast.

Print quality was good and no smudging was noticed but I cant say that about printing photos on normal paper. It is not acceptable to my standards. You can make out the image but colour quality is pretty bad. Normal charts and bitmap images like icons and clip arts and ok but not photos.

Photo printing on the other hand was good. Yes while printing on 4R sized photo paper. I will not consider it the best for printing photo albums, but reasonable to print and show off your photos to friends and family.

There is nothing much to say about scanning. The quality is great and the speed is good. I don’t really see much difference from my HP scanner. Colour quality of scanned images and great too. Anyway we have software’s to tweak them, so no worries there.

Conclusion

If you cant put the printer near you PC no worries. Just put it somewhere convenient with a power plug nearby of course. Let the wireless do the magic of transferring data to your printer.

This is a great AIO for home and office printing scanning and basic copying needs. Not so much for great quality photo printing though. I am particular about photo qualities so have never trusted any normal printer to do a great job.

With a price tag of S$368, I am wondering who would splash the cash to buy this machine.