Epson Stylus CX3600

I have had this Epson Stylus CX3600 all-in-one printer for just under six months now. I wanted a low budget device that I could use for printing, scanning and photos. It does all these things.

The photos are okay quality so far, but very tricky to setup a correct print because poor driver software seems to cause printer settings to revert to default the next time the printer is used. Given the high cost of photo paper, it does not help that you have to check printer settings thoroughly for every photo you print. So, it is functional but awkward.

General print quality is fine. However, of the different settings available, Economy and Normal are available for blank ink. The in-between Draft quality print setting is only available for a colour print. This is a problem because the Draft print wastes coloured ink, the economy print is very quick, but so light that it is not a good enough standard for sending out as a letter. Then the normal print is just too slow for a simple black and white print. Again, it is necessary to pay very close attention to print settings every time so that it does not switch back to Draft quality or colour print. It just wastes ink otherwise.

Scan quality is fine and the software is okay to use. It is just quite tricky to work out the best resolution to scan in. I had a couple hundred of wedding photos I wanted to scan in and sadly the technology is not good enough to make this a painless and relatively quick process. The last thing you want to do is scan in lots of photos and whatever pictures only to realise later down the line that the default settings are nowhere near good enough for you in order to print out copies whenever you want.

I was somewhat surprised when buying replacement ink cartiridges that the coloured ones were apparently reasonably prices at £8 each, but the black ink was something like £25. Why! It's just black ink!

All in all, this device is acceptable for the price, but only just. It is functionally correct and I would say that it is more the software driving it that lets it down.

I spent a long time looking at reviews of all-in-ones before finally deciding to buy this EPSON. I did not see any reviews of this particular model though. I certainly don't regret my purchase as I have been able to do all the things I wanted to do with it. The problem is that it just requires too much maintenance - checking printer settings for every printout and the cost of replacing the ink. I am sure this device will do for another year or two but next time I will look at making a purchase with an increased budget.