great for text, "decent" otherwise
Written: Dec 21 '01
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Pros: speed, individual ink cartridges, smooth paper feed, text output
Cons: design, bland color output, noise, drivers
The Bottom Line: really terrific text output and speed; mediocre drivers & install; decent, but not great color & photo quality
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| beanbear's Full Review: DocuPrint M750 Printer |
Abstract:
An amazing text printer, the M750 is only a B/B- in the color or photo department. Mediocre drivers and software only further dampen enthusiasm, but since it can be found for $50, it could be a great deal.
Features:
Up to 1200 x 1200, 100 sheet enclosed feeder, USB & Parallel ports, separate ink tanks, Express mode (up to 10ppm).
Design:
Big, bland, and ugly. I'm still not sure why it's so big since the feed & print path is not terribly different than an HP's, but it's quite ungainly. The only visual break you'll get is with the seafoam-blue paper tray.
The build quality is good and sturdy - a definite step up from sub-$100 Canon's, Lexmark's, and Epson's. The ink door closes & opens solidly and the moving parts are all of high quality. None of the paper-thin plastic feed paths I saw in lower Epson's.
Quality, Speed:
Text quality and speed are really remarkable. So much so, I'm still a little surprised. The specs are perfect for someone like a graduate student who needs to regularly print decent quality 50-pg documents quickly. It's one of the few printers that really delivers (and occasionally surpasses) its advertised text print speed.
Photo & color quality are still a little lower. I would have hoped that Xerox's last generation of printer would have had better quality in this realm, but it's still one notch below a comparable Epson and notch-and-a-half below an HP or Canon. Colors tend to feel flat with visible pixelating in transition areas. Prints on photo quality paper look over-saturated.
On the other hand, the separate ink tanks will save you a lot of money in the long haul - and the M750 is supported by many "generic" refill manufacturers.
Drivers, Software:
Bleech. Driver and software install is more convoluted than it should be - you will actually have to follow the directions in the readme.txt instead of just intuitively following your instincts by clicking "install". With my Win2K install, I needed to manually remove a different driver, reboot, manually reinstall a downloaded driver, reboot, finish with my CD, and then reboot again. Easy? Yes. Time-consuming and badly thought-out? Yes, also.
Value:
Though Xerox has pulled out of the consumer printer market, the M750 can still be found at around $50-75 and cartridges will be around for quite some time. At this new lower price, it's awfully hard to beat. Just don't expect easy driver installs, or Epson C80 or HP 9XX quality color or photos.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 47.99
Operating System: Windows and Macintosh
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Epinions.com ID:
beanbear
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Member: B Kim
Location: Chicago, IL
Reviews written: 62
Trusted by: 7 members
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