Mixed feelings...
Written: Jan 23 '03
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Pros: Fast, no jamming, inexpensive ink, inexpensive PRINTER for that matter
Cons: Sucks your ink cartridges dry
The Bottom Line: Can't recommend it; I did like it back then at some times though. Some days I'd hate it and some day's I'd love it!
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| midknight2k3's Full Review: Epson Stylus® Color 740 InkJet Printer |
MY STORY
This story comes from a long time ago, but you’ll make do, I’m sure. It was way back when in about 2000 when my HP DeskJet 612C died. After spending $30 calling HP, waiting on hold, I found it’d be about $50 for them to fix this problem. This made me insane. Why pay $50 to fix up an old piece of crap printer when a new one is only a few bucks more? It was old, anyways; it’s time had come. I stuck it in storage for dissection later (ha-ha). Right away the Epson Color 740 popped into my head. At about $79, it had 1440x720DPI and fast print speeds. I had seen these before, and I remember them being pretty nice. I was right, basically. They’re cool to have if you can afford the maintenance.
GETTING IT OUT OF THE BOX/SOFTWARE INSTALL
Although the box isn’t very heavy, the printer is slightly more than I expected. I pulled it out of the box and set it where my old HP had hit the hay. After plugging in the Parallel port, and turning on the computer, I do remember the OS saying I was installing a new printer. Following Epson’s instructions, I clicked Cancel and inserted the included CD to install the drivers. After a tiny bit of confusion with what to do, I finally figured it out. You have to open the CD directory and go into Drivers, then click Setup. This was not mentioned in the manual. I was pretty excited at this point. After the software installation, I learned the truth about the Stylus Color 740.
PROBLEM(S) ON ARRIVAL
After everything settled down, a problem* occurred. The printer was only printing in blue ink! Frantically, I pushed the Head Clean button, hoping for a quick save. This did not help. After performing two more head cleanings, I returned it to Circuit City and had a replacement come home with me. After all was working correctly, the printer’s problem* started AGAIN! This time, only green ink was coming out! I could not believe it. I marched it into Circuit City, slammed it down and asked for yet another replacement. When I got this new one home, it appeared trouble-free. For this it stayed a while, then it messed up again. Frustrated, I replaced the ink cartridges. This fixed the problem.
*This ‘problem’ was later found to be the Epson sucking down ink like a fish.
COSTLY COSTS
This printer is COSTLY. There is no other way to put it. Sure, the ink cartridges are only $25.99, but they are replaced so often, it makes not a hair of a difference. You basically have to change them after nearly every document! That is of course exaggerating a little, but it’s outrageous! Also, most of the ink isn’t even used, and I’ll tell you why. Every 3-5 days (approx), the printer forces you to clean the print head. Cleaning the print head causes it to drain about 1/12 of the way or so. They give you no option. It’ll just HAPPEN! When you click print, the printer will get ready and then do its head cleaning thing, and then print the document. This is just ridiculous. “No, my print heads do not need to be cleaned. They are not clogged, not dirty and not damaged!!” This problem alone will cost you dearly. Be prepared to spend a TREMENDOUS amount of $$ trying to get the thing to work.
PRINT QUALITY
The print quality, on a lighter note, is very acceptable. This was my very first ‘Photo-quality’ printer. I had never seen such a rich picture that I printed! They even include some nice glossy photo paper to let you test the printer’s capabilities. The dots are nearly invisible, the color tones were accurate by my eyes, and the speeds were also acceptable! Although it took about 2-3 minutes, for me it was worth the great output.
JAMMING
This printer has an excellent top-feeding mechanism that never, ever jams. I never had a single paper jam for it's entire one-point-five years of use on my desk. Not EVER. This would make a good choice for work, because of it's excellent quality for the speed and also because there is no time spent clearing jams! As a matter of fact, it is a business-oriented printer...
DRIVERS
The Epson has some nice drivers to go with it. Please try to bear with me here, since this printer is long gone and all I have is memories of the software. You had lots of options, and a nice quality slider. The quality slider went like this:
360DPI (draft)
720DPI (normal)
720DPI (fine)
1440DPI (fine)
Plus, you had other quality options like MicroWeave and smoothing options. Also, there was an 180DPI EconoPrint that was lightning quick and conserved the ink well. I do have some fond memories of the printer, though.
CONCLUSION
There is no way on earth that I could recommend this printer to a friend – there’s much better things nowadays. Though I did like it at some points, it was not the printer for me. Back then, I didn’t have the money that this printer eats. It’s ridiculous how much ink it drank, but then it still was good. I do sort of miss it, but now all is well with my HP DeskJet 932C. I still have it in storage, maybe one day I’ll pull it out, dust it off…
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 79.99
Operating System: Windows
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Epinions.com ID:
midknight2k3
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Member: Zakk
Location: Seattle, WA
Reviews written: 40
Trusted by: 13 members
About Me:
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