Epson Stylus C62
The Stylus C62 prints text and graphics quickly but burns through ink.
Dan Littman
WHAT'S HOT: The Stylus C62 demonstrates impressive print speed considering its modest $99 price. Lexmark's Z55se Color Jetprinter and Canon's I850 Photo Printer beat its text speed of 6.2 pages per minute--but both cost more. The C62's 1.6-ppm speed for printing graphics is the fastest time of all the general-purpose printers we tested.
Our print-quality jury liked the C62's glossy photo prints, which looked detailed and realistic. Epson provides a clear set-up poster, a good manual for using the printer, a detailed on-screen reference guide, and some on-screen animations that show how to maintain the unit. In addition, as you choose settings in the driver, you can open a window that displays a summary of all the settings you've selected.
WHAT'S NOT: Though the C62 costs only $99, you'll pay a lot to keep it running: Black ink costs approximately 7.1 cents per page of text. And color ink runs 17.1 cents for a page of graphics. Color and black cartridges are $30 each.
The C62's prints--except for photos--don't look great. Text appeared slightly grayish and rough around the edges; in our line tests, narrow parallel lines overlapped to give the appearance of wide stripes; and color graphics looked dotted.
WHAT ELSE: Epson's one-year warranty is reasonable--longer than some competitors' warranties. The C62 installed painlessly, with each step going exactly as the instructions said it would.
UPSHOT: The Stylus C62 provides zippy printing for an affordable price, but home users might be wary of its steep ink prices and mediocre text quality.
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