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Epson Stylus Photo R380

76

Good
  • Pros
  • Prints on CD/DVD media
  • Nice photo output quality
  • Cons
  • Disappointing plain-paper print quality
  • Confusing CD/DVD printing process
  • Pricing: Average: $130 (3/20/2008)
  • Performance: Fair: 68
  • Features: Good: 78
  • Design: Very Good: 84
Find out how these four scores, and their relative weights, combine to produce the PC World Rating.

Pricing

Average: $130

Performance

Fair: 68
Text Printing (Plain Paper, Normal Settings)
Tested Text Speed (ppm) 3.9 
Three-Page Word Document (secs) 54.73 
Ten-Page Word Document (secs) 199.7 
Text Output Quality Fair 
Color Printing (Plain Paper, Normal Settings)
Tested Color Speed (ppm) 2.9 
Two-Page Excel Document (secs) 44.05 
One-Page Webpage (secs) 24.77 
4 by 6 Color Photo (secs) 14.72 
Color Output Quality Fair 
Color Photo Printing (Glossy Paper, Best Settings)
Tested Glossy Photo Speed (ppm) 1.3 
Sports Action Shot (secs) 44.79 
Color Photo Quality Very Good 
Grayscale Printing (Plain Paper, Normal Settings)
Tested Grayscale Speed (ppm) 3.9 
4 by 6 Grayscale Photo (secs) 15.32 
Grayscale Output Quality Fair 
Lineart Printing (Plain Paper, Best Settings)
Tested Lineart Speed (ppm) 3.1 
300dpi Line Art Image (secs) 19.48 
Line Art Output Quality Poor 

Features

Good: 78
Dimensions
Dimensions 17.7-by-16.3-by-8.3 
Weight (pounds) 15.7 
Vendor Rated Speeds
B&W Pages per Min. B&W PPM:30 
Color Pages per Min. Color PPM:30 
Resolutions
Max. B&W dpi 5760-by-1440 
Max. Color dpi 5760-by-1440 
Language & Emulation
Printer Emulation Type ESC/P Raster 
Interfaces
Parallel Port No 
Serial Port No 
USB 1.1 Yes 
USB 2.0 Yes 
Ethernet No 
Media Card Readers CompactFlash, Memory Stick, SD Card, xD-Picture Card 
PictBridge Yes 
Other Interfaces Bluetooth optional 
Drivers
Macintosh Yes 
Windows 98 Yes 
Windows NT No 
Windows 2000 Yes 
Windows XP Yes 
Linux No 
Power
Maximum Power Draw (watts) 17 
Standby Power Draw (watts) 4.5 
Multifunction Printer Specs
Fax Memory (pages) 0 
Paper Handling
Number of Input Trays, Standard 1 
Number of Input Trays, Maximum 1 
Tray Capacity, pages 120 
Maximum Sheets With Optional Paper Trays 120 
Manual Feed Slot Yes 
Maximum Paper Size Banner 
Output Tray Capacity 0 
Auto Duplexer No 
Warranty & Support
Labor Warranty (years) One 
Parts Warranty (years) One 
Weekday Support Hours 12 
Saturday Support Hours 0 
Sunday Support Hours 0 
Toll-Free Support No 
Vendor-Supplied Data (in Pages)
Monthly Duty Cycle 0 
Bundled Items
Included Hardware CD/DVD print tray 
Included Software ArcSoft PhotoImpression 5, Epson Web to Page 
Reliability & Service
Summary of results for all of brand's products in this category Epson didn't make a great showing overall. Readers weren’t pleased with the reliability of Epson’s printers, and the vendor’s support received average to low marks. One bright spot: the company's printers have relatively fewer out-of-box problems. 
Reliability of brand's products in this category
Reports of products arriving with problems Better than Average 
Reports of products with any significant problems Average 
Reports of problems that render a product unusable Average 
Buyers' rating of products ease-of-use Average 
Overall satisfaction with reliability of brand's products in category Worse than Average 
Service & Support Quality
Time spent holding for phone support Average 
Overall quality of vendor's phone support Average 
Reports of problems unresolved after contacting service Worse than Average 
Overall quality of service Worse than Average 

Design

Very Good: 84
About the Test Center

Epson Stylus Photo R380 Review

by Melissa Riofrio

- Epson's Stylus Photo R380 offers photo features galore, plus a cool bonus: CD/DVD printing. Are these features worth the trade-offs of mediocre print speed and indifferent plain-paper print quality? Some users will think so.

Read Complete Review »

User Reviews for Epson Stylus Photo R380

  • Reviewed by: dlauber

    Duration of ownership: 3 Months

    Strengths: Brilliant colors, faster color printing than previous Epson units, prints directly on CDs/DVDs, networkable including via print server, uses long-lasting ink

    Weaknesses: It's an inkjet, so it swallows ridiculously expensive ink. When printing on CDs or DVDs, you must allow 24 hours for the ink to dry before playing the disc (not 30 minutes as the PC World review suggests).

    Overall Evaluation: After years of using the Epson Color Stylus C80, the R380 was like a revelation. Now, I'm no fan of inkjet printing -- our primary printer is a Ricoh Aficio CL4000DN, a color laser with extremely low cost of ownership compared to the color lasers that HP, Xerox, and the other big names produce -- but the R380 is as good as it gets for a low-cost inkjet printer. While I use our color laser for business and all text printing, the R380 serves its purpose well for printing photographs and CDs/DVDs. One of its best features is the R380's ability to easily print on inkjet printable CDs and DVDs so you don't need to apply labels anymore (saving 50 cents or more per CD). The process was far easier than I expected and the results very professional looking -- in fact my wife can't tell the difference; my homegrown compilation CDs look like they were produced professionally. I've been pleasantly surprised by how much faster the R380 prints than my previous Epson inkjets and by the much high quality of color printing. While it is disappointing how Epson gouges consumers with its excessive prices on ink cartridges, the pricing is no worse than the rest of the industry. Better yet, the ink will last long beyond our lifetimes. All in all, if you need an inkjet printer for photos and/or CD/DVD labeling, the Epson R380 does the job extremely well and easily. And it works on networks, even via a print server. Now if Epson and everybody could just stop gouging us on ink.... but that's a dreamworld, isn't it?

  • Reviewed by: cbentcb

    Duration of ownership:

    Strengths: prints very well on cd/ dvd

    Weaknesses: Quality on photos are not as good as some other s

    Overall Evaluation: Overall, a great printer for all roun printing. For printing on dvd this printer excels, however photo quality can be a little better. Great option in the photo print without a computer.

See all user reviews

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