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More…Epson's PictureMate Dash may look like a glorified lunch box, but it delivers where it counts. It's fast and very easy to use; it prints good-looking photos; and best of all, its consumables are well priced.
Epson PictureMate Dash
Pricing
$175.99 - $199.64 From 9 Vendors Get Best Prices »
- Spec Navigator
- Media Handling
- Network
- Connectivity
- Platform Support
- Dimensions
- General Features
- Green
- Included Hardware
- Included Software
- Resolutions
- Scanning
- Faxing
Media Handling
| Manual Feed Slot | Yes |
| Maximum Number of Input Trays | 1 |
| Maximum paper size, height | 6.0 inches |
| Maximum Sheets With All Paper Trays | 20 |
| Output Tray Capacity | 20 |
| Standard Number of Input Trays | 1 |
| Maximum paper size, width | 4 inches |
| Standard input sheet capacity | 20 |
| Duplex printing | No |
PCWorld Rating, October 6, 2009
4 User Reviews Add your own »
$175.99 - $199.64
From 9 Vendors
Get Best Prices »
- Lab Tested
- How We Test Printers »
Pros
Fast; large, tiltable LCD
Reasonable cost per print
Cons
Photos look universally pale
Bottom Line
This bulky printer produces nice-looking photos quickly, easily, and at a good price.
Epson PictureMate Dash
PictureMate Dash Review, by Melissa Riofrio, PC World October 22, 2007
The boxy unit's lid protects the LCD and control panel when it's closed; when it's open, it acts as the input tray. Push gently on the front panel to make it fall open as the output tray (and reveal the two media slots for most major formats). A PictBridge-compatible USB port is on the back. The control panel consists mostly of a plastic membrane with flat buttons that are marked with icons and clear, plain-English labels. The centrally located navigation buttons are more traditionally mechanical and also clearly marked. The 5-pound printer has a handle for toting to parties. An optional battery costs $50.
The large (3.6-inch), tiltable LCD makes it easy to view and manipulate photos. Settings and prompts display along the margins of your image. Push the menu button, and you can navigate clearly written options on screen. Along with common layout tools and red-eye reduction, you'll find options for changing color photos to monochrome or sepia tones, and for adding decorations, preset phrases, or dialogue bubbles.
Photos we printed on the PictureMate Dash came out quicker than the competing models we tested at the same time, averaging 1.5 pages per minute; the other models' speeds ranged from 0.5 ppm to 1.4 ppm. The Dash's output looked good, too. Although the palette was universally pale, this had the advantage of showing more detail in dark areas. Edges looked slightly short of crisp.
The cost per print is an inexpensive 26 cents (based on the $40 PictureMate Print Pack for 150 4-by-6-inch glossy photos). Epson sells its ink and paper in combination packs and guarantees that the inks will last through the last printed page. The fully self-contained, four-color ink cartridge looks like a big candy bar and fits easily into a rear bay.
Installing the printer on a PC was painless. Epson bundles ArcSoft PhotoImpression, a full-featured application for managing and manipulating photos.
The documentation for the PictureMate Dash is excellent. The printed "Basics" guide covers all the features as well as PC installation; it even shows how to perform simple, primary tasks using Windows' photo-viewing utility. An on-screen guide is also exhaustively detailed.
The PictureMate Dash offers a lot for the money: high speed, good print quality, and an intuitive interface. Other snapshot printers might be sleeker or yield a more vivid palette, but the PictureMate Dash balances all its attributes well, making it a great overall value.
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PCWorld Lab Results
- Rating Breakdown
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90
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77
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89
- See Complete Lab Results »
Performance Comparison with Similar Printers
90
91
74
74
Performance
| Color Output Quality | n/a |
| Color Photo Quality | Good |
| Copy Output Quality | n/a |
| Copy Quality | n/a |
| Grayscale Glossy Output Quality | Very Good |
| Grayscale Output Quality | n/a |
| Landscape (secs) | 40.75 |
| Line Art Output Quality | n/a |
| Overall Scan Quality | n/a |
| Skin Tones/Portrait (secs) | 39.35 |
| Tested Glossy Grayscale Photo Speed (ppm) | 1.5 |
| Tested Glossy Photo Speed (ppm) | 1.5 |
| Text Output Quality | n/a |
Photo Printing
| Sports action shot (seconds) | 38.82 |
Grayscale Printing
| 4 by 6 grayscale photo (seconds) | 40.15 |
Text Printing
| Text output quality | n/a |
User Reviews
Review Now! Already own it? Tell us What You Think
User Reviews From Around the Web
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Reviewed by: jaev3
Strengths: Easy to use, compact, great picture quality, and VERY fast too. The built-in screen is nice and very big. Set up and printing in about 15 minutes. Print packs can print more than specified.
Weaknesses: Wished it could pring 5 x 7 (but that's just me - most people are happy with 4 x 6).
Overall: This is a super-compact, easy to use, photo-dedicated printer. For it's size, it seems like it'll be able to accept 5 x 7 paper, but it doesn't. Max (only) paper size is 4 x 6. Which is good enough for most people, I think. But I just wish it had an option for both 4 x 6 and 5 x 7 prints. Either way - great printer. Awesome for the price. This is my second Epson photo printer (the other being a PM240), and they both seem to have the same performance in terms of picture quality and speed. Great pictures comes out very fast. Print packs can print more than specified, bringing the cost per print down a bit (~20-30 cents per copy), which I think it very worth it. I would buy again in a heartbeat. Take my review with caution though - I have not had experience with any other photo-dedicated printers, Epsons. But the quality of it made me happy - so no need to look elsewhere for me.
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Reviewed by: millnbill
Strengths: Easy to use, large LCD screen, excellent photo quality
Weaknesses: None
Overall: Very pleased with printer. Found extremely easy to use and exceptional photo quality. Cropping and editing was easy and very fast printing. Menu walks you through all options. Can print more than one photo on 4X6 sheet. Good portability. Would definitely recommend.
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Reviewed by: dkiwon
Strengths: Great photo quality, quick printing, so easy to use, lots of built-in features
Weaknesses: Price per print is somewhat high
Overall: I've had this printer now for a week or so and I bought it for my wife so that she could easily print pictures. We got it home and within 5 minutes we had printed a few photos. The photo quality is great - really hard to tell the difference between those printed at home and those that you would get from a photo lab.The photos came out lightening quick - 30 seconds or so.There are so many features built-in to edit photos - we just used basic cropping, but you can print b&w, sepia, do color correction, sharpening, brightening, etc. It's really amazing how simple to use yet powerful this printer is.It's also very compact and doesn't take up any space at all. Finally, the screen to view photos is relatively large and produces a clear display.
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Reviewed by: cyndilouwhoo
Strengths: Speed, Overall Good Print Quality
Weaknesses: Notice I didn't say "superb" Print Quality
Overall: I bought this printer as a camera companion for my two snap-happy young daughters and frankly I wasn't expecting a lot--but looks can be deceiving--and the Epson Dash delivers in surprising ways. Simple to learn to operate with intuitive controls and one of the most refreshingly clear and simple operations manuals out there, the Dash is a speedy little workhorse that does what it claims-print photos quickly and for the most part very well. Although there is a little more color "bleed" than I would like observed in the finished photos, I have to say the quality is better than some of the more expensive models I have used and I have no hesitancy recommending this for photos on the fly. It even has a handy carrying handle for those myspace marathon sleepovers tweens like to attend. Weighing only 5 pounds it travels easily and well. If you are looking for reliable above average quality in a photo printer, don't turn your nose up at the Epson. It's a pleasant surprise in a boxy little package.
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