Epson Stylus CX5200

Review & Test Epson Stylus CX5200 Dated 15th May 2003 By TheComputerGuys@BHReviews.Co.Uk

The EPSON Stylus CX5200 is a new All-in-One printer, scanner and copier. A one-stop home or home office printing and copying solution. It has high speed standalone colour copying capability, with no need to power up your computer, for high quality, fast, colour copies. Based on the latest inkjet and scanner technology from EPSON. The Stylus CX5200 benefits from DURABrite inks, 4 separate ink cartridges and high speed, high resolution printing and scanning.

KEY FEATURES
EPSON New DURABrite ink - amazing performance on plain and recycled papers plus excellent photo results on glossy paper.
Perfect plain paper prints.
Fade resistant photo’s up to 70 years*
Waterproof and smudge proof, tested in the bathroom by yours truly.
High-speed standalone colour copy solution, perfect for that approaching deadline.
High quality 1200dpi, 48-bit scanning, fast and almost silent.
Fast 22ppm black text printing in useable draft mode.
Money saving separate ink cartridges.
High quality up to 5760 optimised dpi.
EPSON Smart Panel helps make scanning the simplest of tasks.
No cable clutter
Space saving. one case instead of three.
Easy to use
Faster paper loading and time to first print.
Clear, simple LCD panel for operation without a PC.
Simultaneous printing and scanning possible.

PRINT

The EPSON Stylus CX5200 uses the new EPSON DURABrite ink technology. Offering durable and lightfast prints. DURABrite inks are fade resistant up to 70 years*, see bottom of page for technical specification of light fastness. These are resistant to water and smudge proof. Developed specifically to offer almost laser sharp performance in black and vibrant colour, reproduction even on plain or recycled paper. Printer testing showed that Epson have got their sums just right. Print quality on premium plain paper was the best I had ever seen. The draft function produced readable text at a very fast rate.

EPSON Speed, Quality and Simplicity.
The EPSON Stylus CX5200 offers high speed printing at up to 22ppm in black draft mode and 11ppm colour in draft mode - with inks dry as soon as they leave the printer. With 5760 optimised dpi resolution, the EPSON Stylus CX5200 produces crisp, dense blacks, vibrant colours and high photo quality printing.

Advanced driver flexibility.
The printer driver offers more on-screen information than ever. Ink levels can be monitored, beginners can adjust basic settings or experienced users can access a variety of advanced controls. The are 5 print settings to choose from draft, text, text and images, photo and best photo. The paper choices are plain paper, bright white ink jet paper, photo quality ink jet paper, matte paper-heavy weight, double sided matte paper, archival matte paper, photo paper, glossy paper - photo weight, premium semi gloss photo paper and ink jet transparencies.

Intelligent ink cartridges.
The EPSON Stylus CX5200 utilises separate Intellidge cartridges for each of the four colours. Enhanced feedback with accurate ink level monitoring keeps you fully informed, and re-closable valves allow partially used cartridges to be removed and replaced at a later date - say when a full one is needed for a large print run. This printer has just 3 colour inks plus black and should not be seen as a photo printer. However results show that it can produce satisfactory results that can only be bettered by 6 and 7 colour printers, such as Epson's own Photo Stylus 2100.

SCAN

High quality, 1200dpi scanning.
The built-in high quality 1200x2400dpi scanner gives you the power to capture documents, photos and an almost infinite range of other business materials or family keepsakes in accurate detail and rich 48-bit colour. EPSON Smart Panel software provides a host of user-friendly tools and shortcuts that automatically chooses the correct scanning parameters for optimum copying, scanning and photo printing activities. A number of options are available via the easy-to-follow on-screen control panel: The scanner is very fast and almost silent.

• Photo Print - Scan, print in various formats
• E-Mail/Fax - Scan, send as an e-mail or fax via your PC
• OCR - Scan documents as editable text
• Copy - Scan, copy
• Application - Scan to chosen application
• Creativity - Scan to photo editing software
• Scan to Web - scan, upload images to
Internet albums via Epson's Photo Sharing
website: www.epsonphoto.co.uk

COPY

Advanced standalone copy solution
The EPSON Stylus CX5200 is a high-speed standalone copy solution, with an intuitive LCD interface for PC-less copying. Advanced standalone copying and page layout options are available that mimic the functions of a real photocopier - without powering up your PC. The scanner is almost silent during use.

Test results, all print modes are useable			300 dpi scan of Windows printer test image, click on image for full size copy.
Print speed, single page time to spool and complete print job, windows printer test page.
1: Draft	16 seconds colour (13s black ink)	Plain Paper
2: Text	22 seconds colour (18s black ink)	Plain Paper
3: Text + Images	54 seconds colour (28s black ink)	Plain Paper
4: Photo	2 minutes 6 seconds colour (55s black ink)	Plain Paper
5: Best Photo	4 minutes 10 seconds colour (1m 55s black ink)	Plain Paper
6: Best Photo	4 minutes 44 seconds colour	Glossy Photo Paper

Excellent print and colour reproduction on plain paper.

Colour and print quality test, printed on Epson Premium Plain Paper at Draft setting and scanned at 300dpi.

Colour and print quality test, printed on Epson Premium Plain Paper at Text setting and scanned at 300dpi.

Colour and print quality test, printed on Epson Premium Plain Paper at Text + Image setting and scanned at 300dpi.

Colour and print quality test, printed on Epson Premium Plain Paper at Photo setting and scanned at 300dpi.

Colour and print quality test, printed on Epson Premium Plain Paper at Best Photo setting and scanned at 300dpi

Colour and print quality test, printed on Epson Premium Semi Gloss Photo Paper at Best Photo setting and scanned at 300dpi.

Epson CX5200

High Resolution Printing

Highest setting print test, reproduced on Epson semi glossy photo paper at Best Photo setting and scanned at 600 dpi. Click on image to see full size. For comparison we have included an image from Epson's own 875DC printer. As you can see the Epson CX5200 using the latest DURABrite ink has produced a sharper image with higher resolution than the Epson 875DC at the expense of a slight dulling of the colours.

Epson 875DC

Problems with to much noise!

Unfortunately the Epson CX5200 suffers from a very noisy and annoying paper feed mechanism, which produces a surprisingly loud racket as the paper is pulled into the printer. Due to this noise pollution I can only recommend this printer for use in an office environment. Home users should be aware of the problem, you would not wish to use this printer if a child was sleeping in the next room or if someone was trying to watch TV. This is a shame as it is the only real fault of this printer, that said Epson tell us that just over 80% of sales have gone to office users where this is not a problem.

Our Verdict

Problems with this printer are the amount of noise it makes when pulling paper into the printer. The printing process itself is reasonably quite. The scanner is fast, accurate and as near to silent as makes no difference. We did see a very slight colour shift on some scans, but this was only noticeable when using colour targets. The supplied software worked well, but was a pain to install. Our test computer failed to see the CX5200, apparently this was because of the USB hub on the motherboard. We installed a PCI/USB card to work round this problem. The scanner software would not work with our Windows XP Pro system as apparently once you update Windows XP with service pack one, it becomes unable to see the scanner. This was fixed by downloading a Microsoft patch for DVD driver! Strange but true.

Both the prints, scans and copies the CX5200 produced were satisfactory, indeed the resolution obtainable with plain paper was nothing short of amazing. Providing you are aware of the paper feed noise problem, this would make an excellent office printer/scanner/copier. Users of this printer will also find that they can use it as a photo printer. The results when used as such are very good. Only when compared directly with Epson's own Photo Stylus 2100 prints would you wish you had purchased a dedicated photo printer.

For

Fast, reliable, accurate printing & scanning, plus copying at an affordable price in an all in one unit. can serve as a photo printer.

Against

Paper feed noise
Initial installation problems

Technical Specifications Epson Part number: C11C496032

PRINT FUNCTION

Print Technology EPSON Micro Piezo™
4 colour separate cartridge system
DURABrite Ink
Print Quality Up to 5760 optimised dpi using
RPM* (Resolution Performance
Management)
* On selected media
Print Speed Approx. 22ppm - A4 black text document (Economy Mode)
Approx. 11ppm - A4 colour text document (Economy Mode)
Approx 4ppm - A4 text & colour graphics document (Normal Mode)
Approx 155 seconds to print 8x10'' bike image (Photo Mode)

COPY FUNCTION

Copy Speed Approx. 15cpm - A4 black text document (Economy mode)
Approx. 5cpm - A4 colour text document (Economy Mode)
Standalone Copier Usability LCD Control Panel
Independent Menu, Copies/Value Buttons
Number of copies 1-99
Reduce/Enlarge: 25 to 400%
AutoFit Function
Margin Modes: Reduced, Standard
Copy Modes: Standard, Repeat, 2-up, 4-up

SCAN FUNCTION

Scan Technology Scanner Type: A4, Flatbed, Single Pass Image Scanner
CCD Details: 3 line CCD
Scan Quality Optical resolution 1200x2400dpi
48-bit in, 24-bit out
Scanning Speed (600dpi) Monochrome: 4.6msec/Line
Colour: 8.4msec/Line

OTHER SPECIFICATIONS

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

Options & Consumables

Operating System
Compatibility Microsoft® Windows® 98, 2000, ME, XP
Macintosh® OS 8.6 or higher
Interface USB
Ink Cartridges Black: T0321
Capacity: 1240 A4 pages, 3.5% coverage
Cyan: T0422
Magenta: T0423
Yellow: T0424
Capacity: 420 A4 pages, 5% coverage
General Dimensions (w x d x h): 453 x 434 x 254mm
Weight: 9.0Kg
Noise Level: 46db(A) (ISO 7779)
Power consumption: 23W (ISO 10561) pattern
Regulations CE Directive 89/336/EEC and 73/23/EEC
ENERGY STAR Compliant

Minimum Windows 98/ME/2000/XP: Pentium 233MHz; 64MB RAM; 200MB HDD Space
Macintosh OS 8.6: PowerPC G3; 128MB RAM; 200MB HDD Space
Macintosh OS X 10.1 or later: PowerPC G3; 128MB RAM; 200MB HDD Space
Recommended Windows 98/ME/2000: Pentium 233MHz; 64MB RAM; 550MB HDD Space
Windows XP: Pentium 300MHz; 128MB RAM; 550MB HDD Space
Macintosh OS 9.1: PowerPC G3; 128MB RAM; 550MB HDD Space
Macintosh OS X 10.1 or later: PowerPC G3; 256MB RAM; 550MB HDD Space

Warranty: 1 year standard warranty
Optional extension to 3 year warranty

Stylus CX5200 Media
Premium Inkjet Plain paper (250 sheet) C13S041214
A4 Bright White Ink Jet Paper (500 sheet) C13S041442
A4 Photo Quality Ink Jet Paper (100 sheet) C13S041061
A4 Photo Paper (20 sheet) C13S041140
A6 Photo Quality Ink Jet Card (50 sheet) C13S041054
A4 Ink Jet Transparencies (30 sheet) C13S041063
A4 Matte Paper - Heavyweight (50 sheet) C13S041256
A4 Premium Semi gloss Photo Paper (20 sheet) C13S041332
A4 Archival Matte Paper (50 sheet) C13S041342
A4 Glossy Paper - Photo Weight (20 sheet) C13S041349
Double-Sided Matte Paper C13S041569
Stylus CX5200 Options
Cover Plus Extended Warranty - Extension to 3 years On Site ECPGRP30
Cover Plus Extended Warranty - Extension to 3 years ECPGRP20
Epson Net 802.11b Wireless External Print Server C12C823972
Stylus CX5200 Consumables
T0321 Black Ink Cartridge C13T032140
T0422 Cyan Ink Cartridge C13T042240
T0423 Magenta Ink Cartridge C13T042340
T0424 Yellow Ink Cartridge C13T042440

*Light fastness Test Criteria (Indoor Display Condition)

Light Source: Fluorescent Light
Intensity: 70,000 lux
Temperature: 24°C
Humidity: 60% RH
Glass Mount: 2mm, soda lime
Fade Criteria: Pure YMC 30% loss at OD=1
Display-life Calculation: Total luminance (500lux x 10 hours x 365 days = 1 year)

For more info go to Epson's own website. www.epson.co.uk

Uk Price about £200