Epson’s CX-8300 is the company’s latest offering for the multifunction inkjet segment. It features a fast print engine (rated up to 30ppm in draft mode) and a four cartridge system. Most vendors promote separate color ink tank printers for better cost effectiveness and Epson is going down this route for many of its new printers. Like many photo printers nowadays, the Epson CX-8300 comes with a 2.5 inch LCD display which allows users to preview their images or perform minor editing functions (like cropping) prior to printing.
The Epson CX-8300 supports resolution of up to 5,760 by 1,440 dots per inch (dpi). This is of course dependent on the type of media used. Most users however, end up using normal A4 paper or at most generic glossy photo paper to print color documents and photos so resolutions this highly used usually don’t matter. The scanner takes up to A4-sized has an optical resolution of 1,200 by 2,400 dpi with 48-bit colour input support. The built-in multi-format card reader accepts nearly all types of cards (some needing special adaptors) so users will have no problems plugging in their cards. A USB port is also available for connecting PictBridge-capable cameras to the printer for direct output.
The Epson CX-8300 has a 120-sheet paper input tray for A4 paper (64g/m2). It also accepts a wide variety of media from envelopes to photo paper. There’s no dedicated photo paper tray so users have to swap the A4 paper out if they need to print photos.
In our lab tests, the Epson CX-8300 managed to output black and white pages at a speed of around 23ppm while A4 color pages took about 5.2 seconds (11.5ppm). This varies slightly from the rated specifications, but this isn’t surprising as our own test templates no doubt differ from the vendor’s own. 4R borderless photos take about 1 minute 27 seconds to print which is comparable with most photo printers nowadays. Copying a color document takes around 16.3 seconds while a black and white document consumes half that time. Scanning documents is extremely fast and hassle-free which is good for creating soft copies of your documents for storage.
The Epson CX-8300 is very easy to use, thanks to its LCD screen and a rather intuitive interface. The display is rather pixelated, but even then it is better than not having one. The printers is also very silent so it can be used anywhere in in the home. Performance-wise, it is quite fast especially for monochrome prints and document scanning. Color printing is acceptable but quality depends very much on the paper used. If you’re looking for a very capable, multi-function printer, give the Epson CX-8300 a closer look.
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