Epson Stylus CX3200

With multifunction devices becoming increasingly affordable, Epson is targeting domestic PC users with a well-built, no-nonsense product.

The Stylus CX3200, its first venture into the arena, is a combination inkjet printer and scanner. It can also be used independently of your PC as a high-quality standalone colour copier.

The machine feeds paper from a back tray at the rear and delivers it to a telescopic catch tray at the front. However, on top of the unit is a full A4 flatbed scanner featuring an optical sampling rate of 600 dots per inch (dpi).

This is not a high figure by today's standards, but it's a decent scanner just the same, and certainly good enough for copying prints to photo paper.

The printer is quoted as producing 5,760dpi output onto glossy paper. While this drops lower for text documents on plain paper, the quality is still as good as any other Epson inkjet.

Clarity isn't quite so perfect when making copies, however, as black text on a colour page tends not to be recognised and so is reproduced in three colours.

This can be adjusted using the control pad and two-line LCD window on top of the unit, although the method for changing settings isn't immediately intuitive.

Epson makes up for this with a fine collection of software and utilities, all of which are very user friendly. No optical character recognition package is included but this is a home user's device, not an office product.

The low price also precludes support for any transparency scanning option.

Our only concern with the machine is the noise it makes when scanning and printing: after the near-silence of some HP devices, the clunks and whirrs of the CX3200 are more than noticeable.

SPECS

• Printer: 5,760dpi optimised; 14ppm mono, 4ppm colour
• Scanner: 600 x 1,200dpi, 48bit colour depth
• USB
• Epson Twain and Smartpanel, Epson Photoquicker, Arcsoft Photoimpression
• 475 x 389 x 235 mm (w x d x h)
• 7.2kg

Price: £149 (£126.81 ex VAT)

Contact: Epson 0800 220 546
www.epson.co.uk