Epson Stylus NX400 All-in-One Printer - Print Quality and Speed
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I was very impressed with the quality of prints that I got with the NX400. I tested a variety of photo prints on different sizes of photo paper, and they all turned out great. Colors looked vivid and accurate, and I didn't notice any streaking or banding on any of the photos. Using Epson's Ultra Premium Photo Paper worked best for photo printing. I also tried printing text documents and graphic documents with equally impressive results.
The NX400 uses a print head technology that distributes the ink droplets in three different sizes, which produces HD-quality photos up to 5760 x 1440 dpi resolution. I saw the same technology when I reviewed the Epson Artisan 800, and it produces very impressive-looking photos – better than most “pharmacy” photo labs in my opinion. The 4-color ink (CMYK) worked well, although it was understandably slightly less accurate than 6-color ink printers. Most 6-color ink printers cost 3x more than the NX400, so you need to consider that when shopping for a photo printer.
The DuraBrite Ultra ink that is used in the NX400 is probably the best quality ink that I've ever seen. This ink is smudge-resistant, waterproof, and resists fading. Epson claims a shelf-life for photo prints of over 100 years – much longer than other inks. Prints were dry to the touch immediately, even ink-heavy photos and graphic documents.
The NX400 blows away the competition when it comes to print speeds. Epson claims print speeds up to 34 pages per minute (ppm) for black and color text documents. My tests confirmed these numbers, but keep in mind these numbers reflect printing in “Draft” mode, which is the lowest quality print setting.
Epson claims 4 x 6 inch photo prints take as little as 26 seconds to print – very fast! My tests were in the 25-30 second range for most 4 x 6 inch prints. When it comes to printing photos, this printer is ultra-fast when compared to its competition in the $100 price range, and even as fast as printers costing 3x or 4x as much!
Overall, I found both print quality and print speed to be among the best in its class. It will print accurate, colorful photos fast, and they last longer than most prints you'd get from your neighborhood photo lab. Printing text and graphic documents, such as Excel or Word documents, was equally impressive in terms of image quality and speed.
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