Epson RX420 Office Inkjet Cary NC

Rating: 6/10

I have an Epson R300, and I love it. As good as the R300 is, to my thoughts there's something not quite right with the current Epson range. Take for example this RX420 design, which is aimed at the small office print/scan/copy market. It's a relatively light and nimble beast, providing 5750 x 1440 dpi four colour inkjet printing and using only a little desk space. It's also a 1200dpi x 2400dpi 48-bit scanner, and when you put the two features together it's also a copier. As a bonus you also get a multi-card type flash reader, from which the RX420 can print directly without a computer. You don't get a fax, but then that technology isn't high on most people's wish list these days. So on specifications alone it looks great, and for the most part it lives up to the billing. There are a few things that concern me about the design, which come down to a conversation I had with an ink reseller about Epson.

It was his view that they made too many different types of ink cart, and true to form the RX420 has one which is different from other Epson RX inkjets. Why? Can't Epson design a universal cart for four and another for six colour systems? I'm sure that money has something to do with it, but you'd think that it might save them some by streamlining their ink cart production. The other issue is the one I've complained about previously with HP, which is making 'Office' printers which aren't easily networked. This uses USB, which isn't the best connection technology to extend over a network. As for print functionality wise there's not much to gripe about, it produces good quality output at reasonably speed with excellent colour saturation. I'm always amazed by just how good Epson can make four colours look, with only minor hue differences when compared with the six colour R300. The price of £129 is the RRP, with many resellers knocking more than £30 off that, so if you want a decent all-in-one, that seems very reasonable to me. It's not as remotely robust or as fast as the CX series printers, but it's at least half the price. I just wish Epson would stop releasing new cartridge designs with every printer they launch. They will be glad to know that it's better than the HP equivalent, though.

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