There are many options for printers out there, and in truth, they are often the most neglected purchase among customers. Like with any product, printers need to be compared and contrasted in order to find the best deal for your purposes. However, to save time, know that the buck stops here, at the Epson Stylus Photo R2000. This is a highly recommendable machine.
Since the overall review of this machine is going to be positive, the negative aspects of it need to be addressed first. It is actually something of a misnomer to call the negative aspects negative, if not neutral. Firstly, there is no color LCD panel to control the printer. The R2000’s much more expensive high-end cousins provide such a feature, but after all it is not as necessary as the output quality. Secondly, the ink cartridges for the R2000 are smaller than the more expensive machines. Third, there are slight color variations that are so miniscule that it’s difficult to notice.
In addition, Epson has not published, or perhaps they have not researched, how many pages per month could be detrimental to the lifespan of the printer, a piece of information provided by many of their competition. The final negative aspect is that the printer is rather large (although it is typical for this type of printer). When the trays are open, and with 5 inches room left behind the machine for the manual feed, the printer measures 8.6×29.5×31.4 inches.
The R2000, for all its few defaults, is a good machine. With a price tag between $489.53 and $522.30, this printer is the cheapest of Epson’s high-end offerings. The output quality is high, the printer works quickly and it offers features that the professional artist or designer will not only need but appreciate. The price is duly low for the quality the R2000 offers users. Although targeted for professionals, anyone would be attracted to such a sharp printer.
The R2000 can print on cut sheets of paper up to 13 by 19 inches big, and on roll paper of up to 13 by 44 inches. It offers the loading paper path in the front for sheets up to 1.3 millimeters thick. That’s very large. R2000 can also process the high quality fine art pages that higher-end Epson printers can handle.
As for installation and convenience, although the cartridges are smaller than the more expensive printers, both the black ink cartridge meant for glossy paper and that meant for matte paper can be simultaneously loaded, so you don’t have to switch them over every time.
The printer has an Ethernet connection, and also supports Wi-Fi. What’s more, if the user is in a hurry, they can plug their camera directly into the PictBridge input for direct printing.
As mentioned in the beginning, the R2000 is an incredible machine for the price Epson is asking for. It’s worth it.
