Just when we thought multi-function printers had gone about as far as they could, Epson has come up with the Stylus Photo RX640.
Aimed at the photo printer market, it can also scan slides and negatives, as well as printing directly onto CDs and DVDs.
The RX640 includes a memory card reader above the output tray, which can handle all common formats.
The scanner has a removable insert in the lid, which reveals a top light to scan transparencies or negative strips, with a holder for both provided.
The control panel is well laid out, and its bright display means the RX640 can also be operated without being attached to a PC, with preview images able to be viewed or printed for a quick overview of the contents of a camera or memory card.
When connected to a PC, it can scan pages, prints and slides and print disc designs directly to suitably coated blank CDs and DVDs. Doing so involves flicking a lever at the front of the machine and slotting in a carrier with the blank disc in place.
In our tests, photo prints came out well, with the six inks – light cyan and light magenta added to the regular four – delivering true colours. Plain paper print quality wasn’t quite so good, and text looked a bit more ragged than usual from this class of printer. Copying coloured pages from the scanner produced much lighter copies and some colour shifts.
Print speeds were what we would expect; a five-page text document took a shade under two minutes, a mixed text and colour graphics page took 34 seconds and a 6” x 4” photo took just over two minutes.
Running costs are reasonable, as the ink cartridges are separate, and our only reservation with the RX640 is the copy quality from the scanner.
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