Home > Consumer Reviews > Epson Stylus R800 Inkjet Colour Photo Printer

When this printer works, it's marvellous - the only problem is that for every ten prints produced, maybe two (at best) are useable. I spend an inordinate amount of time fighting with the cartirdge system in this printer, which is incredibly frustrating. Head and nzzle cleaning eat up a huge amount of ink, and for a full set of Epson cartridges, you're talking £60+! Unless you want to spend a huge amount of money every time you want to print out ten photo quality prints, then forget it!

Avoid this printer like the plague. It gobbles ink like the worst kind of binge drinker and is no better quality than my daughters £30.00 HP 3 in 1 printer/scanner/photocopier. By far the worst investment I've made to date where printers are concerned. I am constantly replacing inks as it appears to dry up and simply vanishes after a few weeks of it not being used. I had an Epson Color Photo 600 for 10 years and loved it, this isn't a patch on it and I wished I hadn't given it away now. Don't buy this printer unless you have a lot of money and time to waste in buying and changing inks and for no good reason. I had to give it one star because it wouldn't let me give it a zero rating. I've had it from new for 2 years now and it's been like it since I bought it.

I bought this printer in Nov 2004, and I must agree with the majority of comments, the photo quality is stunning... IF you use Epson Inks AND Epson paper.

Here we get to the nub of my gripe - not against the product but against Epson:- The cost of consumables is ridiculous!

- If you stray into the world of compatables then you will not get anywhere near the 'Lab' quality that this baby is capable of, especially Glossy prints (from what I've seen the Gloss Optimiser only seems to do the biz on Epson Premium Glossy...).

- If you use compatable inks then the gloss optimisation doesn't seem to deliver, regardless of the quality of paper, Epson or otherwise.

- I also echo a comment from an earlier contributer, that ink seems to be used every time the printer is switched on, I guess to maintain the print heads or something like that.

- But to add insult to injury it appears the printer is set up to 'waste' ink every time a cartridge is changed - when you change one ink cartridge, it uses a little bit of ink from all of the other cartridges as part of the priming sequence.

All in all, this is a quality bit of kit but is so-o-o-o-o expensive to run - even if you use a bulk deal for the full set of cartridges it'll cost you nearly £80 a throw.

I will have to think long and hard about having another Epson after this one!

Great printer everything works seamlessly for me !!! Word to the wise someone said you can get the same/near results from a cheaper printer,but check that print in a few years and your see you get what you pay for ;-)

One of the first things I wanted to do was to print a DVD. I must have scratched my head for five minutes, before realizing the obvious - the front flap of the printer actually lifts into place before you can put the tray in. Perhaps it's obvious and when you know it, you can see what they are talking about in the manual. I bet more than a few have broken the tray trying to force it into a nonexistent slot!
Straight away, there's a similar problem to the R200, that of being fussy about being lined up - at least this printer doesn't need the tray to be nudged in, but it does seem a 50/50 chance that the tray won't "take", until you slightly reposition and try again.

Ah yes the manual - which has to be done on the PC itself of course, and the quick setup guide which is on real paper - why on earth can't they write using English, rather than diagrams and arrows? I assume anyone who buys a printer is going to be able to read!


The CD/DVD printing is a lot faster than the R200, perhaps there's more intelligence about scanning over blank areas too. However the print comes out much lighter by default - you can slide the darken option across. Normal sheets though print okay without any adjustment. I didn't have that problem with the R200, though I'm very happy with the faster speed, and generally the quality and line up is fine.

The price of ink carts might be a problem - I can't imagine ever paying shop prices - not much change of a £100 for a whole set - that would be madness. It's just plain greed on Epson's part - £5.00 a piece, and yes, you'd never be tempted to use compatibles would you? In this day of being "green", couldn't they make the ink carts maybe 5 times as big, then the price would be justified. Even for compatible cartridges a set is more expensive, basically because there are 8 of them.

Seems to be good on my proper Epson paper, and on some standard paper too, but I've not done any photos - I never do many, so read the other excellent reviews for that side of things.

Oh and no USB lead, so make sure you keep one if you're upgrading printers, or buy one. Mains lead supplied though...

Another annoying thing while I think - the on-off switch seems very hesitant to work, you have to push and hold for a couple of seconds.