Customer Reviews

Epson Stylus 740 Color Inkjet Printer

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

THIS PRINTER PERFORMS FLAWLESSLY , PRINTING B&W PAGES WAS CRISP AND CLEAR, PRINTING COLOR INCLUDING PHOTO PRINTS CAME OUT EXCEPTIONALLY NICE.I HAVE BEEN USING THIS PRINTER FOR 2 YEARS AND NEVER HAVE I HAD ANY PROBLEMS , NO PAPER JAMS, NO SOFTWARE CRASHES IT IS JUST AN EXCELLENT PRINTER FOR HOME & BUSINESS !

Epson definitely has the lead in photo-quality inkjet printers, and this model was easy to set up. After a year and a half -- conveniently out of warranty -- however, it suddenly up and died! Epson said it's a hardware problem, and the local Epson repair center said it'll easily cost as much to fix as to buy a whole new one; the motor's worn out. Now folks, I didn't use this printer a whole lot in those few months; I know these are cheap electronics, but this is a ridiculous, unacceptably poor level of quality. Further, the repair guy was so familiar with this problem he knew what it was before I'd barely described it, while Epson tech support pretended ignorance. Shabby, shabby, shabby.

This is the best printer you can buy for your money. It has a color print quality that is amazingly good. The printer is also fairly fast and will work great in a home environment. Mine has works without a hitch for months. Plus with three different ports on the back(USB, serial, and parallel) this printer is compatible with ANY computer. Highly suggest over the overpriced Hewlett-Packard printes being tossed around. If you have an iMac get the 740i instead.

I've found this printer to be a First Rate companion to my Sony digital camera. I'll never send film off to get developed again. BUT: It positively EATS ink cartridges. At clost to $30 a cartridge, ink was costing more than $1 per letter size full color page. Then I found a place on teh net that sells ink bulk that you can refill the cartridges with. So now ink costs about 5 cents per full letter page or less.

I've had this printer since December 1999, and it's only April2000. So I hope all the problems mentioned by those that have ownedthis printer for more than a year were corrected when mine was manufactured. As for ink usage, I have been printing 4x6 photos and just a couple of full 8x10 photos. I am still on the same original ink tanks that I got with the printer. I have printed about 150+ 4x6 color photos at mostly 1440 resolution. I still have roughly 40% left according to the tank monitor. As for the quality of the printout -- the paper makes all the difference in the world. Buy the Epson 4x6 photo paper online, it's 1/2 price compared to what you pay at a store. The reason why Epson's paper is better than say Royal Brite's 4x6 glossy photo paper is simple, Epson's provides a tear off margin which gives the printer room to handle the paper. That's the key to this printer with paper handling, you need to leave room about 3/8" along the sides & top, and 1/2" along the bottom to prevent smearing or other mishandling. Other tips, if you have a 640x480 photo, shrink it down to 3x5 size (55%) to get the best printout. To print a good quality print at the 4x6 size, you need to start with 1024x780 resolution and shrink it to fit the paper using your program's page setup properties.

My one complaint is that it is noisy. But I can live with that for the quality of printing and speed of output in this price range.

Just don't forget to buy a printer cable!

I gave this printer 3 stars before, because I couldn't get it to print well becasuse of ink tanks. Now that I got it to print after cleaning the cartriges many times (and usung up literally more than half of the ink in the tanks, probably around $15 worth of ink) I've gotten it to work, and it works well! It is a very fast printer, and very high quality. Un 1440x720 dpi on photo paper (5 sheets included) it cretes pictures that cannot be distinguished from photographs. it doesn't use up too much ink (but having the 3 colors in one cartrige makes it less efficien for people who use alot of one color, and if you refill the cartiges (which I don't know how you would do because if you remove the ink tanks they don't work untill you complete numerous cleanings) be careful, because using a wrong brand may void the warranty (check the epson website to be sure.) Other than that detail, the printer is great! other advantages are, it has 3 ports in the back (one for older macs, one for newer macs and one for PCs) so it can be used on more than one (type) of computers. And at this price, who could complain? Also check the Epson 740i. it is an identical printer with an iMac color case (blueberry, but the collor may be changed with a $15 case cover.) It costs $30 more, but last I checked it came with some extra software (I don't know if it's PC or mac or if they are still offering it) so you might want to check and see. If not, I don't see why you need to spend $30 or $45 more (depending on color) to get a matching printer (see, even an iMac user would say that)

note: for all fellow mac users, not all of the programs that come with it are mac compatible, only 2 of the 3, but that's ok, because the other 2 are enough

Overall this was a dependable printer for a while, but it has a glitch that causes the return carriage to get stuck. In other words you may be getting warranty work soon. The paper feeding function is less than smooth. If you're on a cheap budget this might be a good buy but understand that getting warranty work is not fun.

I have owned the Epson 740 for about a year and have used it extensively for business and personal applications. From t-shirt transfers to 8 x 10 color photos which are virtually undistinguishable from those I receive from the photo lab, this printer does it all, and never misses a beat.

I bought the epson 740 thinking it was the best alternative to the imac computer, but after a few months it broke down. I used it for papers and It is not that I used it a lot, anyways the service at epson was very efficient they send me a new printer in a matter of days, but after a couple of months the new printer was dead I paid extra 50 dollars to have it repaired and just before a midterm paper print out it died on me again. Epson products are cheap and they die after the warranty expires SHAME ON YOU EPSON, SHAME ON YOU