Epson Stylus S20 Grange-over-Sands

Epson's latest Stylus inkjet strips away wanton features, such as memory card readers, that are superfluous if you print infrequently. It's aimed at those on a budget, who need a reliable printer for photos and documents and don't want to fork out for features they won't use.

Save for power and calibration buttons, the S20's matte black case is rather subdued except for the glossy topside. While not petite, the unit is compact enough for tight desk space. In this case, the detachable paper feeds can be removed and stored separately. They feel solid enough and while this initially seems a handy space saver, Epson has missed an opportunity to protect the paper inlet from unwanted dust by using a wider, hinged feed to fold down over it.

Our test results show readable draft text, though this quality setting is only useful for short documents. At normal quality, characters were darker and better defined, but this came with a hefty price - it took almost five minutes to print a 10-page text document. Light users won't be too bothered, but the faintness of draft documents will push you towards the better quality setting, which is just too slow to churn out many copies.

The problem is exacerbated when printing even 6 x 4in photos using the best quality setting. Half a dozen of them took over 30 minutes to print, so with any more than a handful of holiday or party snaps to print, you may as well go and make dinner and maybe even do the washing up as well.

One particular problem exhibited itself on a photo dominated by clouds in a bright blue sky across the width of the image. A pink-tinged band appeared at the top and bottom of the page, and banding was noticeable across the sky. Even running the various included calibration and cleaning utilities did not clear up this problem.

Photos with less expansive gradients failed to show this problem. Details on stonework and branches of trees were acceptable, but we were disappointed by the graininess. While the images didn't become oversaturated and kept detail in dark areas, the overall colour was underwhelming despite using the vivid preset on Epson's Premium Glossy paper

The printer takes Epson's DuraBrite cartridges - one for each CMYK colour, which can be purchased together or individually. They're easily fitted with a gentle push into their respective slots. We are concerned about how much ink the S20 might waste in long-term use - after running all our tests, we found defined rows of each colour stretching the width of the main chamber.

It's a natural instinct to want the best quality, a direction in which even the occasional user will lean. Such users may be able to forgive slow photo printing, but the banding and colour issues we encountered don't reflect this setting. Printing text at the normal setting is also too slow for comfort, and we'd recommend looking elsewhere for a more reasonable trade-off between quality and speed, even in the budget price bracket.
Needs Mac OS X 10.3.9 or later + USB 1.1 or faster port

Author: Alan Stonebridge

Epson Stylus S20