Epson Stylus SX218
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There’s no shortage of choice when it comes to cheap multifunction inkjet printer but you need to be careful that you don’t get stung as some of them have very high running costs. Epson latest offering in this segment is the Stylus SX218 which uses four individual printer ink cartridges and as a result is more economical than its competitors because each of the Epson ink cartridges can be changed independently when they have run out. The cost of Epson SX218 ink cartridges is around £30 when bought in a multi-pack which is not cheap but cheaper than most other multifunction printers from other manufacturers. The SX218 offers a good array of functions including PC-free copying as well direct printing from a memory card thanks to its built-in memory card reader, while this features are useful if you don’t have a PC they become a bit of a novelty if you do. Where the SX218 shines is in its print quality which is of a standard far beyond anything we have seen before in this price range. The SX218’s weakest point is its speed, Epson claim it capable of printing 34ppm (pages per minutes) but in the real world it only capable of 4ppm. The reason for this difference in speed is down to the fact that the Epson figures refer to when the printer is in draft quality mode but when you consider that the print is barely ledgeable in draft mode these figures become irrelevant.
