Review of Epson Artisan 810 All-in-One Wireless Printer Scanner Fax
So, when something simple like scanning over WiFi and printing iPhone photos comes together elegantly and almost effortlessly, I'm kind of amazed again despite my depth of involvement with personal computers and technology.
The Epson Artisan 810 Wireless All-In-One Printer gave me this sense of amazement again this week ... and for an extremely economical price.
Most importantly, I wanted a device that would allow me to replace my EFAX service (read my EFAX warning below) with the ability to scan multi-page documents into PDFs and the ability to do so over WiFi. The Artisan and its automatic document feeder does this quite well. I can scan over WiFi from my Mac over WiFi, or from the the device to my Mac over WiFi or to a USB Flash drive or compact flash drive - lots of flexibility. And, it works great in OS X Snow Leopard (just make sure you install the Epson Snow Leopard updates from the web).
The Artisan also supports the super useful and fun Epson iPrint iPhone Application which makes printing iPhone shots to the Artisan a simple one step wireless joy. I haven't really delved into WiFi printing but my iPhone camera just got a lot more interesting, no messing with iPhoto and file management, just choose the photo and click to print. The Artisan also has slots for Compact Flash, Micro SD and xSD as well as the USB Flash for printing photos directly from the device.
The Artisan's large touch screen display makes configuring the device for your WiFi network and everyday use of the device quite easy. The software install could still be a bit smoother and less annoying (pops in front - always on top - so you can't multitask during the install). The OS X software utilities could be better organized too - accessing the memory card over WiFi requires a few extra installation steps. However, overall this is an easy machine to use. The MyEpson site is actually very useful with a FAQ, handy video tutorials and mostly well organized user interface - more useful than these sites usually are.
The Artisan paper tray is actually a bit complex to use but that's because it supports both plain paper and photo paper simultaneously. So, I can literally print a paper document from the Mac, then a photo from my iPhone without changing anything around. Unfortunately, printing envelopes requires moving the paper out of the tray.
The Artisan also has automatic duplexing or two sided printing. It's a great way to save paper and now I don't have to manually print odd pages first, flip the printed pages and re-feed them and print the even pages - that never really worked well for me. It also prints 4 pages on a single page if that's readable for you.
This device has so many skills: It's a fax machine. It prints color labels onto CDs - yes, there is a CD slot - no need more those CD label printing kits any longer.
At $199, this device runs circles around the $425 Fujitsu ScanSnap S1500.
As for EFAX, it's a terrible company that provides a relatively useful service. But, fax is nearly dead. Most people I work with exchange scanned PDFs, which is why the Artisan is such a useful affordable device. EFAX is an extremely difficult service to cancel. Avoid EFAX if you can.
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