New and Improved Uh Huh....

Okay, if you have read some of my earlier reviews, you know that overall I am an Epson fan, mostly because of their high quality color photo printing. Well, I can tell you, I am beginning to tire of a few things. My last printer was the Epson C86, which died. My review is posted of the C86.

IMPROVEMENTS OVER PREVIOUS MODEL:

Resolution: well the C86 printed at 5760 x 1440 dpi on special paper. The C88 improves that and prints at 5760 x 1440 dpi on special paper! (no, thats not a typo, that's sarcasm)

Build Quality: The C86 was made of plastic and broke after about a year. The C88, is made of plastic and was the same weight and appeared to be the same build quality. However there was ONE major difference between the two. The paper feeder on the C86 had a curved top. The C88 has a square top! Whoo hoo!

Speed: The C88 is 22 ppm in black and white and 12 ppm in color. The color speed is not for photos only for pages with about 5% coverage. I don't recall the C86s speed, but I believe it was about the same. I haven't noticed any difference.

Border Printing: The C88 can print borderless photo prints in many sizes. Uh huh, so could the C86.

Compatibility: The C86 and the new improved C88 both work with Windows and Macs. USB and Parellel port connectivity was on the old unit, and remains on the new unit. (I didn't need to unplug my USB cable from the computer).

Software: Both the C86 and the C88 have menu options for borderless printing, portrait/landscape, paper type, print quality, nozzle cleaning utilities and print testing. In fact, I have no problems whatsoever using the new C88, because the menus are the same as they were on the C86. I guess in this case, no change is good.

INK: The C86 had expensive Durabrite inks, and allowed you to purchase a high capacity black ink cartridge instead of the regular size black ink, if you wanted to save some money.

The C88 has wisely chosen to make new expensive Durabrite Ink cartridges for the C88, which the C86 cartridges will NOT work in. There is no improvements in the actual ink, they are just in a slightly different cartridge, which forces you to purchase new inks and makes it more inconvenient for me, because my local closest stores don't carry the new cartridges. Again, the INK itself is the same. The C88 does NOT have a high capacity black ink cartridge available. Now, because I do a lot of black and white printing, I will have to spend MORE on black ink. Oh, wait, thats good for Epson, not good for you and me.

Print Quality: I am happy to say that black and white quality and color quality are still superb. Color quality is best with expensive specialty papers. However, I see NO improvement from the previous model, or for that matter from the C84 at my office. To repeat a few points from previous reviews, black and white text is good enough for court (and I know, I submit stuff all the time, although for most work, I use the HP laser jet at the office). Color is great, and being a long time hobby photographer, Epson meets my printing needs for archive quality photo quality photos.

Included Cables?: Yeah, right, Epsons list of improvments still doesn't include sporting a parallel port cable or a USB cable for ya! There is a power cord though, so you can plug it in. Fortunately its exactly the same as the C86s, so I didn't even need to unplug the old one.

Noise: Well, like the C86, you know when the C88 is printing. The Epson C line is pretty darn noisy. (not like my ancient daisy wheel printer, but ..)


Bottom Line: It seems that Epsons low end printers are designed to be throwaways now soley to sell Epson inks and papers. I really don't know the purpose of a continuing new product line with no actual improvements. I picked up the Epson C88 because I have always liked the Epson line, and it fit right where my Epson C86 was with no problem. I thought that since it had a higher model number some improvements would be there too. They were not.

If Epson continues to offer new and improved products like this, I may well see what improvements their competitors have made during the years I stuck with Epson.