Epson Artisan 800

Epson Artisan 800

The Artisan 800 inkjet MFP gives you plenty of features and capabilities, but it needs special paper for the best results. Epson's Artisan 800 color inkjet multifunction printer has many tempting photo features. It's expensive--and not quite perfect--but it's still worth considering, especially for serious shutterbugs. The Artisan 800 boasts a large (7.8-inch), tiltable touch-screen control panel, with a 3.5-inch color LCD. I found navigating the menus easy, but the sheer number of options made me wish for a comprehensive overview (Epson doesn't provide one). Two media slots take CompactFlash, Memory Stick, SD Card, and XD Picture Card; the unit has a PictBridge port too. This model's star feature is its integrated CD/DVD printing mechanism. The caddy lowers itself automatically from its lair in the open front bay. I like this self-contained design even better than what HP offers on models such as the Photosmart C5280. The Artisan 800 has speed to spare. In the PC World Test Center's speed tests, it churned out plain-text pages at an impressive rate of 9.8 pages per minute. Its 5.4-ppm graphics speed topped the charts.