Subscribe RSS FeedEpson’s Stylus DX4000 machine is the most expensive of our three entry-level devices, but it’s as basic as the PIXMA MP160 and has no memory card slots or PictBridge port .
At £61 including VAT it’s quite affordable , but it’s just £2 cheaper than Lexmark’s X5470, which includes card slots and fax capabilities. Aligning the printer’s heads is a tedious three-page manual task.
The DX4000 prints with four pigment-based ink cartridges, each of which comes in a separate tank. Epson’s yield figures show that the DX4000 isn’t expensive to run, but unfortunately it ran out of black ink just before we had completed our timed mono and colour copy tests. Our standard multifunction tests are thorough , but the DX4000 is the first MFP to run out of ink before completing them. This is possibly because Epson ink cartridges that come with the machine have a smaller ink capacity as they are considered test cartridges. Ink cartridges for the Epson stylus DX4000 are numbered T0711/2/3/4 & T0715 is the multipack. Alternatively you can look for the picture of a cheetah on the pack.
As with many other Epson inkjets , text from the DX4000 was disappointing. At its Draft quality setting, characters were light and striped. Draft is the setting Epson quote the rather exaggerated speed claims. Text printed with poor outlines at any setting up to Photo, the photo setting it’s self was slow . The DX4000 was by far the slowest in our three plain paper tests, taking a tedious one hour and 48 minutes to produce our 24-page mixed-colour document . Photo prints were slow and the quality was not that great. Images appeared dull and lacked any colour depth .
The DX4000’s scanner is an improvement over the printer. It’s fairly quick and captured accurate detail from all but the darkest areas. Colours in scanned images were a good match for the original, if I was being critical, maybe a little darker .
You can make copies on the DX4000 without a PC , but its controls are quite basic . You can only make one copy at a time and the only zoom option is fit-to-page. Mono photocopies reproduced detail well from the original, but colour copies were too bright, and light brown areas looked more yellow.
