Epson Stylus Photo R1900 Printer Review
The R1900 is not for everyone. As the name makes clear, it is a photo quality printer. It allows you to make wide format prints of the highest quality, without any fuss or bother. It is a specialist printer and is not meant for those who want great pictures but are also looking for a multi purpose printer. This is not a printer for compromises.
With a MSRP of $549.99 and a street price of $399.99, this may not appear to be too expensive, but once again remember that this printer is only for photo printing and using it for anything else is a waste of time and money.
The R1900 is big and needs a big and strong platform for itself. It weighs 22 pounds and the dimensions are 24.3” x 31.4” x 16.3” with the paper trays closed. Not something you will be moving around your home too often. Looks wise this is a good looking piece that will fit in well with most home and office decors. The body is made of matte black and silver colored plastics. The matte finish means it is easier to keep clean and does not show up fingerprints the way glossy finishes do.
Being a specialized photo printer lets just say that it is sturdy and easy to use and spend more time looking at its performance. The R1900 uses what Epson calls their “Radiance” technology which is supposed to optimize the use of each ink to produce crisper hues. It is also supposed to ensure smoother transition between colors and reduce grain. Perhaps “supposed to” is not the right phrase. It does it – it produces some of the best picture quality printing to be found anywhere.
With an ability to produce 13 x 19 prints, at the “best quality” setting in under 3 minutes, this is a fast printer. And if you really need speed and are willing to compromise to a very marginal extent on print quality you can choose to bring down the print time to less than 2 minutes using the “standard quality” mode.
The R1900 can accommodate just about any kind of print media including roll fed, fine art and cut sheet among others. The auto feeder can hold up to 120 sheets of plain paper, though it unlikely that you will ever use that kind of paper. More to the point it can hold up to 30 sheets of thick photo paper.
The real drawback with the R1900 is in the frequency that ink cartridge changes are needed. Its not that the printer uses too much ink – on the contrary the “Radiance” technology optimizes ink use. But a photo printer will use a lot of ink. It’s the nature of the beast and the R1900 comes with the standard 8.5 x 11 printer cartridges. In effect that means you have to change cartridges after every 20 large photos. If only Epson had used bigger cartridges. One solution to this problem would be to use third party continuous ink flow systems that are available in the market.
If you are looking for a top of the line photo printer, you need look no further than the R1900.