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DEAL WATCH: Keurig K-Express | 22% off $69.99

Keurig has changed the face of coffee, and snagging one of these for less than $70 is a solid deal. Read Review

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  • Introduction

  • Design & Usability

  • Features & Performance

  • Conclusion

  • Science Introduction

  • Color Performance

  • Print Speed

  • Detail Performance

  • Introduction
  • Design & Usability
  • Features & Performance
  • Conclusion
  • Science Introduction
  • Color Performance
  • Print Speed
  • Detail Performance

Introduction

Design & Usability

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A straightforward multifunction printer, though a bit limited

While the {{product.name}} isn't the kind of printer that requires a ton of extra considerations during setup, it is fairly unusual in that it requires you to install the print head on your own. This isn't a difficult task by any means: Once you've opened the bag and removed any packaging, the print head clicks into place. Just follow the included setup instructions, and you're very unlikely to run into trouble.

It is fairly simple to prep the printer for new ink, clean its heads, or print a test page.

All of your printer's controls are accessed through the panel the screen rests on, as the screen itself and the icons surrounding it are touch-sensitive, and register your commands in context. While you may or may not use them until you swap out ink cartridges, the controls are well-labeled. On-screen menus are logically nested and easy to navigate, though the icons do take some getting used to. Should you end up in a place that you need advanced controls to accomplish your goal, new icons will show up to give you the extra function commands necessary. It is fairly simple to prep the printer for new ink, clean its heads, or print a test page.

While at first glance it looks like the {{product.name}} has only one SD/HC card slot, that little hole on the front is more versatile than that; if you still use MemoryStick media cards, those can also be used by the {{product.model}} as well. There is an 802.11n wireless card among its innards, and can be shared and used over a wireless network. Unfortunately for anyone who hasn't made the switch to Wi-Fi yet, there isn't an ethernet port on the back, so you'll have to use a type A to type B USB cable (not included in the packaging).

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Features & Performance

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Low performance, but fair enough for the price

The {{product.name}} uses two ink cartridges: black and CMY (cyan, magenta, yellow). New users may find this convenient, but will end up hating in the long run, especially if you like to print lots of photos. Why is that? Well, if you ever run out of one of the three included dyes in the color ink cartridge, most users will be forced to discard the entire cartridge, wasting the leftover ink. To the cartridges' credit, however, they do manage to last for quite a while, giving us over 100 color photo prints in the lab.

It can handle just about any paper size that's less than 8.5 inches wide.

If you're looking for a printer that can print on a decent range of media, the {{product.name}} should satisfy many basic needs, as it can handle just about any paper size that's less than 8.5 inches wide. Due to this fact, the printer fits the multifunction role well, as it can accommodate a typical office workload, but also survive the varying demands of a family's usage.

Overall, ESP 3.2 has a very basic performance in terms of color and detail preservation—perfect for family photos, but not so much for professional prints by any stretch of the imagination. Not only is the color accuracy on the low end of average, but the color gamut is a bit small. Would Instagram-using kids really care about that so much if they're adding filters to their pictures? Probably not.

Conclusion

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You get what you pay for, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

Overall, the {{product.name}} is a basic, entry-level multifunction printer that is most at home in a dorm or beside a family computer. With color performance that allows you to print off decent-looking photos quickly, and a good level of detail, the {{product.name}} does prove its worth at its price point. Just keep in mind that color cartridges with several inks tend to waste a bunch of dye in the long run, and consequently, money.

That being said, you get what you pay for. If you're looking for professional quality prints, or prints at non-standard sizes, you're much better off looking for a pro-photo printer. It's also a bit mystifying as to why the color gamut is so narrow, but our tests didn't uncover any glaring errors as a result of this. Additionally, the ESP 3.2 is incredibly slow in comparison to other printers, and will likely frustrate younger users.

If, however, you're looking for a family printer, or a printer to be sent off to school with a college student, the {{product.name}} merits consideration for general use. It may not top the performance charts, but it's an affordable printer with acceptable performance as long as speed isn't a major concern.

Science Introduction

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This Kodak printer doesn't really hold up well to the competition, and here come the numbers.

Color Performance

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Cannot reproduce most of the AdobeRGB color gamut.

Overall, the {{product.name}} did about an average job of maintaining color accuracy, but in this day and age, average is quite a bit better than it was 10 years ago. For an entry level printer, this is a fairly good and competitive result, but overall it's not going to make printers at a higher price point shiver.

Despite how accurately this printer reproduced color values, it does not have a very wide color gamut. We recorded that it was only able to reproduce 31.42% of the AdobeRGB color gamut, which is very low for a modern printer. While nobody buying this printer will mistake it for a pro-photo printer, be advised that the fewer color values a printer has available to use sometimes translates into artifacts in gradients or shadows that contain values the printer cannot reproduce.

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If you want a fast printer, look elsewhere.

Despite how slowly the printer normally operates, it at least does not dawdle long before starting your print job, which is a plus. That being said, it's very hard to ignore how slow the printer is, and the fractions of a second you gain by having a short initialization time are lost waiting for the print job to finish.

If you're looking for a printer that can churn out photos at a respectable speed at best quality, you're looking in the wrong place. Clocking in at 3.06 seconds per square inch of photo, the {{product.name}} has a poor print speed at best, and will keep you waiting for a long time if you want anything other than a single 4 x 6 print.

Similarly, the {{product.name}} is also extremely slow in printing documents at best quality as well. By printing documents at a glacial pace of 1.57 pages per minute, this is not a printer that will let you get your documents and get out the door in any sort of quick fashion.

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Detail Performance

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The ESP 3.2 has trouble reproducing sharp edges.

In our labs, we recorded a DMax (depth of blacks) measurement of 2.5, which is fairly decent despite many printers doing better in recent memory. This should provide an acceptably wide contrast ratio for most photos, as it's far deeper than what would be considered "mediocre."

Overall, the {{product.name}} handles detail in gradients fairly well. In addition, it maintains fine lines to an impressive degree, which is why it's so mystifying that it does not seem to be able to produce sharp edges. If you look at scans of high-detail pictures, you'll notice that the edges are blurry, and they seem to lose differentiation between two colors in several places. While this level of error isn't all that terrible, it's something not seen on professional photographs.

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Meet the tester

Chris Thomas

Chris Thomas

Staff Writer, Imaging

@cthomas8888

A seasoned writer and professional photographer, Chris reviews cameras, headphones, smartphones, laptops, and lenses. Educated in Political Science and Linguistics, Chris can often be found building a robot army, snowboarding, or getting ink.

See all of Chris Thomas's reviews

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