Epson Stylus C43SX

Home » Reviews » Peripherals » Printers

Epson Stylus C43SX

Gagan Gupta, Mar 02, 2004 0000 hrs IST

What is it that an average home consumer looks for in a printer?

Good overall output quality, Very economical

Very Slow, no USB support

Check specifications
Write Review

Expert Rating :

Expert Review

Color Test: We printed out a sheet with gradients of RGB and CMYK bands, which start from the darkest shade to the lightest, eventually fading to white.
Result: The Epson colors really shined in this test. All colors had the right amount of depth and glow without any visible banding in between. The yellow in the CMYK test, however, had minute traces of purple in it, but it came to our notice only after using a magnifying glass. All in all, this one has great colors for a budget printer.
Time Taken: 14 minutes 10 seconds

Border Test: This document contained lines stretching out all the way to the edge of the document, to test the printer's borderless printing capabilities.
Result: The C43SX did not support full borderless printing. It, however, came close by leaving only half a centimeter gap between the borders, which is good enough for most purposes.

500 dpi Image Test: We printed a 500 dpi image with minute details and varying colors.
Result: Great colors and great contrast is the first thing that comes to mind when looking at this result. The only place the printer faltered is while printing complex hair particles, which seems to be a common problem with Epson printers in this test. However, the overall quality was still great for a 2800 dpi budget printer.
Time Taken: 15 minutes 5 seconds

600 dpi Image Test: Same as the 500 dpi test, only done with a higher resolution (600 dpi) image.
Result: The colors were crisp and lively with a pretty decent amount of detail. There weren't any flaws visible as such besides some very slight graininess, which can be expected from a 2800 dpi printer.
Time Taken: 16 minutes 56 seconds

Speed Test: Here we printed 20 identical documents at normal quality and then calculate the printer's speed in documents per minute.
Result: The printer was capable of printing 1.6 pages per minute, the slowest we've come across in the current crop of printers.

Print Run: Normal quality prints were taken of a document containing some amount of text and a multi-color image to test the cartridge life of a printer.
Result: 236 total pages in one cartridge lifespan. Not too good, but not bad either.

Conclusion
In the end, the Epson Stylus C43SX proves to be a pretty good printer in just about everything that counts in a home printer (except for speed, which really isn't that big an issue for a home user). When it comes to saving money, it just doesn't get better than this. With the printer price being Rs. 2,500 and the cartridge prices being Rs. 490 for black ink and Rs. 770 for color ink, the cost per page comes to an average of Rs. 5.50 only.

So with the Epson Stylus C43SX you have a printer that not only gives you great print quality, but is also light on your pockets. Highly recommended to all home users; professional users may want to look for something faster.

Test Unit Sourced From: Epson India.