The Epson Stylus Color 900N

The N is for networkable. More specifically, the 900N is a stand alone nic-card toting SOHO printer with 4 ways of connectivity. If you're searching for a color network printer solution under $450, the 900N is almost impossible to beat. Just keep the paper usage under 5000 per month and this Epson will serve a few dozen clients with 12ppm B&W ease. Require a 8.5x11, 1440dpi photo print periodically? The 900N prints to a wide variety of paper stock, including photo paper, Avery labels and any other media with a maximum length of four feet and width of 9½ inches.

Factory Specifications

The Printer

12ppm B&W, 10ppm Color
256KB Input Buffer
Connectivity: 10/100 NIC, USB, Parallel, Epson Camera Hookup
Compatibility: Win95/98/NT/2K & Macintosh
Resolutions: 360dpi-1440dpi
Black Ink Life: 840 pages @ 360dpi
Color Ink Life: 570 pages @ 360dpi
Warranty: 1 Year
Web price: $425 USD

http://www.epson.com

9/10 Rating

I teach at a small technical college in Columbus, OH and we recently had a need for an economical networkable printer. The HP710 and HP695 inkjets weren't cutting the mustard so-to-speak. They were also connected via ultra slow parallel port to a client, so all large print jobs spooled on that particular overtaxed machine. If, God forbid, three students hit the print button at the same time, the printer host promptly crashed. Wonderful. Now, the three unsuspecting students had to wait an additional 5-10 minutes for me to clear the crashed jobs and sometimes reboot the client. Now, HP 24-40ppm laser jets are very cool and fast, but at several thousand a whack, ponying up the cash for one of those on the spot is as much fun as going to the dentist. We had 23 clients that required fast color printing and I mean we needed it yesterday. Since I'm an admitted Epson printer fan for the last 3 years, I immediately recommended the 900N.

I use a "regular" 900 at home and the only difference is the inclusion of a 10/100Mbps NIC card on the N. Yes, I do think the price for one lousy NIC card is too high, but once you see the 900N in action, the $50-$75 overcharge goes right out the window. This is not a laserjet printer, it's an inkjet printer. It will spit out nice black and white 360dpi pages at 12ppm (pages per minutes) and 10ppm in color. Considering the price, it's still a great value.

Ever needed service on a printer? Ever waited for hours on the customer service line only to wait 1-2 weeks for your RMA'd product? Not with Epson you don't. The very rare occasion (once in three years) I've had to deal with Epson customer service was back in July '00. Let's just say that I spent 5 minutes on the phone and I found myself staring at a new printer the next morning, about 18 hours later. By placing the old printer in the new printer's box, Epson saved me all shipping costs. Now that's great service!