At the beginning of the year we reviewed the Epson Artisan 800 All-In-One Photo Printer. It performed so well that it got our Editors Choice award. Recently Epson released the Artisan 810, which has a few upgrades. We are going to take a look at the new printer and see if lives up to the 800′s excellent performance.
Since the Artisan 810 and the Artisan 800 are almost exactly the same, this review is going to be very similar to the Artisan 800 review that I did earlier.
Features
- 5 in 1 with Wi-Fi: Print / Copy / Scan / Fax / Ultra HD Photo
- Up to 38 ppm, photos in as fast as 10 sec
- Built-in fax and Automatic Document Feeder
- Wi-Fi and Ethernet networking
- 7.8-inch touch panel, 3.5-inch LCD
- Professional quality CD/DVD printing
- Automatic two-sided printing
- Create coloring books and personal note paper
- Two-year limited warranty with registration
- Ultra Hi-Definition photos last 4x longer than photo lab prints
- Two paper trays always ready to print photos and documents
When it comes to printing options, the Artisan 810 has a pluthera. This printer can print on just about any type of surface meant for printing, from photo paper, to printable DVDs. With the included duplexer, two-sided printing is a snap. Even without the duplexer you can still print on two sides, it just takes a little more effort.
This printer uses Claria Hi-Definition Ink which is currently one of the best and longest lasting inks you can get. Because of this, Epson claims that the photos that come out of this printer will last 4x longer than photos that are printed in a photo lab.
The Artisan 810 has at least five ways to connect it to a computer. First, you can connect it directly to the computer with a USB cable, this is good if you only have one computer. If you have more than one computer and a wireless network, then you can use the second way which is WiFi, or if you have a wired network then you can use the third way which is an Ethernet cable. The fourth way is using an optional Bluetooth adapter, so if you have a phone or camera with Bluetooth then you can print directly from those devices. Finally, the last way is to plug in a memory card or USB stick into one of the memory slots or the PictBridge port.
Not only can you print directly from a memory card or a USB stick, but the printer can enhance and fix those photos if they have problems like red eye or are too light or dark.
Printing photos and text is not the only thing this printer can print. The Artisan 810 is also able to print lined, grid, and coloring pages. All of these things worked out really great. I would only make one comment. The coloring pages can only be printed from a scanned source, or memory card and not from a picture on a PC.
Grid paper
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Coloring Page
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The printer has a built-in paper tray that functions like two paper trays. The bottom part of the paper tray is for larger paper, it can hold up to 8.5″ x 14″, and the top tray can hold up to 5″ x 7″ paper, which is great for photo paper.
Design
The printer is very compact. On top is an Automatic Document Feeder and the scanner. The ADF can hold up to 30 pages and the maximum size that can be scanned is an A4 document. I really like the design of the ADF because when you are not using it, you can close it up.
ADF Open
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ADF Closed
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The controls for the Artisan 810 are very unique. On the front is a very large 7.8″ touch panel with a 3.5″ LCD right in the middle. This is a very high resolution screen, and is great for not only displaying the menus and options, but also for showing photos that will be printed. If you are printing from a memory card or USB stick then you can use the screen to preview the images and see what they will look like before they are printed. The screen is not large enough to see a lot of details, but you will get a good idea about the results.
Screen
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To the left of the screen are six touch panel buttons. Those buttons are Display/Crop, Menu, Home, Left arrow, Auto, and Back. The Display/Crop button is for printing buttons from a flash card. With this button you can choose how to display the pictures (full, thumbnails, or full with details) and you can also crop the images for printing on photo paper. The menu button will display the menu for whatever screen you are currently viewing. The Home button will always take you back to the main screen. The left arrow is used to scroll through each menu’s screen. The Auto button turns on and off the Fax auto answer. The back button takes you back one screen.
Left Buttons
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To the right of the screen are another 7 buttons. The buttons are plus and minus, Clear Settings, right arrow, Start, OK, and View Auto Correct. The plus and minus buttons are for increasing and decreasing the number of copies of each picture you print. Clear settings is self explanatory. The right arrow is just like the left arrow in that it moves through screens. The Start button will start a copy, or fax. The OK button accepts any setting changes. View Auto Correct turns on the auto correction and displays it on the screen.
Right Buttons
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To the left of the touch panel are two additional buttons. The top button is the power button, and obviously it is used for turning on and off the printer. Below that is the CD tray button, and it is used for ejecting the CD tray so a CD can be placed on it.
The whole control console lifts up freely. This serves two purposes that I have found so far. The first is to give you a better viewing angle, and the second is to open up a space so you can get to the CD/DVD tray. As you lift the controls up they will lock into place. To get the console to go back down you need to press the unlock button, which is at the top left of the controls, above the power button (it has a yellow stripe). Pressing the Unlock button will lower the display automatically, do not press it down or it will damage the lock and you may not be able to lower it ever again (trust me, I know from experience).
Below the control console is the CD/DVD tray, paper output, and input trays. The first one closest to the top is the CD/DVD tray. Pressing the CD/DVD tray button causes this tray to come out, but the tray does not come out very far, so before you can put a disk on it you must lift the control console up. This opens up a space so you can reach in and place the disk on the tray.
CD Tray
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Blank CD
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Below that is the paper output tray. It pulls out and can support anything from 4″x6″ all the way up to 8.5″ x 14″.
Output Tray
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To the right of the paper trays are the memory card slots and the PictBridge port.
Memory Card slots
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At the very bottom is the paper input tray. Actually it is two paper trays built into one. There is an upper and lower section, the lower section is for large paper, up to 8.5″x14″ and the upper section is for smaller photo paper, up to 5″x7″.
Paper Tray
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Paper Tray
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The back of the printer has a spot for power, USB, Ethernet, and phone cables. There is also a rather large Duplexer attached to the back. This is responsible for automatic two sided printing. The Duplexer can be removed if you are trying to squeeze the printer into a tight space. However, I don’t know why you would, because the Duplexer is one of the new features of the Artisan 810 and if you cannot use it then you might as well buy an Artisan 800.
Connectors
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Power Plug
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Back
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Duplexer
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If you open up the top and take a look inside there are really only two spots of interest and one is the ink cartridge holders. Almost all of the previous printers that I have reviewed have had the ink located right on top of the print head, but not with this printer. On this printer they are located off to the side. The small green tab that you see is a kind of lock. It is used to lock the print head into place while being transported. It must be moved before you plug in the printer, failing to do this may damage the printer. The Printer has a special place for it just above so it does not get lost.
Inside
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Ink compartment
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ink Installed
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Print Head Lock
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Print Head Lock Removed
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Performance
Testing the printer is the fun part. It is where I get to print off and scan tons of different things and see how well it does. The printer comes with a full set of standard ink cartridges and I planned on using it all. The first thing I always like doing is printing out lots of pictures. Printing with the 810 is extremely quick, the Artisan 810 can print up to 38 pages per minute and a single photo can be printed in as little as 10 seconds.
The photos that printed are fantastic. As you can see from the images below. I printed off several photos from different printers to compared the quality of each. I printed photos from the Artisan 810 and the Artisan 800. The first picture is the original from my camera, the second one is from the Artisan 800 and the third one is from the Artisan 810. As you can clearly see for yourself they are identical. This is good for those of you that wondered if the 810 would have better photo printing.
Original
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Artisan 800
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Artisan 810
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One of the features of the Artisan is that it will auto correct photos that are printed from a memory card or USB stick. It can also automatically remove red eye. The first image is the original from my camera, the second one is an auto corrected photo and the third has red eye turned on. I could not see a difference between the auto corrected and regular photos. The red eye reduction, also worked reasonably well, except that it missed one of the red eyes. If you want everything perfect, it is always best to do the touch-ups yourself.
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Original
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Auto Correct
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Red Eye Remover
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Printing documents is also very fast. I was able to print 7 full color pages in 55 seconds. By default the pages print in order, which means the first page is on the bottom. Luckily, I found a reverse option which prints the last page first. I think this option is in the word processing software and not the printer drivers. Either way I appreciate having it and I wish it was the default.
Printing DVDs is a lot of fun. I have bought printers in the past just because they could print on CDs and DVDs. The Artisan 810 makes the process really easy because it is all built-in. The quality is also superb, as you can see from the images, it is very easy to see even the smallest detail.
Printed CD
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Printed CD
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Next, I wanted to test the printing of text. This is where most inkjet printers have the hardest time. I compared the Artisan 810 against my HP 5L laserjet printer. The first image is the 5L and the second one is the Artisan. As you can see the 5L does a better job with text, but the Artisan 810 is not far off. I think you will find that no matter what inkjet you buy, a laserjet is always going to do better with text, that is why I have one of each.
HP5L
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Artisan 810 Text
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In addition to just printing text I also tried out the Duplexer. I am happy to report that double sided printing completed without a problem. The only thing I would mention is that the printer pauses for about 5 seconds after it prints the first side. This may make you think it is done, but do not remove the paper otherwise the second side will not print. The printer will pull the paper back in and flip it over so it can print on the other side.
To test scanning I have some professional color charts that I like to scan. This gives me a good idea of how well the scanner performs. As you can see it did a decent job, the colors are not perfect, but they are really good.
Charts
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Last, but not least, is faxing. To test this I sent a 7 page document to myself. I was very happy to see that the fax did not actually dial until all the pages had been scanned into memory. The scanning was quick, taking about 5 seconds per page. Once they were all scanned the fax dialed the number and sent them to the destination. I was sending black and white pages so it was fairly quick. The whole process took about 5 minutes. I don’t have a second color fax, but I imagine that it would take quite a bit longer, because it takes longer to scan color and color documents would also have more data to send to the destination.
All during these tests the printer was really quiet. Sometimes I had to watch the printer just to make sure it was printing. The scanner is also really quiet and fast, so if you are not paying attention you will miss it.
The Artisan 800 and the 810 both use the same ink. So if you upgrade you can keep your old ink and use it with the new printer. The ink is not super expensive, costing about $9 per cartridge
Warranty and Support
The warranty for the Artisan 810 is simply a two year warranty that covers parts and labor for manufacturer defects. In my opinion this is a mediocre warranty. I would like to see longer warranties for all products, but since I am not in charge I don’t get to make that decision.
My experience with support has been positive. I accidentally broke the lock release for the screen on my Artisan 800 (I pushed it down instead of using the release button) and Epson was very easy to deal with. They sent a new 800 and even paid for return shipping for the old one. No I did not tell them I was writing a review. I spoke to them like a normal customer.
Conclusion
I am really impressed with the speed, quality, and how quiet the Artisan 810 is. I don’t think I found a single problem with this printer other than the text quality, but that is a tough area for all inkjets. The MSRP of $299.99 is not too expensive, but it very easy to find it for a bit cheaper
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