Epson SureColor P600
Epson’s flagship A3+ photo printer gets a new inkset
£570, $799
www.epson.com
The SureColor P600 replaces the Stylus Photo R3000 as Epson’s top-end A3+ photo printer. It has the same maximum printing resolution (5760x1440dpi) and minimum droplet size (2pl), and it’s also similarly hefty.
The P600 uses the company’s full nine-colour UltraChrome HD inkset, with the swap between the Photo Black and Matte Black inks being made automatically once you have selected the paper type from the print options. If your paper isn’t listed in the print dialog, you can switch between cartridges manually via the printer’s touch-control panel. (The swap takes between three and five minutes to run through, and you do waste ink.)
Wi-Fi Direct wireless printing is possible from smartphones, tablets and computers, and Epson Connect and Google Cloud Print are supported. Set-up is straightforward.
In our tests, the P600 produced superb quality images, with A3 prints on Epson Premium Glossy Photo paper taking around 15 minutes, in colour or black and white. This decreased to around 14 minutes 30 seconds when printing on Epson Archival Matte Paper. Tonal gradations are very smooth, and detail and colour are reproduced very well. If you need prints in a hurry then there is a quick print option which halves print times, and showed only the slightest drop in clarity. If you want to print large-scale panoramic images, a roll paper attachment is included with the printer.
If you’re considering upgrading from the R3000, we’d advise against it, but if you’re replacing an older printer, then the P600 will give you market-leading print quality at home.