Stylus Photo R310

If you want to print images from many different sources, the Epson Stylus Photo R310 should provide the versatility you need. Its media card slots accept all the major formats, and its direct-print port does more than just communicate with compatible digital cameras: you can use it to offload your photos to a whole host of devices, including Zip drives, CD and DVD writers, and USB flash drives.

The R310 proved very economical with its ink and paper. Using its six individual ink cartridges, during our tests the R310 printed excellent glossy photos on letter-size paper as well as superb 4" x 6" snapshots. However, its text prints were very poor: letters looked grey and very fuzzy. Similarly, colour graphics on plain paper were unimpressive; images looked blurry, with banding and obvious bleeding.

The R310 printed a borderless 4" x 6" snapshot in 108 seconds--a little slower than average. It printed text at 2 ppm, much slower than most comparable printers we've tested.

The Stylus Photo R310 comes with two LCD screens. Many other photo printers with an LCD offer a 2.5" colour display, but the R310's colour LCD measures only 1.5"--too small to adequately see edits made to your images. The larger 2.5" monochrome LCD shows the menus. We think a single 2.5" colour monitor would have been more useful.

Like Epson's R800, the R310 prints on coated CD and DVD discs, using a tray to feed them through. Epson provides a basic utility for designing the labels. On the downside, the R310 skimps on paper capacity--just as the R800 does.

The Stylus Photo R320 also works with an optional Bluetooth adapter for printing from compatible camera phones and PDAs.