Epson Stylus DX6050
Quick presentation and ergonomics
Barely more expensive than the DX5050, the DX6050 has the same base but is supported with better ergonomics. The 10 or 20 euros difference between the two models is justified by the addition of a color LCD, which is quite practical when we want to use it autonomously without your PC. Here, Epson took the opportunity to add commands, but this initiative wasn’t necessarily the most efficient. While offering more functions and making them accessible with text instead of international codes (symbols), this complicated the control panel.
Some might like the challenge of trying to interpret each option, however, we think we also have the right to simplicity. For this reason, it’s a swing and a miss with too many buttons, icons, and expanded menus. We only had one desire, to find the two or three basic functions and stay with them. One thing is for sure, those who own this printer will quickly learn how to launch a color or monochrome photocopy. However, in autonomous mode and despite the presence of a memory card player and LCD screen, going further than this may seem a little precarious.
Quality of printing and scanning
Like on the DX5050, we appreciated the quality of office prints and the precision of the scanner. However, for photos there is better elsewhere (with Canon, for example). Drops are slightly visible, something that won’t bother everyone as maybe they will be more concentrated on the content of the photo. At any rate, no one will be fooled and we are sure of its numeric origin.
Speed
In terms of speed, it’s almost exactly the same as the DX5050 and here we also find Epson’s exaggerated figures. They announce print speeds of 27 pages per minute, and in reality it’s a fifth of this number with our light test page. Once again, this is hardly admirable on Epson’s part.
Also, on the box they claim photos in 28 seconds, while it’s really 85 without a border and for a simple 10 x 15 cm print. We discussed this for the DX5050 and we think you get the point.
Ink costs
Epson opted for separate cartridges for its entire product line including the entry level. This can be economical if you use one color more than others in photos or for office presentations. This necessitates, however, juggling four cartridges with different autonomies. For the ISO norm, the black is at 245 pages, versus 270 pages for magenta, 475 for yellow, and 485 for cyan. This equals an average office print cost with a 5% coverage of 12 cents...or 30% superior to what we find with the Canon MP160 equipped with long lasting mono-block cartridges.
Unfortunately, we did not have enough cartridges to measure photo autonomy and Epson could not give us any figures here.
A serious defect?
The DX6050 also has the main defect of the 5050, it’s noisy. Printing isn’t free in this domain, the worse being that this is due to cleaning cycles or paper feeds. It even became somewhat absurd after a while. Everybody in the office knew when a printing cycle started.
Finally, like on the DX5050, we found a lack of precision with the ink indicators.
