It's a far cry from the 32 pages that Kodak claims, and this is draft mode not normal mode.Īs for colour printouts, at first they appear to be of good quality when inspecting them from a distance, but on close viewing there's clear and visible banding on many shots involving single colours in blocks, and coloured flecks elsewhere throughout light coloured areas. That said, it takes a good 46 seconds for the first page to emerge, and on draft mode we calculated that the printer will only manage to push out a maximum of four or five pages per minute at an average time of 13 seconds per page.
As for plain text documents, the ESP 7 manages to deliver some good results, with clear lettering and no banding or smudging across our test pages. When you get underway the first thing you'll notice about the printing process is that it's quite noisy to begin with, though it does dissipate once the printing begins. You can access common tasks like scanning and printing photos from this interface. Once complete you'll be presented with the Kodak printing interface, which is incredibly basic (great for home users and those who want to be taken hand-in-hand through every step of the printing process). The software installation process is a somewhat lengthy one, taking at least 10 minutes to initialise and install either off the CD or via web updates. This is considerably less expensive than other MFDs that use separate ink tanks, often hitting the AU$20 mark for each individual colour. The black cartridge retails for AU$14.99 and the combined colour for AU$24.99. The ESP 7 is no exception, with Kodak claiming that users can print up to twice as many prints on the unit compared to other inkjets on the market.Ĭertainly on initial inspection this claim seems to be true, with the cost of consumables being quite cheap. With the r-word winding its way ever further into everyday conversation it was only a matter of time before printing companies began touting the economic viability of their latest offerings. This is great for economy but not so good for accurate colour reproduction, as we see later on in this review. Unlike many other photo-capable MFDs, the ESP 7 uses only two ink cartridges, one for black and a combined five-ink colour tank. The lowest one takes up to A4-sized paper and the upper one can take a myriad of smaller sizes, including standard 10x15cm photo paper, which automatically detects the size you've inserted. At the bottom right on the front fascia sit the standard PictBridge connections and the two paper trays underneath the printer (which slide out easily). The 3-inch LCD screen is the hub of all activity on the ESP 7 - the menu system is also intuitive enough to make the printer just as useful as a stand-alone unit.
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