Epson Stylus Photo R1500W Printer Review

Now that the award winning R1400 photo printer is being de-commissioned, its replacement, the Epson Stylus Photo R1500W offers similar characteristics, with the added bonus of wireless connectivity.
For around £250 you get an high quality A3+ photographic printer with glossy output. Just like the R1400, the new R1500W uses six Epson Claria dye-based ink cartridges to achieve stable output onto various types of paper media, CD/DVD printable disks, T-shirt transfers, and envelopes. It does this using the built-in Micro Piezo print head engine with a fine resolution of 5760 x 1440 dots per inch.
With a maximum side to side printable sheet size width of 329mm, this machine can print borderless A3 plus presentations and photographs in stunning detail. Epson state in the printer specification sheet that this can be completed in 198 seconds; however we feel that this is an optimistic claim. Of course the time taken depends on the subject matter, however users of this machine will be interested in quality rather than speed anyway.
Rather surprisingly the R1500W uses the same ink set as the out-going R1400 model. We were expecting Epson to release a new range of inks, but they have opted to use the existing T0791, T0792, T0793, T0794, T0795, and T0796 cartridges. I suppose this makes sense; why change a winning combination!
The R1500W seems to be almost identical except for the improved communications, but its durability (duty cycle), and the ability to reset the ink pad monitor, have not yet been tested. If you do not require WiFi or a mobile device communication, then buying the older R1400 model may be advisable at the current time. Better the devil you know!