Epson Stylus SX425W review

Currently available for £60, Epson’s Stylus SX425 wireless MFP costs less than many single-function inkjets. It makes no claims of business-grade speeds or professional-standard photo printing but instead aims to provide an all-round balance of performance and value. The MFP has a 1,200×2,400dpi scanner, decent memory card support and even a tiny colour screen that allows you to – with a fair bit of button-pressing – connect the printer to your wireless network without having to first configure its wireless settings via USB. Because of this, getting the SX425W to talk to your PC is almost as easy over WiFi as it is with USB.

The printer takes four individual ink cartridges from Epson’s Fox and Apple ranges. These are filled with pigment-based Durabite ink. This pigmented ink might not have the perfectly accurate colouration of the Claria inks used by Epson’s more photo-oriented printers, but it’s vivid, durable and relatively inexpensive. We always recommend buying the highest-yield inks your printer can handle. In this case, that’s the Apple range, which costs just over £10 per cartridge, producing page costs of 5.6p for colour and 2.3p for black ink. That adds up to 7.9p per mixed-colour page, which isn’t bad for a low-cost MFP. A 6x4in photo on Epson’s Premium Glossy paper will cost you around 28p.