Kodak ESP 9250 review

Kodak’s ESP 9250 is an office-orientated device. It’s rare in that it has a fax modem which, together with a 30-sheet automatic document feeder, means you can send multi-page communications to places where the internet is yet to arrive. It’s made of silver-grey plastics rather than trendy black ones, but the formal-looking result is rather handsome. Build quality is high, too, with the exception of the lead from the external power adaptor, which wobbles a bit in its socket. We’d avoid pushing the printer fully back against a wall for this reason, although the protruding duplexer should stop it coming to any harm.

Aside from the fax modem and ADF, this MFP is quite well specified with photo printing features such as card slots and a colour display, although at just 6.1cm this is one of the smallest here. Kodak’s installer offers to download the latest software and firmware from the web. It’s a chatty program; giving you updates on everything it’s downloading and installing while all the time running a video to remind you how great the MFP you just bought is.

Kodak uses a different arrangement of inks to other manufacturers. A large black tank of pigment ink is partnered with a single colour tank containing black, cyan, magenta and yellow inks – also pigmented. Unlike the dye-based inks in most inkjets, the pigment particles in Kodak’s colour inks can’t pass through the protective top layer of photo paper, which would normally result in prints without a uniform glossy finish. To address this, there’s a fifth chamber in the colour cartridge that contains a clear gloss coating. The upside of pigment inks is that they should produce stronger colours on plain paper, and be far more resistant to fade. Indeed, Willhelm Research suggests Kodak’s photo prints will last 259 years.