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Kodak ESP 3.2 review

Our Rating :
Price when reviewed : £79
inc VAT

Cheap running costs, but average scanning and printing quality - there are better printers for the price

Specifications

print speed, USB, 802.11b/g/n wireless, 178x419x315mm

http://www.kodak.co.uk
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In colour the printer was quick to deliver photos, taking just four minutes to print six borderless postcard-sized shots, but slow when printing graphics on plain paper: it completed our 24-page test at just 3ppm. Photo quality was unremarkable, but plain paper prints were more impressive, let down only by some banding in areas of solid colour. The results from the scanner were about average, with fairly good colour accuracy and sharpness, but the printer was less good at preserving the detail among the darkest shades of an original.

Kodak ESP 3.2

The ESP 3.2 supports printing via the cloud and from smartphones or tablets, but there’s no AirPrint support, so iPad and Android users will need to download the free Pic Flick app. This is easy to use and worked well, but it’s focused on photos. Printing other documents requires Document Print which isn’t as slick and is only available for Android.

Kodak is keen to stress its printers’ low running costs, and the ESP 3.2 is one of the cheapest home inkjets we’ve seen to run. There’s little else to commend it, however, so unless cheap ink is critical we’d recommend the similar but better Canon Pixma MG4150, which is now available for just £70.

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Basic Specifications

Rating ***
Maximum native print resolution 9,600dpi
Max optical resolution 1,200dpi
Output bit depth 24-bit

Tested Print Speeds

Time for two 10x8in photos 1.0 3m 25s
Time for six 6x4in photos 1.0 4m 1s

Physical and Environmental

Standard printer interfaces USB, 802.11b/g/n wireless
Optional printer interfaces none
Size 178x419x315mm
Weight 5.2kg

Paper Handling

Maximum paper size A4/legal
Standard paper inputs 1
Standard paper input capacity 100
Maximum paper inputs 1
Maximum paper input capacity 100
Duplex (code, cost if option) No

General

Printer technology thermal inkjet
Supported operating systems Windows XP/Vista/7, Mac OS X 10.5 or later
Other inkjet features 6.1cm colour touchscreen
Other inkjet options none

Buying Information

Price £79
Consumable parts and prices £13
Price per colour A4 page 3.3p
Quoted life of supplied black cartridge 205 (ISO/IEC 27412)
Quoted life of supplied colour cartridge(s) 390 (ISO/IEC 24712)
Quoted life of supplied photo cartridge(s) N/A
Warranty one year
Supplier http://www.kodak.co.uk
Details www.kodak.co.uk

Print Quality

Number of ink colours 4
Number of ink cartridges 2
Maximum number of ink colours 4
Maximum number of cartridges 2
Quoted photo durability 72 years
Quoted photo durability source Torrey Pines Research

Tested Scan Speeds

Full scan area preview 10s
A4 document at 150dpi 11s
A4 document at 300dpi 20s
6x4in photo at 600dpi 38s
6x4in photo at 1200dpi 1m 30s

Tested Copy Speeds

Time for single A4 mono copy 1.0 12s
Time for single A4 colour copy 1.0 29s
Time for 10 A4 copies using feeder 2.0 N/A

Photo Features

PictBridge support No
Borderless printing A4
Direct (PC-less) printing Yes
Supported memory cards SD, MMC, Memory Stick (Pro)
CD printing No

Copy Features

Maximum number of copies 99

Fax Features

Max mono fax resolution N/A
Fax memory (maximum mono pages) N/A