KODAK ESP 5250 REVIEW
The ‘Kodak ESP 5250’ is the latest version released by the Kodak Company after Kodak ESP 5 All In One (AIO) device, which can be easily found out through its similar designs. Apart from looks, the printer is enhanced in its print quality and the output speed. An auto document feeder is missing and hence errors occur during paper feed, which is not expected from a device of price $170.
Design and Features:
The Kodak’s entire group of printers needs a make over. You would have naturally expected the Kodak 5250 to look brilliant in the matter of its hip design. Unfortunately, the printer looks exactly the same; sporting a matte black and dark shiny look with orange accents and a punched scanner cover. The printer has its dimensions of 16.6 inches in width, 11.8 inches of depth and 6.9 inches of height. The artistic nature of the printer is commendable, but the conventional look will not get many buyers.
Most of you will not face a problem while exploring the menus visible on the pop-up 2.4” LCD screen. On top of the device, there are hard buttons, immediately on the right of the scanner lid. A vertical strip of controls is present, starting with the Start button on top, which follows the 4 way directional pad, a photo rotate shortcut, a pair of zoom buttons and a Cancel button at the bottom where a large “Start” key is present. The printer has a hinged scanner bay.
Below the control panel is a small media card reader, which supports MemoryStick, SD and MMC. Kodak is uninterested to eliminate the USB card that can be used for photo transfers instead of a memory card. When the cover is removed, you can see an ink bay and a thin plastic arm comes out and fastens the cover, which is identical to the car’s hood. This action requires two hands to close which is not good. It might break in a couple of months and hence, Kodak should have used a standard spring mounted lid.
The cover present on the top of the scanner bed gets folded on to a fixed hinge that cannot look into fat books. Kodak has two ink cartridges: one for black and the other for 5 various base colors. The Website of Kodak sells a color photo for 10 cents which is a reasonable price for a normal inkjet printer. Kodak in addition sells 3 different printing bundles which include black and other color ink cartridges along with various kinds of paper.
Kodak has reduced the size of LCD to 2.4 inches, but it performs its usual functions. The radiant colors make reading easier. The options available are fairly good for an average buyer. The home screen comprises of a shortcut to copy a photo or a document. The Kodak 5250 uses single paper tray to handle input feeds and collects outgoing prints also. The paper tray is capable of holding 100 sheets of paper of different sizes.
But since the printer is slightly expensive, they could have easily installed two paper trays for output organization. An extra tray for 4 x 6 inch photo paper could have been inserted so that the users won’t have to change the paper everytime they wish to swap with media. There were paper jams occurring in between since the paper tray found it difficult to receive photo paper.
Even after setting the driver options to 3×5, it remained the same. The width adjuster inside the paper input had to be firmly held against the paper. Otherwise the media sensor will think it is a wide paper and spit it out. The printer failed to work properly with photo paper, where as it worked really well with the normal 8.5×11 inch media. The printer possesses an installation disc for Windows XP/Vista and Mac OS X, which includes the Kodak “Home Center” software.
The Home Center software acts as a core for print scan and copy functions. The copy function is simple and provides a unique combined copy that will copy many pictures in similar orientation as the original one. The scanning center does not have an option to scan directly to an email or a .PDF, since the two are industry standards. Surprisingly, other options are available: initially, the software can be given a command to scan your photos automatically and is easy to use.
Once the photos are chosen for printing, this software allows you to edit each distinct picture with various one touch enhancements like red eye reduction, color restoration, color sharpening and Kodak’s exclusive “Perfect Touch” technology that will combine all these functions with the press of a button. You also have the option of modifying the intensity of each adjustment under settings menu. A custom facial retouch can also be done to analyze portraits and clear skin discoloration and blemishes at your will.
The effect will not be as the custom Photoshop edit, but you can quickly learn to do this as a starter who wishes to clean up images with no trouble. The ESP 5250 offers 802.11 b/g wireless connectivity instead of Bluetooth. Kodak has a special feature consisting of an inbuilt Wi-Fi wizard, unlike other devices which deal with complicated menus and empty fields to establish a connection. This wizard offers instructions to you about the SSID connection process and matches your device with any other system connected to a router. The time it takes for this is 10 minutes or even less.
Performance:
The Kodak prints at a reasonably fast pace and delivered fast performance in the output speed benchmarks. But, when compared to the Epson Stylus NX515 which prints 14 pages / minute, the ESP 5250 can print just 5 pages / minute. The Kodak Company has constantly improvised on its image quality. At the ‘normal’ default setting, the color text documents are just perfect with absolute precision.
The subtle details of the image like smooth shadows, sharp lines and the blending of colors are visible in the color snapshots clearly. The skin tones can be neatly distinguished with equal separation and a bright, vibrant color palette. The buyers will be awestruck with the image quality of Kodak 5250.
Service and Support:
Kodak protects its device with a one year warranty that includes the printer and the print head. Ink cartridges are also included for 13 months from the manufacture date or till it needs to be replaced. The warranty comprises of a toll free phone support from morning 6am to night 9pm. Also, an online chat system allows you to speak to a Kodak technician from Saturday to Thursday, between 6am to 9pm regarding the problems encountered by you. Kodak has also released software downloads, manuals and useful tutorials to serve the user better.
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Kodak’s ESP 5250 multifunction printer isn’t marred by the errors of its predecessors, but it still needs improvement before it can keep up with the competition. Right now, its pleasing photo quality and satisfactory output speed don’t justify the $170 price tag and lack of features.
This printer from Kodak is an absolute load of rubbish. OK the ink is cheaper than normal printers but what Kodak fail to tell you is that you will have to replace them at least 4 times as often. I mostly just print black & white text documents. I replaced the initail cartridges very soon after purchase as they ran out in no time at all. Then with new cartridges installed, less than 50 sheets in, I had to replace the black cartridge again. Then less than a week later I had to replace the colour cartridge. I hadn’t even used colour! Just back & white. Begrudgingly I replaced the colour cartridge and decided to print a few photos. After just 12 standard photos it told me my colour ink cartridge was low and needed replacing! Now it won’t let me do anything at all, until I get another colour cartridge. Why can’t I just use the black & white cartridge? I don’t need the colour one. It won’t even let me scan anything until I replace the ink. I feel Kodak are mis-selling these printers as money saving options. Seriously think twice about buying this printer!!
I have had an ESP-3 and have had very few problems with it. I do not find that the ink runs out fast..matter of fact my unit does not use ink fast. One thing however I am not understanding is that even though I set my Printer Preferences to draft quality and black and white only…I see my color cartridge slowly being used up…not fast but slowly. Why would this happen with my text only printing with Black and White only set ?
It is not the fastest printer going but I do believe it does not cost me much to operate.
My Kodak 3250 is a real rip off. I have printed everything in draft copy, set to black usage only and it still is using the color ink with each printing. Supposedly it does a black and color maintenance check after each printing. So, it is using up my color ink rather than me using it. So much for cheap ink. I will have to buy both black and color, even though I never print anything in color. How is that saving me money. It will cost me $5.00 more than it was costing to replace my HP black cartridge. DO NOT BUY THIS PRINTER!
Hi dear, our problem’s we bought a kodak esp 5250 printer but the cd software it does work, what can i do?