Epson P600 Printer: In-Depth Review and User Opinions

The Epson SureColor P600 is a high-quality photo printer designed for photography enthusiasts and professionals looking to print exhibition-quality photos at home. With its large format and pigment ink system, the P600 is capable of producing gallery-worthy prints up to 17 inches wide.

This desktop printer is primarily aimed at advanced amateur and professional photographers who need to create portfolio pieces, sell their work, or decorate their homes with their photos. The P600 delivers exceptional quality fine art prints that live up to gallery standards, making it an attractive option for photographers who want to bypass photo labs. Its ability to print directly onto fine art paper also appeals to artists who want to print and frame their own work.

While casual users may find the P600 overkill for everyday printing needs, it's an ideal solution for photography aficionados seeking the highest print quality possible from a desktop device. For those who regularly print their photographs, the Epson SureColor P600 delivers stunning exhibition-level results right from your home studio.

Design & Build Quality

The Epson SureColor P600 features a compact and minimalist design, with a footprint of 16.7 x 25.5 x 9.6 inches (WxDxH) and weighing 24 pounds. Despite its desktop size, the printer feels very solid and sturdy thanks to its rigid plastic outer shell.

The top of the printer opens up to reveal a letter/A4-sized print bed and front feeder, allowing you to easily load paper as needed. There is also a manual feed slot in the back for printing onto thicker media like cardstock or envelopes.

Overall the P600 has a tidy, professional appearance that looks nice on a desk or workstation without taking up too much space. The matte black finish is attractive yet subtle. Buttons and controls are cleanly integrated into the design.

The printer's internal frame utilizes an aluminum chassis and steel plates for stability and durability during printing. This rigid construction helps maintain precise alignment for accurate ink placement.

Print Quality

The Epson P600 delivers exceptional print quality for both photos and documents. It has a maximum print resolution of 5760 x 1440 dpi, producing incredibly detailed prints.

The printer uses Epson's advanced UltraChrome HD ink technology with nine separate ink cartridges. This allows for excellent color accuracy with smooth gradations and transitions. The additional light black, gray, and orange inks provide an especially wide color gamut, perfect for printing vivid photos.

Testing shows the Epson P600 is capable of producing gallery-quality photo prints with crisp details, accurate colors, deep blacks, and minimal graininess. Color accuracy is aided by the inclusion of an integrated color lcd screen which allows for print previews. For document printing, text comes out looking sharp and clear even at small font sizes.

Overall, print quality from the Epson P600 is superb. The combination of high print resolution, advanced ink system, and precise color management results in stunning, professional-level photo prints as well as flawless everyday document prints. This makes the P600 a great choice for photographers, graphic designers, and anyone looking for a high-quality home photo printer.

Print Speed

The Epson P600 is relatively fast for an inkjet photo printer, being able to print a 4" x 6" photo in as fast as 28 seconds. For letter size prints, it can achieve speeds of 1 minute 40 seconds for high quality matte paper prints.

When using the printer's regular print mode, speeds are approximately:

• 4" x 6" photo - 28 seconds
• 8" x 10" photo - 1 minute 11 seconds
• Letter size high quality matte - 1 minute 40 seconds
• A4 high quality matte - 1 minute 38 seconds

The printer also has a "high speed" print mode which increases print speeds by about 33%, but at a slight reduction in print quality.

Overall, the P600 has reasonably fast print speeds for an inkjet photo printer, especially for smaller sizes like 4" x 6". The speed is sufficient for most home and office needs unless extremely high volume photo printing is required.

Paper Handling

The Epson P600 offers versatile paper handling capabilities. It has a front paper feed that can hold up to 120 sheets of plain paper or 30 sheets of premium photo paper. The printer supports a wide variety of paper types including plain, glossy, matte, fine art, and thicker stock up to 1.3 mm.

You can print borderless photos up to 13" x 19" in size. The printer includes a rear feed path for specialty paper like cardstock or envelopes. It's equipped with an auto sheet feeder that senses when paper is inserted and automatically pulls it into the printer. This makes it easy to print stacks of photos or documents without having to manually feed each page.

Overall, the P600 provides robust paper support from plain copy paper up to thick fine art stock, enabling high quality printing on a diverse array of media types and sizes. The dual paper paths and auto feeder improve workflow efficiency when printing large print jobs or batches of mixed media.

Connectivity

The Epson SureColor P600 offers excellent wired and wireless connectivity options. For wired connections, it has a Hi-Speed USB 2.0 port for connecting directly to your computer. This allows for fast and reliable data transfers.

For wireless connectivity, the P600 has integrated Wi-Fi 802.11n. This allows you to print wirelessly from your computer, smartphone or tablet. Connecting the printer to your wireless network is quick and easy using the setup wizard on the LCD screen. It supports wireless printing from iOS, Android, Windows, Chromebook and more.

The printer also supports Wi-Fi Direct, which allows you to connect your mobile device directly to the printer without a wireless router. This can be useful when printing on the go or if you don't have a wireless network setup.

Overall, the connectivity options on the P600 give you a lot of flexibility in how you setup and use the printer. The USB, Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi Direct cover all the key connection types most users will need.

Cartridges & Ink

The Epson P600 uses ink cartridges to deliver its high quality prints. It utilizes nine individual ink cartridges including Photo Black, Matte Black, Cyan, Vivid Magenta, Yellow, Light Cyan, Vivid Light Magenta, Light Black, and Light Light Black.

Having separate cartridges allows you to replace only the colors that run out rather than replacing a multi-color cartridge. The ink costs are moderate - replacement cartridges run about $13-15 each. The inks are also pigment based which provide better longevity and water resistance compared to dye based inks. With pigment inks, prints can last up to 100 years without fading when used with Epson Premium Presentation Paper.

The ink tanks are also high capacity, providing excellent page yields. For example, the replacement Photo Black ink tank can print around 120 photos at 4R size. This helps lower the cost per print over time. Overall, the cartridge and ink system offers outstanding print quality with reasonable ink expenses.

Special Features

The Epson SureColor P600 has several useful special features not found on comparably priced photo printers.

One handy feature is a tilt-up control panel that provides access to the ink bay. This allows you to easily swap cartridges without having to reach around the back of the printer. The touchscreen interface is also very user-friendly.

For precision printing, the Epson P600 has a built-in densitometer. This allows you to calibrate the printer to produce consistent colors and tones across multiple prints. It's a handy tool for professional photographers who need reliable color output.

The printer also supports wireless printing from smartphones, tablets, and computers. You can print directly from iOS devices using the Epson iPrint app or use driverless technologies like Google Cloud Print. The P600 gives you flexibility in how you print.

Borderless printing is supported up to 13" x 19" sheets. This allows you to print full bleed photos with no unsightly white borders. It's perfect for landscape and fine art prints.

Finally, the printer has integrated Ethernet connectivity. This provides a faster and more reliable wired network connection if you use the P600 in a home or office environment.

Pros & Cons

Pros

• Impressive, professional print quality on par with more expensive printers
• Wide range of supported media types including fine art papers, glossy photo paper, matte papers, canvas, etc.
• Accommodates roll paper for panoramas, banners and other large format prints
• Relatively fast print speeds
• Advanced black ink improves print quality on plain paper
• Easy to set up and use
• Intuitive touchscreen interface
• Supports wireless printing and WiFi connectivity
• Prints borderless photos up to 13" x 19"
• Wide gamut 10-color pigment ink system produces vibrant, archival prints
• Ink is fairly economical to replace

Cons

• Significant manual interference required for loading thick fine art paper or canvas
• No auto document feeder for printing multiple pages hands-free
• No fax capability
• High upfront cost, though prints are inexpensive
• No built-in scanner or copier functions

Conclusion

The Epson SureColor P600 is an excellent 13-inch wide-format photo printer that delivers exceptional print quality. Its key strengths are:

• Superb color accuracy with Epson's advanced 10-color ink system
• Ability to print borderless photos up to 13 x 19 inches
• Professional-quality pigment inks for archival prints that last up to 200 years
• Max resolution of 5760 x 1440 optimized dpi
• Built-in scanner for copying and scanning originals up to 12.2" x 8.5"

The P600 strikes a great balance between pro-level output and reasonably affordable inks. It's an ideal choice for photography enthusiasts looking to print exhibition-quality prints at home.

While the ink costs are higher than regular Epson photo printers, they are reasonable compared to pro printer ink. Prints have excellent fade-resistance and longevity.

The P600 lacks an Ethernet port, which is disappointing considering its price. The lack of automatic document feeder for the scanner is another downside. The printer is also quite slow for plain paper printing.

Overall, the Epson SureColor P600 delivers exceptional photo print quality and accuracy for the price. It's easy to recommend for photo hobbyists looking to print gallery-quality photographic prints at home. For plain paper printing, an equivalent A4/Letter size photo printer would be a better choice.