If the Epson Artisan 800 had its own vanity license plate, the message would probably be some unreadable abbreviation of “Large and In Charge.” It copies, scans, faxes, and prints at 38 ppm in color and black and white, uses a whopping 6 ink cartridges, sports a 3.5” LCD screen and 7.8” touch panel, and weighs the same as 3 healthy newborn babies. But just like in boxing, the tale of the tape can only tell us so much - greatness must be earned within the ring. Multiple experts have weighed on this home and small office heavyweight, and it appears that the Artisan 800 lives up to all the pre-fight hype.

 

James Galbraith of Macworld gives the Artisan 800 an impressive 4/5 for its big touch panel and LCD, top notch photo quality, and convenient Ethernet and Wi-Fi connectivity. His only real issue seems to come with the quality of plain paper text printouts and plain paper copies of photos, which he considers adequate, but not up to the level of some other MFPs. Of course, compared to test output that had “no visible dots, great detail, and near perfect color matching” on photo paper, plain paper output is probably bound to be a letdown.

 

Jamie Bsales of Computer Shopper Magazine gives the Artisan 800 an Editors’ Choice-worthy 9.2/10, which is the highest rating I’ve seen so far for a printer. Bsales appreciates pretty much everything about the new all-in-one, including the touch panel, print speed, “stunning” photo output, and a fuss-free Wi-Fi setup process that took the tester only about 20 minutes. While it costs $299.99 and weighs a good deal more than your typical photo printer, the multi-functionality, output quality, ease of use, and overall feature set lead Bsales to conclude that the Artisan 800 is “as near a perfect all-in-one as you are likely to find.”