just okay, nothing special

I got this printer for what I perceived to be a great price and an overall great value. Prior to this printer, I was using the free one that came with my computer. Boy is this a step up! However, this printer introduces many nice features, but does not do a very good job at incorporating them.

Take for instance the document feeder, while it is a nice feature it suffers from a sever limitation: It can only hold about 15 pages! Yes in hindsight it does say this on the box/websites, but it was sort of something I took for granted that it would be able to hold at least 20 pages. This was very disappointing for me, but I should of looked at the specs a little more carefully before buying. When you do have the appropriate number of pages though, it works very well, and all the copies comes out very accurate.

The extra tray for photo sized paper is another thing that should be improved. First of all, it also does not hold that much paper-about 15 sheets I think. This does not bug me that much though since I won't be waisting to much ink printing at home and send most prints out to snapfish or kodak anyway. What does bug me is that in order to have the printer print from this tray, you must first remove the entire tray from the printer, then slide the top portion of the printer (the photo card part) forward, then reinsert the whole tray again. I'm sorry I can't explain that process very well, but let me put it this way: Using the photo tray is almost as cumbersome as taking the normal paper out, readjusting the paper guides, and putting photo paper back in- so having the extra tray is sort of a waist.

Print quality:
Fine for black and whites. Color prints come out very bland and sub-par for what most printers can churn out.

build quality:
This machine feels like it was built to last, I have only had machine a few months so I can't say that it has lasted, but everything on it feels very durable and high quality.

Usability:
This printer is equipped with an LCD screen which makes checking ink levels, printing directly from a camera memory card, and making copies (and choosing different options such as contrast and size)a breeze.

Networking:
Prior to this machine, I never had a networked printer in my house. Setting it up on my home network via an ethernet cable was just as easy as installing other printers through usb cables has been. And Ethernet cables are considerably cheaper then usb cables. I simply connected the ethernet cable to the place on the printer indicated in the instruction manual, then connected the other end to my wireless router. I then inserted the cd and clicked "yes" like every other good little monkey out there. I could then go to "add a printer" on the other computers on the network and could print wirelessly from my laptop in the backyard or the attic. Awesome!

Replacing ink:
replacing the ink is even easier than I originally thought: Simply tug the door down in the front, and pull out the cartridge you want to replace, and pop in a fresh one, give it a few minutes to load the cartridge, then bingo! you're good to go.

I should also say that compared to other all-in-one printers, this takes up a relatively small square footage out of your work space, hence making it even more convenient.

Happy deciding and I hope I helped! Any questions or comments, feel free to post below!