1. Electronics

Reviews of Kodak All-in-One Printers

Kodak makes a line of printers that aim to take away one of the most painful parts of printer ownership--the high cost of inkjet refills. Here are reviews of the Kodak all-in-one printers I've tested.

Kodak's High-End MFP Falls Short in Speed, Sound
The Kodak Hero 9.1 all-in-one color inkjet printer is a wireless all-in-one that offers some options such as a large color touchscreen, built-in wireless networking, an automatic document feeder, and automatic duplex printing. It also makes it easy to print from anywhere (including smart phones) and to scan directly to the cloud.

Kodak ESP Office 2170 All-in-One Color Printer
Kid cousin to the Kodak ESP Office 6150 (and $100 less), it's got a lot in common with that more expensive printer--it's just as slow. Photos did indeed look very good, even at letter size, with print speeds about or above average (1:45 for letter size, about 1:08 for 4x6). It does offer some nice advantages, such as Kodak Perfect Page, the...

Kodak ESP C310 Multifunction Printer
The Kodak ESP C310 comes it at under $100 and offers printing, scanning, and copying in a very compact machine. Graphics and fonts looked surprisingly sharp and clear for such a low-end printer; photos also looked very good, though not as sharp as with similarly priced printers. Photos tended to come out of the printer slightly bowed, though...

Kodak ESP 5250 All-in-One Printer
For the price (over $150), the Kodak ESP 5250 didn't perform as well as I hoped. In that price range it competes with some excellent Epson all-in-ones (including the WorkForce 610 and the cheaper NX 515) and some entry-level Brother printers. Photo quality is very good, print quality decent, but it's slow, takes a while to warm up, and had a number of photo-paper-related paper jams.

Kodak ESP 9250 All-in-One Printer
At the high end of the ESP line is the Kodak ESP 9250, an all-in-one that offers a fax, scanner, copier, and easily configured wireless. Like other ESP printers, it's not very fast, with first pages taking almost 30 seconds to print. Photos look great but text printing is not all that dazzling, nor is the clumsy analog control panel.

Kodak ESP 5 All-in-One Printer
The Kodak ESP 5 all-in-one printer is a low-cost multifunction printer that has excellent print quality but is not the most convenient all-in-one out there for this price.

Kodak ESP 3250 All-in-One Printer
The Kodak ESP 3250 is a good value--at just over $100, it won't break the bank, and neither will Kodak's low-cost ink refills. The ESP 3250 puts out great looking photos and decent-enough prints from documents, and while it's not super fast, it's not pokey, either. If you need a lot of extras--an automatic document feeder, a big LCD, or multiple paper feeds--look somewhere else. But for a three-i…

Kodak ESP 7250 All-in-One Printer
The Kodak ESP 7250 comes at a reasonable price, has built-in wireless and Bluetooth, and creates very good prints. It is not the fastest of printers, however, and, like the cheaper 5250, can take a while to warm up. An automatic document feeder and duplex printing are likewise missing. But the wireless was easy to set up and I like the separate tray for photos.

Kodak ESP Office 6150 All-in-One Color Printer
For roughly $250, the Kodak ESP Office 6150 leaves something to be desired--namely, speed. It's downright pokey at normal quality, and while things speed up in draft mode, the end results are less than exciting. Photos look decent but not fantastic, which is disappointing considering that even cheaper Kodak printers do a pretty fantastic job. And while the literature for the 6150 claims you can p…

©2013 About.com. All rights reserved.