Epson EPL-6100 laser printer review

The Epson EPL-6100 is an easy to use and maintain laser printer. With a generous 250 sheet standard input tray, Mac support and both USB, parallel connectors the Epson is only let down by average running costs and reasonably high initial purchase cost.

While not the most amazing printer I've ever reviewed the Epson EPL-6100 does have a few things going for it.

The EPL-6100 is good looking

At least with the Epson EPL-6100 you won't be buying another generic beige box. The design looks good and works very well. Changing the toner is a breeze and removing paper jams is also easy. I rate the design very highly with the front loading paper cartridge also being fast and simple to install.

The other major bonus is the 250 sheet input tray which comes as standard. Most other printers in this price range require some kind of upgrade to get 250 sheets. The output is only 100 which is standard in this printer class.

At this price there's obviously no ethernet port but there is both USB and parallel connectors. Another important fact consideration is that there are Windows drivers back to 95 as well as Mac OS8.1 and above.

Here are the specifications:

• black: up to 19 ppm
• 8mb memory (expandable to 136)
• Total Input Media Capacity 250 sheets
• 1200 dpi x 1200 dpi for monochrome documents
• Maximum Duty Cycle: 15,000 prints/month

Epson EPL-6100, doesn't stand out from the crowd

This printer is in an awkward position, straddling the line price wise between the value-for-money category and the raft of high performance printers.

As such it makes a reasonable job of things, and will prove especially effective at printing quality text pages in a hurry.

It is difficult to recommend the Epson over something much cheaper like the Minolta-QMS1250W. The Epson will handle larger volumes better but Minolta costs less to run. Ultimately if you need moderate text volumes the Epson is worth considering.