Epson Stylus NX400 All-In-One Review & Giveaway

There is a great deal of creativity in my family. Not a day goes by when someone isn’t creating something.

Ian is my builder. He can honestly make the most amazing things out of scraps of paper, cardboard from boxes, and other items that one wouldn’t typically consider using. After he designs something, he uses the computer to write a little story about what he made.

Jacob is my thinker. He is often found curled up on his floor, writing- lyrics, stories, scripts on his computer. My husband is a writer as well. He’s also a musician, so he writes a great deal of his own music. I, too, am a writer.

Another creative thread we have in common is that we are all photographers and scrapbookers. It started with a simple camera and some great paper supplies, and after seeing me create something out of all of it, the rest of the family was hooked!

I think it’s safe to say that we all enjoy sharing our projects with other family members and friends. So, there is a whole lot of scanning and printing going on here- daily.

For quite some time, I realized that our family printer was losing its golden touch. Picture quality wasn’t fantastic, the printer was slow, and we were constantly low on ink. Additionally, the separate scanner we had was ancient, slow, loud and not completely reliable.

So, when I was approached by Epson to review the Stylus NX400 All-In-One, the whole family was excited! Finally! One printer that could do everything we needed!

The Stylus NX400 All-In-One far exceeded all of my expectations! First, and foremost, it is made by a brand I trust, Epson. Second, the quality of the products it produces from scanning, copying and printing is far superior to any I have yet to try. Finally, the fact that the inks are separate cartridges will save our family a great deal of money. We realized we hit the jackpot with this printer after using if for a couple of weeks.

The Epson Stylus NX400 All-In-One uses DURABrite Ultra ink. This fact alone made this printer a fast favorite for the photographer in me. With this pigment ink, our projects dried instantly and did not smear or smudge. After printing a photo, I ran my finger across it to see what would happen and had a serious “WOW” moment when the photo did not smear. In fact, Ian printed a photo of our friend Esther who recently passed away, and he taped it to his bedroom window. Even with all of the cold and moisture we’ve experienced here in PA, that photo is still as perfect now as it was the day he printed it.

We tested the inks on different types of paper- plain, presentation, and photo- satin, glossy. We also tested different brands of paper. We are most happy with the Epson paper that we used. The quality looks and feels superior to the others. Even so, no matter which brand or type of paper used, the images and words dried instantly and never smudged.


The one feature that surprised me is the Stylus NX400 All-In-One’s unique photo correction with advanced face detection capability. This is such a great tool! This printer will actually adjust your image to correct for dark or washed out photos. It can also distinguish between people and scenery and will enhance skin tones and make the scenery pop. There is also a red-eye correction feature. For people who want fast results yet desire a great image without the use of a photo-editing program on the computer, this printer is superb!

Another aspect of the Epson Stylus NX400 All-In-One that we appreciate is the fast text, copy and photo speeds. It prints up to 34 pages per minute for black and color text. It will print a 4”x6” border free photo in as fast as 26 seconds, and it copies up to 30 copies for minute in both black and color. That is impressive!

We all love the large 2.5-inch tilt LCD that the Epson Stylus NX400 All-In-One has for selecting, copying and printing photos without a computer. The boys just pop their memory card into the printer, choose the photo they want to print, and the photo prints in a little as 26 seconds! This is a terrific feature for anyone in our family, but especially the kids- they like knowing that they don’t need their dad or I to help them use the printer.

In addition to the photos we tested, we also printed book reports, charts, greeting cards (using the included ArcSoft Print Creations software), lyrics and directions. Each time, we were pleased with the excellent quality of the product and the speed at which it printed.

Scanning is simple with the Epson Stylus NX400 All-In-One. I tested this feature by scanning a page in a magazine. I simply placed the page I wanted to scan face-down in the lower-right hand corner of the scanning bed, closed the cover, and then, clicked on the EPSON Scan icon on my desktop. With the Mode in FULL AUTO, all I had to do was click the Scan button. The image went right to my Pictures file. You can see my result here. The sweetie with the big blue eyes is my niece Emma, by the way.) The only change I made to this image was to decrease the file size. Look at the amazing clarity of color!

There are so many more wonderful things I could say about the Epson Stylus NX400 All-In-One, and doing so would make this review pages long, so I will give you our bottom line. For an extremely affordable price of $99.99, you could own the Epson Stylus NX400 All-In-One. You will be amazed by the quality of this printer, and will find it to be the perfect solution for your busy family’s printing, scanning, and copying needs.

Here's the really exciting news!!

THE GIVEAWAY:
The great folks at Epson have very generously given me a second Epson Stylus NX400 All-In-One to give away to one of my living life one day at a time readers.

HOW TO WIN:To earn your first entry in this giveaway, post here telling me why you need this printer and what you plan to create with it if you win. NOTE: Everyone who enters must do this step!

If you are not a blogger, email 3 of your friends telling them about this giveaway, and cc me at colleenstearns@gmail.com.

ENTER DAILY!!!
Once you post your initial entry, you can come back daily and tell me you want another entry!

SCORE EVEN MORE ENTRIES:

1. For THREE extra entries, blog about this giveaway with a link back to my site and Epson (be sure to post your link here so I know where to find it).
2. Subscribe to my blog via email.
3. Click on the FOLLOW THIS BLOG link on my left sidebar. (Please note: Due to some recent changes with Blogger, those of you who already follow my blog will need to do so again. Thanks!)
4. For TWO extra entries, add my button to your blog- leave me a message with your blog address so I can check it out. :)
5. Tweet about this contest on Twitter (Be sure to follow me on Twitter too- see link in my sidebar.). Make sure to leave a link to your twitter message in your comment. You can do this once a day. Please make sure to come back each day and leave another comment with your new twitter message link.

IMPORTANT:
Be sure to leave a separate comment for each entry. If you earned two or more entries for a specific item (such as #1 and #4 above), be sure to leave me a comment for each of the entries you've earned.
*Enter by 9pm (EST) on Friday, March 6, 2009.
One lucky commenter will be chosen at random and notified via email, so make sure you leave a valid email address in your comment. The winner will have 48 hours to respond to the email. If she or he does not respond within 48 hours, a new random winner will be chosen.