Design & Features

The Epson Artisan 700 is one sleek-looking printer that is exceptionally designed to offer a very high level of functionality.  The printer sports a very appealing black finish accented by silver trimming and some areas that sport a nice mirror-like black finish.  There's certainly lots to cover here so let's have a much more thorough look...

Starting with the front, you'll find the main control panel that includes a 2.5" screen and black buttons that respond well and feel quite nice.  The dual bottom feed tray is hidden by a hinged bay cover that will automatically open when you send a print job.  However, it will not close automatically and you'll probably want to do this to prevent dust buildup over time.  You will also find an extension port and the memory card reader on the lower right.  On the rear of the printer is where you'll find a standard power jack and also where you'll find a USB and RJ45 jack for networking functionality.

Unlike their other flagship model in this series, the Artisan 700 maintains that sleek appearance by featuring a flat top panel instead of an ADF tray found on the 800 model.  Lifting the panel will reveal the scanner.  The scanner cover itself sports a matte black finish but the printer is accented with a gloss black finish along all sides.

Its paper handling features are excellent for such a compact MFC printer.  There's a telescoping guide tray and the printer also features dual paper feed trays that supports a variety of paper stock which I will comment on further later in this article.

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A look inside the printer itself will certainly make you appreciate the level of detail and simplistic design behind this product.  Ink slots are conveniently located on the right front of the printer and access to all other areas is quite easy.  While the inner workings are not on par with the quality behind the recent review of the Samsung SCX-4500, it does come quite close and you'll be impressed when you open it up for the first time.

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Let's not forget the built-in multi-card reader that supports just about every flash memory card out there and also unleashes a number of features I will cover later in the article.  Right next to all the card slots is a USB host port, providing PictBridge support for supported cameras and phones.

While this practically covers everything in terms of design, this printer has a number of other features that requires a much closer look...

First off, both models in the new Artisan series feature a control panel that is adjustable.  You can lift and angle it to your liking or press the unlock button to set it back to its original postion.  Also worth mentioning are all the status LED's built-in.  A majority are green in color to indicate the current option but there's a nice blue glow that will emanate from the bottom of the panel to let you know it is in a "busy state".

The Display & Interface

Now, I want to say that I also did play with their Artisan 800 for quite some time before choosing to write on this one.  The Artisan 800 sports a larger screen that is paired with a very user-friendly touch panel.  While the touch controls are easy to use, I didn't quite like it as much I thought I would.  The smaller display on the Artisan 700 actually looks better to me.  Now, I can't possibly show you every single screen but will at least cover most of the main screens briefly and provide screenshots as well to give you a pretty good idea of how the printer interface looks and functions.

The interface is not only visually appealing, but just like their 800 model, is just as easy to use, despite the lack of the touch controls.  It consists of 4 submenus under its main "Home" menu.  Switch between all four is done via the Home button that also lights up to let you know which screen is activated.  The 4 menus are:  Copy, Photos, Scan and Setup. 

Staring with the most impressive, the Photo Menu provides plenty of options to make use of its print features without the need for a computer.  This includes print and image selection, slideshows, photo greeting cards and you even have access to its excellent CD printing right from the printer.  This is a feature I'll cover in detail a bit later in this review.

The Copy Menu consists of just one screen, but it is quite a busy one, providing plenty of options.  This includes number of copies, type of copy, density and can direct you to the settings to choose type of paper and its quality.  The Scan Menu is also quite nice, allowing you to scan to your PC, directly to email, to PDF and even an option to scan to the memory card itself. 

Epson should be given credit for making these multifunction printers so easy to use.  After playing around with the Artisan 800, they are in fact so easy to use, a trained monkey can use them.  The same applies to this model and there are plenty of other screens available.  You even have a "Problem Solver" menu that I can see would be great for novice users.  There is also some backup features, allowing you to backup the data on your memory card.  Overall, I'm was very impressed with the LCD and interface.

Next:  Installation