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The Epson SX525WD measures 43x34x16cm, add another 15cm to the 34cm depth for the paper output to be fully extended as well as raising the display area to 45degrees and add say 10cm to the 16cm height to add or remove anything from the flatbed.

Few USB units come with a USB lead, this does and you will need it once to setup the initial connection between the unit and the PC you install the software on even if you choose the wireless option, or course for USB you need it all the time.

See also: Multifunction printers

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The mains lead goes into the back left corner and on the back of the left side Ethernet or USB connections are made. As stated you need the USB lead provided for the first connection so you may want to do initial setup before you stow the unit away from the eyes of the ever vigilant ‘lounge police’, the mains lead is 1.5 metres.

The central area at the front has a lift up display area that should allow you to read if the unit is level or below you and you can flip it back down if it is above you. The display area is 34cm long and has 15 touch buttons either side of a 5x4cm TFT display, all the buttons are clearly marked, the display is easy to read and very useful to make changes when you are copying.

So let’s start with copying as this does not require any connection to the PC apart from a straightforward copy you can reduce and enlarge and of course copy in colour or monochrome. In mono a one off copy takes around 10 seconds while the same image in colour is just over 15 seconds.

While you can scan something from the unit you need to be at the PC to decide what to do with the received output. Of course you can make all the decisions from software on the PC but you need to place the item on the flatbed. The unit has three initial options Scan, Scan to PDF, Scan to email. I found that a basic scan took around 30 seconds.

There is a range of software provided to help with all tasks on the unit and if the novice user uses this the results will be good, however if you already have a favourite package this should work with the Epson SX525WD.

Printing speeds should now be close to those claimed, although I have asked for a copy of the files used these have never arrived, I will leave you to check the claimed speeds on the second link below. Here I print the speeds I achieved using draft mode and not counting either the first or last copy in a run. For the nonsensical 200 word document close to 18PPM. The more normal 1500 word document spread over four pages was 13PPM.

In the past Epson’s draft mode has been very grey with this unit the output was sharp and crisp and quite acceptable.

Printing an A4 image in best mode on photo paper was all but three minutes, the same time taken by four near 15x10cm images on a single sheet of photo paper. Not fast by the standards of some but for me the only thing – within reason – that matters for photo printing is quality, here it was good and the image was dry on delivery.

I used this unit in both USB and Wireless mode I could have also used Ethernet as it was available. I suffered no paper jams despite me always using a mix of types and weights of papers for my tests. I liked the black colour and the display being adjustable means it can be viewed in all lights and at all angles easily.

Doing my Internet searches found the Epson SX525WD at a best price of £87.99 from the first link below.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B003QP3UFI?ie=UTF8&tag=gadge0a-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634

http://www.epson.co.uk/Printers-and-All-In-Ones/Inkjet/Epson-Stylus-Office-BX525WD