Kodak ESP 5250 review – Expensive deal

Thumbs Up:

Improved and better printing speeds and photo quality than previous ESP models and other printers in same range. The printer features bright 2.4-inch LCD display and user-friendly Kodak software.

Thumbs Down:

Fickle and useless paper input tray; does not have auto-document feeder and expensive price tag.

The Whiz Kid Speaks:

Kodak ESP 5250 is an All-in-one inkjet photo printer. It has two ink cartridges: one for black and another one for five basic colors. The ESP 5250 uses CIS scan element and its scanner has 1200 dpi optical resolution. The printer has 2.4 inches LCD display and expansion card slot that supports SDHC Memory card, Memory Stick Pro, SD Memory Card, MultiMedia Card, Memory Stick and miniSD.

Maximum copying speed is 30 pages per minute (PPM) for mono and 29PPM for color. The maximum document enlargement is 400% and maximum reduction is 20%. Kodak ESP 5250 has BorderFree copying feature and supports up to maximum 99 copies at a time.

Kodak ESP 5250 supports maximum paper size of 8.5×17 inches. Minimum copying size is 3.94×5.9 inches and maximum is 8.5×14 inches. The paper tray can handle maximum 100 sheets.

Kodak ESP 5250 offers Hi-Speed USB and IEEE 802.11 b/g wireless for computer connection. Supported operating systems are Windows XP/Vista/Windows 7 and Apple Mac OSX 10.4.8 or later. Kodak provides one-year warranty with its ESP 5250.

Razzle Dazzle:

New, Kodak ESP 5250 is 6.9 inches tall, 16.6 inches wide and 11.8 inches deep and weighs 14.1 lbs. It has black colored matte and glossy body with orange accent and perforated scanner cover.

Inside Dope:

Kodak ESP 5250 is the latest upgrade to company’s ESP 5 series of all-in-one printers. The new model has improvements in the printing quality and speed, but not in design. The ESP 5250 costs $170 and has some major drawbacks. It does not have any auto-document feeder and has issues with paper feeds. These disadvantages are not forgive able at such a high cost. We will not recommend this printer. You can go for Epson Stylus NX515 at $150, which provides better sleek design and good performance.

We will recommend the Kodak to concentrate and improve on the design of its printers. Moreover, all the printers including the ESP 5250 have same design and shape. At least, the design of expensive printers should be unique.

Kodak ESP 5250 has 2.4 inches LCD display on the front. The display size is small as compared to 3-inch screen of ESP series. However, it provides bright and vibrant colors for easy navigation through menu options. The menu options are simple and not sophisticated like HP Photosmart C8180. The Home screen will show dedicated shortcut for copying a document or photo.

The control buttons are located on the top of printer at the right side of scanner lid. We appreciated the Kodak to simplify everything in the vertical strip controls. The photo rotate shortcut, zoom buttons, four-way directional pad and power button are located on the top of vertical strip. The cancel button and “Start” button rounding the cockpit sits at the bottom of same strip. Attached scanner bay and card reader slot are located underneath the panel of controls. The card reader slot supports MMC and MemoryStick.

You will notice a plastic arm braces the cover on raising the printer’s cover for opening ink bay. This opening mechanism will need two hands that consume time. We will prefer the Kodak to include spring mount lid for simplifying the work. Moreover, the top cover of scanner bed only folds with fixed and flexible joint that does not allow putting large books for scanning. The company had separated the ink into two different cartridges: one cartridge for five base colors and another one for black. Kodak ESP 5250 costs 10 cents per photo as per the company’s Website. Kodak also sells black cartridge, color ink cartridges and numerous types of papers.

Kodak ESP 5250 has one paper tray, which provides input feeds and collects output prints as well. This tray can hold maximum 100 paper sheets of various sizes. However, we would expect to have two different trays for output prints and separate individual tray for 4×6 photo papers at this price tag. We faced some paper jams while testing the ESP 5250. We even could not print 3×5 size pages, but after some help we did it. We will recommend you to clinch up the width adjuster of paper tray against small papers. Else the media sensor will not detect the small pages, treat them as standard size and spits out due to paper mismatch. We impressed that the ESP 5250 printer acted well with 8.5×11 inches normal sheet and photo paper. If you are printing the pages of every size, then this printer might not match your requirements.

We like that Kodak ESP 5250 comes with software, which is compatible to both Windows XP/Vista and Mac OS X. It has Kodak All-in-One Home Center software, which acts as complete hub for scan, print and copy functions. The copy function is easy to use and offers collate copy feature for copying several images in same orientations like original one. Scanning center is also simple, but lacks options for scanning directly to e-mail and PDF. We disappointed that scanning feature does not meet this industry requirement of PDF and email. You will get numerous printing features in the print center. The Kodak software will automatically scan the computer for all images and provides easy navigation through them.

The image editing options include color restoration, red-eye reduction, color sharpness and Kodak PerfectTouch technology. This technology will combine above three options into one setting. It also allows selecting customized facial touch that analyzes pictures and fix their discoloration and skin defects. We agree that it is not comparable to Adobe Photoshop, but simple and best for normal users.

Kodak ESP 5250 does not have Bluetooth capability, but supports IEEE 802.11 b/g Wi-Fi. Kodak’s auto setup wizard is very easy to use, detects SSID (network name) automatically and allows entering the encryption key. We had setup the Kodak ESP 5250 in just 7 minutes.

The overall performance of Kodak ESP 5250 is fast and impressive. We compared the printer with other printers in sub-$200 price range. The overall performance of Kodak ESP 5250 is better than others. The presentation printing speed of the ESP 5250 is 3.2 pages per minute (PPM). Photo printing speed is 1.13 PPM and color graphics printing speed is 3.42 PPM. The text printing speed is 4.89 PPM.

However, low cost Epson Stylus NX515 performed better than Kodak ESP 5250. Its text printing speed is 13.81PPM and color graphics printing speed is 4.63PPM. Presentation printing speed of the Epson model is 5.53PPM and photo printing speed is 0.83PPM.

Kodak ESP 5250 only overtakes the Epson Stylus NX515 in photo printing speed. Kodak model is not slow as per its prices, but Epson model offers marvelous speed in the low cost. Kodak needs credits for improving the image printing quality of the 5250 as compared to other ESP printers. It produces fantastic image quality. The color text printouts at Normal setting are comparable to laser quality. The full color images printed from media card had nice color blends, smooth shadows and sharp lines. Even the skin tones were well defined with rich color palette. We are sure that you will also be excited to have such a great digital image printout.

Kodak provides one-year warranty for print heads with printer. The ink cartridges are also under warranty for 13 months from manufacturing date. Kodak warranty also contains toll free number support from 9AM to 9PM PT and online technical chat support from 6AM to 3PM PT. You can also download tutorials, software, drivers and user manual for the printer.

Nitty Gritty:

Kodak ESP 5250 is a good multifunction printer, but still has some drawbacks and needs improvement. It provides excellent photo printing quality and good output speeds, still cannot justify its $170 cost. If you can afford the cost and need an expensive printer, then you can go for Kodak ESP 5250. However, we will recommend you to choose Epson Stylus NX515 that offers better performance, good features and attractive design on less cost.

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