The ESP 7 can make up to 99 copies at once, although its reduction/magnification range of 20-500 percent is wider than average (most other all-in-ones have a range of 25-400 percent).
Other features include one-touch copying, which doesn't require the use of a PC that's standard across products in this class. Unlike the other four $199 business all-in-ones we reviewed, it does not fax (Kodak's $299 ESP 9 does, however). In addition to printing, the ESP 7 copies and scans wirelessly. 4 x 6 photos cost 9 cents a piece, which is a bargain compared to the Canon MX860's cost of 19 cents per 4 x 6 photo and 5 cents per black-and-white document page. Kodak claims that a single page black-and-white page costs 2 cents, while a mixed-color page costs 7 cents. You can also buy these cartridges separately for $9.99 and $14.99, respectively. The Starter Printing Bundle ($42.99) includes various sizes of Kodak's Ultra Premium Photo Paper, as well as black and color ink cartridges. Fresh off the presses, our photos and documents felt slightly heavy, but not wet or smudgy.
On the other hand, our black-and-white Word doc looked streaky, while the occasional letter in our fine-print PDF looked not exactly smudgy, but bold. We have a slight preference for the Canon Pixma MX860's photo quality, although it costs double per print versus the Kodak. The colors were accurate, and we could have framed these prints to show them off.
When it comes to print quality, photos are the ESP 7's strongest suit: 12-megapixel photos we took with the Nikon D90 and Canon PowerShot SD780 IS appeared crisp on both 4 x 6- and 8.5 x 11-inch photo paper. If you like, there's also a built-in duplexer, which can print on both sides of a page to save paper and money.
You can also see the ink levels from this box, and even click a button to order replacements. However, we appreciated the convenient on-screen status box, which shows both a progress bar and percentage of completion. One of our biggest complaints about the ESP 7 is that it's noisy, both while starting up and while preparing for a print job. The average start time was also 6 seconds (the Word doc took 3 seconds to begin printing the PDF took 7). These tests took 59 seconds (Word document), 2:43 (PowerPoint), and 1:18 (PDF), with an average print time of 50 seconds and 2:07 for the 4 x 6- and 8.5 x 11-inch photos, respectively. The ESP 7 finished fourth among five all-in-ones printing over USB. However, it's worth noting that the Epson WorkForce 600 was twice as fast at 48 seconds. The ESP 7 finished a solid third with its average wireless printing time of 1:38, just a bit slower than the 1:36 average among five all-in-ones we tested. On average, the printer took an average of 6 seconds to begin printing (the range was 4 to 8 seconds, with the Word doc taking the least time, and the PDF taking the most). Over Wi-Fi, it took 44 seconds to print the Word document 2:42 to print the PowerPoint presentation 1:23 to print the PDF and an average of 60 seconds and 2:20 for the 4 x 6- and 8.5 x 11-inch prints, respectively. Our test documents included a two-page Microsoft Word document a six-page PowerPoint presentation, including photos and colorful graphics a two-page PDF with lots of fine print and two photos, printed on both 4 x 6- and 8.5 x 11-inch photo paper. We performed several printing tests, both over a Wi-Fi network and over a USB connection (you can also use the bundled Ethernet cable to connect it to your router or access point, if you like). Kodak sells a USB cable separately for $24.99, while other $199 Wi-Fi printers come with a cable included. Although the Wi-Fi setup, refreshingly, doesn't require connecting the printer to a PC or router, it would still be nice to have a USB cable in case the network fails, or if the user wants a faster wired connection. One gripe: the printer doesn't come with a USB cable. This makes installation quicker, but we do wonder what happens if you run out of one color before the others. Whereas companies like Canon, Epson, and others sell their colored ink cartridges separately (different ones for cyan, magenta, and yellow, for example), Kodak's color ink comes in the form of one large color cartridge (the black ink is still sold separately). Unlike other printers, you don't have to pop in a separate printhead for the ink cartridges (not that this is difficult, but it's refreshing to have one less step). Installing the ESP 7 and configuring its Wi-Fi connection was a breeze.