Epson Stylus 777 Color Inkjet Printer Reviews

• Great printer, better price

  
  By on 2000-10-20
  I have had this printer for close to one month and have been very happy with the quality. The printer was easy to set up and only took about twenty minutes to go from the box to my first printed page. The style is not the best in the world but the price and the print quality more than make up for it. The dpi was also the best out of the choices that had in the store. Overall I would recommend this product to university students and the person that prints the occasional page and wants it to look proffesional. One thing that you want to make sure you do is to order a cable so that you are able to set it up when it comes to you.
  
  

• For the money, none better

  
  By A392BQ8SS3G92R on 2000-11-21
  Easy setup - had it printing in minutes. The USB port is fast and trouble-free. Print quality using glossy paper is incredible even with images from my lower-end Fuji Finepix 1400 digital camera. Text prints quickly (for an inkjet printer.) After months of frustration with paper-jams and errors from my HP Officejet, it is nice to finally have a printer that works! For the money, I don't see how the Epson Stylus 777 can be beat.
  
  

• Cartridges... *sigh*

  
  By A3PUWV2P71K2CD on 2001-06-05
  This is a dandy printer, fast, prints good-looking pages, but if I had it to do over again, I would choose another. The problem is that each cartridge has a chip in it, making generics next to impossible to produce, and it would appear that the ink capacity gets stored in the cartridge's memory somehow, because you can't refill these using the conventional refill kits -- the printer still won't recognize them as full.

  Run out of color ink? Then you can't print in black either, even if there's sufficient ink. This would be a thing, I would think, that could be changed in firmware, and I wish Epson would release a firmware update.

  And, just as other reviewers have mentioned, the cartridges are expensive, and because there's no choice but to buy the Epson branded ones, they sell out faster than cartridges where generics are available.

  I'll keep this printer until it falls down dead, since I've made the (albeit cheap) investment in it, but when I go shopping again, I'll be sure to check out the cartridge situation FIRST, and I recommend you do too.
  
  

• Great color printing at a low price

  
  By A1ZVP2COAI4K1O on 2001-01-06
  This little Epson has excellent B&W and color printing for both graphics and text. Use inkjet "coated" heavyweight paper or glossy photo paper for photographs - they'll look almost as good as the photomat - and for high-resolution text. Regular laser printer paper wasn't designed to handle the ink that inkjet printers use, so the quality is not nearly as good. We use our printer for printing CD-R labels and making photo reprints mostly, leaving the text printing to our laser printer. Printing speed is very fast, with even a full-page color photo taking only a minute or two. The printer is noisy, though, both when idle and especially when printing - if you need to print when other people are in bed, put it somewhere away from bedrooms. Note that the Epson 777 doesn't come with a printer cable in the box - be sure to pick one up with the printer unless you have one at home.
  
  

• Can't be beat for the price!

  
  By on 2000-12-27
  I have been using an HP printer for the past year. I needed another inexpensive printer for some smaller projects so I researched until I decided on this one. I am completely impressed with this printer! It has even better print quality than my higher priced printer. I am convinced that you simply cannot beat this printer at this price! It does have one flaw in that it can be noisy(not very quiet) BUT that is the only negative I can see. You can't go wrong with this one.........photos are great! Go for it!
  
  
• Good print quality, many drawbacks.
  By on 2001-04-24
  I was initially very impressed by the print quality of this inexpensive printer. Though it doesn't claim to be a photo printer, I was able to print decent pictures with it using photo paper. That being said, there are three major drawbacks. First, it uses a lot of ink, very expensive ink might I add. While the printer itself is inexpensive, the per page printing cost is high because of 1)how much ink it takes to print an average page of text, and 2)that the cartridge is not refillable and there are no generic versions on the market. Second, it's loud, and I mean startles-you-every-single-time loud. Third, it's slow to spool and start print jobs. I'm running it on a Mac G3 with 128MB of ram via a USB connection. The printer will sit there and make tons of noise for a good 30 seconds before it starts printing. Overall it's okay for occasional home printing. If you consistently need to print a large number of documents, this thing might drive you crazy.
  
  
• Good printer but requires lots of ink
  By on 2001-04-04
  Overall I'd say that this is a decent printer. The speed of the printer is very quick, especially if you set it to the speed setting in the drivers. I would say comparable to a laser printer.

  Overall the quality of the print outs is good. The high quality setting you can't really tell that it was printed using ink, although at this setting the printer gets slow.

  There are two bad things about this printer though. First and formost is the ink that is required to print with it. My last printer, also an epson, it took me nearly 3 months to use up the whole black ink. Now, with this printer I am buying a new cartridge every month, and they are expensive, about 20 dollars each. Think you can get some generic cartridge or ink refill? Well you can't, believe me, I have looked.

  The second thing is the noise. Of course if noise really doesn't matter then I guess this isn't bad. Just saying though, you can't use this printer around someone sleeping, you will wake them up (since I have been waken up by this printer).
  
  

• Epson misses the mark
  By A37IBZQWAESF49 on 2001-09-14
  I own 4 other Epson products and have been a loyal customer for years. When I bought the 777 I didn't expect much other than an inexpensive way to produce color proofs. The printer did this just fine for about 90 days, when the mechanism driving the print head disintegrated.
  Epson was prompt in sending a replacement (to the wrong address initially). The replacement printer was a factory reconditioned one, and has never had the print quality of the orriginal. Alas, it too has failed due to a terminally clogged print head-despite regular use, frequent cleaning, and the use of only bona-fide (pricey) Epson ink cartridges. Fortunately, the old 1520, 800. and 740i are still working reliably. If I didn't have half a dozen new ink cartridges left I would just toss the printer, but to avoid eating the cost of the cartridges (which well exceed the value of the 777 itself ) I'll be talking to the nice people at Epson America again about the thankfully still in force 1 year warranty. Buyer beware. :(
  
  
• Marketing for the 777 is misleading
  By on 2001-04-17
  The Epson 777(i) will accept only Epson OEM print cartridges. Epson has installed a chip in its cartridges that defeats the use of aftermarket cartridges. I believe this is the sole function of the chip.

  None of the advertising I have read discloses this attempt to force printer owners to use only Epson cartridges. The sales people with whom I spoke concealed this (or they didn't yet know about it).

  The issue is the expense of Epson vs. aftermarket cartridges. My daughter, a student, uses approximately two cartrides every two months....Buying aftermarket cartridges [is much less than replacing with the OEM cartridges] with the same resulting printer output.

  Had this been disclosed, I would have purchased another model such as the Epson 880 or another brand.
  
  

• Just a cartridge short of five stars...
  By AX76MVU9TIULF on 2001-05-23
  My 777 is the best printer I have owned to date. The printer price is a bargain, and the quality of the printout is as good as more expensive models. If you're not needing real speed, this printer can't be beaten by printers twice their price.

  My only problem? The T017 and T018 cartridges that they use. First, they are hard to find, at least in our area of the country. Most stores are still stocking the old S-series, and after a year I still can't find them in my home town. In cities of 100,000 to 300,000 within a 150-mile radius, I have found that the few stores that carry them are often out of stock.

  ....

  They are available here at Amazon....I'm waiting for my rush shipment from Amazon. When the color is out, the B/W won't print either.
  
  

• Read this before you buy
  By ALEEVLIE1D2GY on 2001-03-30
  Ink jet refill printers are great because you can buy inexpensive refill kits. But the 777 is not worth buying because their ink cartridges have connectivity issues. Ink refill kits cannot be successfully used with the 777. Enter "ink refill kits" into any search engine and you will see many companies that sell such kits. 8 out of 10 refill companies will not specify kits available for the Epson 777. Also, if you are a windows 95,98,or ME user, you will have to download new drivers because the software that comes with the printer is now officially buggy. Check out epson.com and see for yourself. I am a Windows NT user, and I have to turn the 777 on and off again three times before I have to print anything out. The 777's printing quality is very good, but the ink maintenance costs WILL be high, and the printer itself is certainly not as stable as other ones out there. Spend your money on $150.00 range-printers for more something more stable.
  
  
• printer cartridges
  By A122GPP60WQLY5 on 2001-08-13
  I like the quality of the print job for graphics, but, I was told when I bought it that the cartridges could be refilled, and that isn't true, so, I have to buy the print cartridges and they are to expensive when you use as much ink as I do. it is not an economical printer. 111jbd
  
  
• Nice print quality, but unfortunate cartridges.
  By AWHM7I6Q5M7CR on 2001-12-03
  Like most of Epson's printers, the 777 offers outstanding photo print quality, even on regular paper. Unfortunately, the small, overly proprietary cartridges used by the 777 make it less than ideal for someone who plans to do quite a bit of printing. Ink costs escalate rapidly, so I would suggest looking into a printer with larger ink cartridges that are offered at a resonable price by alternative ink vendors. Always check the ink situation before you buy an inkjet printer.
  
  
• easy as pie
  By A1B7ZQQTG4194E on 2001-01-11
  i am a beginner at computers in general,and the thought of hooking up a printer was scary,but the instalation of the epson777 was so easy and simple to follow.we recieved another printer as a gift,but we chose to return that one and stay with the epson.It goes to show that a good product is something to stay with and that product is the epson 777 printer.
  
  
• Great Prints,But!!
  By on 2001-04-03
  The 777 does a very good job in the printing department however, it eats ink like crazy and is the noisiest printer I have ever heard (Dot Matrix included) I have had HP printers go for two years without refills, I'm at 5 months and am having to buy new ink with the same if not less printing. Out of the two complaints the noise has to be the worst. It will wake the family if you do any latenight printing. I've never heard a printer go through so much action before it ever prints the page and the funny thing is that when it is actually printing it is fairly quiet. It's the before and after that will drive you nuts.

  Like I said, it prints very well but for 50 more bucks you can get an Epson or HP that won't wake the dead!!
  
  

• An absolute waste of money
  By A2KXODZKJFAGAZ on 2001-04-19
  I'm an 8 months user. Price is cheap & quality is excellent. Yes. The catch is it eats a lot of ink. And they are not cheap. No generic ink replacement available. This not the worst yet - if say the color ink is finished, even though back is still available. This printer won't print ! STUPID design !!! (or rather this is a smart way to drain your wallet). It creates unneccesary down-time. Actually my color ink became dry because I didin't use it for 5 months. Then I have to waste $30 to buy new color cartridge JUST TO MAKE the black ink prints !

  Beware - first time users will be impressed by this printer, but wait until several months. Better still, just don't waste your money on this machine.

  Other model like Epson 880 could be a better choice if you want to have generic ink replacements.
  
  

• You CAN refill the ink!
  By A1R1N4T8ZRSY6V on 2001-05-09
  As other reviews have already indicated, this is overall a pretty good and cheap printer.

  One important fact that no one has reported yet is that you can now refill the ink cartridges for very little money.

  First, you need to reset the chip on the ink cartridge that tells the printer it when it gets empty. There are two ways currently available to achieve this.

  One method involves keeping a full cartridge around and using it to trick the printer into resetting your empty cartridge. Details about this method are available at ... ...

  Another method is a software solution that resets the chip without requiring you to keep a full cartridge around (also good because the full cartridge apparently gets used up after about 40 refill proceedures). This software is not free, though (currently $..., which is cheaper than a cartridge). It's available from: ...

  Then, of course, you need ink. You can get a refill kits with syringes, etc. and then buy bulk inks from: ...

  You can get, for example, the equivalent of 3 black refills for $.... Pretty cheap. You can also get the ink cheaper in larger quantities.

  Hope this helps someone (I do not work for any of the above companies).
  
  

• ...it's the ink, stupid
  By AN9FYYZ440YPL on 2001-08-26
  Good quality, noisy (I can live with it), but no bargain. I've spent twice the purchase price in ink cartridges in no time at all. Also, if one of the cartridges is empty you can't print even if you only need the other cartridge. Next time I'll look elsewhere and check the ink cartridge price/availability first . Epson, are you listening?
  
  
• Poor Print Quality, Brutal Ink Usage
  By A3PRZCS5LOKF90 on 2001-10-19
  I purchased my Epson 777 from a local store about a month ago, and though I print very few sheets (under 100), I've already had to replace the cartridge once. Midway through the next month, I see that the cartridge is half empty after only 40 more sheets.

  Not only does this printer use up ink at an obscene rate, the print quality is extremely poor, even for a printer at this price range. The cartridges constantly clog, and the software constantly crashes.

  This product feels flimsy, prints at abysmal quality, and sucks down ink as fast as it sucks dollars out of your wallet. Unless you fancy the idea of paying double the printer's purchase price in ink every 4 months, then I suggest you look elsewhere.

  Rating 2/5 stars.
  
  

• Think Before You Buy This
  By on 2002-02-20
  Yes, this printer may have good quality for the price, but you will end up paying...every few months for new ink. The ink cartridges for this printer last a fraction of the time of others. Also, refilling these cartridges is very time consuming because of the smartchips in the cartridges. I bought this printer on sale... and it is not even worth that! Save yourself the time and just buy... anything but this!!
  
  
• Epson ,dependable ,colorful
  By A34KCOLFS3OROG on 2002-05-21
  Not knowing much about printers I bought an Epson 777 ,upon a customer service recommendation.It was inexpensive , so what did I have to loose ?Would I ever take a reccommendation fron that company again should it have been a dud ?They had more to loose than I.Well I'm glad I bought it .I've been given many compliments on my pictures ,T shirts ,and articles.I'm always asked what kind of printer I have because they say my pictures are better than theirs.And I mean a substantial amount of people looking to buy a printer like mine because of the results.It seems to print a little slow to my likings but I'm never pressed for time and I do like it. It does help to use the right paper for the right printing task however ,and the results will be superb.
  
  
• Sheesh....
  By A17NVM7IAPF2NS on 2003-02-12
  Don't get me wrong.

  I have been a fan of Epson's for a very long time from the inception of the Stylus II to the 800.

  However, my 800 died after long, faithful and workhorse-like service. So I saw the rather affordable 777! So, like a fool, I believed that inkjet printers had become extremely cheap and wouldn't feel that Epson had compromised on quality. Right?

  Wrong!! First and foremost, the printer felt as if it had to clean the inkjet cartridges--before printing--anytime that it had not been used for, say, a DAY...even if I left it on! As anyone owning an inkjet printer would know, this consumes ink.

  Then there was its functionality. Every, and I mean EVERY, single time I put in new ink, I noticed that streaking and banding would occur. This, of course, was easily corrected...BY CLEANING THE CARTRIDGES ONCE MORE. Honestly, if I installed the cartridges the first time when they were primed and CLEANED, you would not expect me to think: "Oh, geez, time to clean the heads AGAIN?!?" And it goes through ink in no time flat. Even purchasing inkjet cartridges at certain warehouse stores was not saving on the pocket book...within a month, I paid more for cartridges then I did for the original printer. YIKES!

  Don't bother with this printer. It went well for about a month and then decided to crash on me...hard. You DEFINITELY get what you PAY for here! If I had to make a recommendation, I would go with my recent purchase of an HP Photosmart 7350. It's a little pricey, but its functionality of incorporating a direct input for SmartMEDIA cards as well as its picture quality is worth the price.
  
  

• 2880 for under $..., but the cartridges are a ...
  By A2MF53KIO9FKOA on 2001-06-04
  I got one to replace my old Epson 600. I like the fact that I can print at 2880 dpi, but boy was I upset when I went to buy generic cartridges. None exist with the chip. AND it looks like Epson put very little in the OEM cartridges AND they are ...!! I found a dos program called inklevel whcih lets me reset the chips, so I don't have to fall prey to the high price cartridge.
  
  
• worked for less than 9 months
  By A268WAQS5WNMGJ on 2001-09-18
  After spending the summer wrapped up in its box my son's 777i doesn't work anymore - the print head can only move 2 inches to the left. The troubleshooting guide says I should contact Epson to get a replacement but given how inexpensive printers are now and the fact that my son needs a printer for school I am not sure what to do. My investment in cartridges for ONLY this model exceeds the cost of buying a new unit, but I am considering buying a more reliable machine, less I face this situation every September!
  
  
• OK until printer runs out of ink - within 30 days!
  By on 2001-12-01
  I should have taken heed to other users regarding the ink cartridge situation. This is planned obsolescence at its worst! The printer is relatively inexpensive, and does a decent job of color printing, as all the reviews confirm. However, I doubt if any of the trade industry reviewers used this printer regularly for a month or more. Epson is not selling a printer here, but merely a marketing tool to lock the consumer into buying extremely expensive ink cartridges -- and proprietary, to make it worse -- do NOT attempt to substitute generic ink refills. This is the brave new world that Polaroid pioneered decades ago -- lose money on the camera, profit on the film. If this is Epson's business plan, they should give the printers away. The cartridge won't last for more than a month with regular use -- I thought I would have at least 6 months -- no way! The manual says that the ink grows faint after 6 months (deliberately, it seems), so even if you aren't a regular printer user, the cartridge is designed to self-destructs anyway. Of course, it ran out of ink just over 30 days after I bought it, so the vendor won't take it back. None of the reputable "big box" stores are carrying it anymore either, now I know why I got such a "good deal" when I bought it. It is especially frustrating to run out in the middle of a deadline job, and find out that no one carries the replacement cartridge. Buyer Beware!!
  
  
• SLOW NOISY INK GLUTTON
  By A234KKT632SLIG on 2005-01-02
  This printer came as part of a computer package deal so I didn't actually pick it out. It WORKED fine & dandy for 2 years, the speed & noise were no big deal. Expensive ink is just the nature of the beast with inexpensive inkjets!
  Then it suddenly conked out & no amount of new drivers, (very little) help from maker, or reinstalling would work.
  Repair would have been $90 just to LOOK at it, so I said forget it & bought an HP1209 3-in-1 for $79!!
  When it first stopped working, the trouble lights indicated low ink (though I print rarely & it had nearly full cartridges)
  But I bought 2 new ones which of course didn't help & I now have 2 sets of no use to me that will only fit Epson 777 or 777i models. Wish I could unload them REAL cheap on someone whose 777 or 777i still works!!
  
  
• Epson Stylus 777 Colour InkJet Printer
  By A1E1SZFB1SNHHF on 2001-04-21
  Last Novemeber,as part of a multi-media package,I opted for the afore mentioned printer. My printer is labelled as a Stylus Colour 680, but it seems the specification is the same and retails at approx the same price. Why only one star? Since choosing this model, I have had to have it replaced twice and my current one now needs replacing.Four printers in six months seems to me a little excessive. The faults are always exactly the same:Chewing up paper or feeding between 6 and 10 sheets instead of one,splattering ink,subsequent poor ink quality after the prior two problems mentioned and finally very few standard text pages being printed before carrtridge drain.(approx 100) As a result after much debate with the shop I purchased this printer from, they have finally agreed to replace this totally useless machine with an HP equivalent. This has got to be (in my experience) the worst printer I have ever encounterd in my life and never ceases to amase anyone who learns about my experience with it.I feel you ought to be warned!
  
  
• Good but noisy.
  By A2SB2JEOLP8WFI on 2001-05-11
  As far as printing quality goes, this printer is great! I've used it to print regular black-and-white text and it works great. I've also printed out pictures that I have scanned and pictures I've taken with my digital camera. The picture quality is EXCELLENT as long as you use photo paper and set the printing quality to Photograpic. It does consume ink rapidly, but what can you expect when you're printing images? Aside from that, it makes a great deal of noise when it's starting up, and randomly when it is about to start printing. Still, this printer is very good and does the job right.
  
  
• An end to the bashing please!!!
  By A2P9I1XR5RWHII on 2001-11-14
  I purchased this printer after years of using a Cannon bubble jet printer.I was amazed at the quality of the pictures I printed out.On regular paper they came out very well,but on a high quality photo paper the pictures come out looking like I just picked them up from the photo shop,suitable for framing. . .really!Yes,when you are printing out a picture on photo quality paper the ink goes quickly,but that is a fairly universal complaint with any of the new printers,it's not just this one or just Epson printers.And contrary to popular beleifs,you can purchase generic ink cartridges for this printer from Rhinotech(avalible on AMAZON)and save a little money while not sacraficing quality.
  My only other complaint is that is was pretty loud when in use.It doesn't bother me,but it seems as though that has been one of the complaints about this model that I have heard that is true.I am very happy with this little gem,but if you are printing your photos in your new infants nursery at 3AM then this is not the printer for you,otherwise,buy it!!
  
  
• Disposible Printer
  By A2XW2YMERS0YB9 on 2001-12-29
  I was able to pick this printer up for 50 bucks at the local Office Depot. The pictures printed aren't bad, but the ink doesn't last long. And if you try to buy ink, it costs more to by the ink then it does the printer. Therefore a disposible printer. You CAN'T refill the cartridges. A little microchip counts the amount of ink spat out and turns it off even if ink is left in the cartridge. I recommend spending a little more for one that you can refill or one that lasts a little longer.
  It was VERY easy to setup. No complaints on actual use. I was a little harsh earlier, the pictures did look nice.
  
  

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