Prints themselves are very similar to those from the more expensive machine, so black text is sharp and clean cut, while solid colour is reasonable, though with some mottling. Duplex print slowed the machine down further, though the wait between printing front and back sides is shorter than on, for example, a Canon PIXMA.
The best we saw was 5.04ppm for a 20-page black document, which took 3:58 to complete and 2.03ppm for colour, where our five-page print took 2:28. Both of these are draft speeds and even then we find it hard to envisage a document that will print that quickly. Kodak claims the same speeds for the ESP 7 as for the ESP 9, at 32ppm for black and 30ppm for colour. If you want to see what these look like, check out the ESP 9 review. There’s that millimetre chopped off headers on duplex pages and the strange blocky fills to characters in our coloured headline. The print problems we noticed with the ESP 9 are visible on the ESP 7, too. Installing the software then makes the rest of the connection to your PC or Mac. Wireless setup is surprisingly easy, as the ESP 7 searches for available networks and latches onto the selected one. The same software suite of Kodak HomeCenter, AiO Home Center and a driver governs the machine’s functions. Installation involves plugging in the two cartridges, one black and the other five-ink, including photo black and a transparent coating layer. At the back are sockets for USB 2.0 and Ethernet and the machine also has Wi-Fi built-in, which is unusual in a machine at this price.
The arrangement of twin paper trays, one taking 100 sheets of plain paper up to A4 and the other taking up to 40 sheets of photo paper, is identical to the ESP 9’s and works just as well, with automatic loading of photo paper when you request a photo print. Here, though, it’s an LCD panel, rather than the brighter OLED in the more expensive machine. The control panel swings out from the front and, although it doesn’t have a touch panel, it does have the same size 76mm colour display. The scanner’s top cover has smoothly rounded side edges and a simple pattern of inset squares in its lid. This is a smart, good-looking machine, decked out in frosted and high gloss black. That’s true of the ESP 7, too, which is basically a cut-down version of the top of the range machine, without the Automatic Document Feeder (ADF) the touch-screen control panel and fax. As we mentioned in our recent review of the Kodak ESP 9, all of Kodak’s inkjet all-in-ones since it first entered the market have been based around the same print engine.
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