Epson Stylus CX7800

The Epson Stylus CX7800 is essentially a souped up version of the CX4800. It has the same bread box like form in the same gray, silver, and fake chrome plastics, but it's slightly bigger (17x16.6x7.83 inches, 21.16 pounds) and it has a more substantial scanner lid and a more elaborate front panel that includes a 1.5 inch backlit color LCD.

Like the CX4800, the CX7800's 100 sheet input and 30 sheet output trays fold neatly into the body of the printer to create a contained unit that's much easier to dust than your average all in one that's full of nooks and crannies. The CX7800 comes with a plastic grid to hold film and slides for scanning, and this can be stored in the scan lid when it's not in use.

The scan lid comes unhinged to accommodate thicker scan or copy materials and the "hood" of the printer lifts up to reveal the individual ink cartridges and the USB connector (cable not included), which is hidden in the body of the printer to prevent accidental unplugging.

Where the CX4800 relies on a strip of buttons for its all in one functions, the CX7800 has the aforementioned LCD, plus a series of buttons arranged in clusters according to function.

There's a three way cluster that toggles through copy features (fit to page, 100 percent), memory card features (print select photos, print all PictBridge, print index sheet, print from index sheet), and film or photo features (where you can specify what type of material you're scanning).

Other buttons on the top panel include a Setup or Utilities button that runs through basic functions such as cleaning and aligning the print head, and borderless printing. But it also offers task specific functions such as number of copies (1-99) when you're in copy mode, and the ability to select what type of film or negative you're scanning when you're in film or photo mode.

There are arrow buttons for things such as increasing quantities and scrolling through photos on a media card, plus buttons for toggling between paper types and sizes (say, plain, photo, 4x6, letter), and a big old start button for launching your selected task. The whole interface is intuitively designed and everything is clearly labeled so that one turn through the menu for each function should be enough to learn how to use the CX7800.