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Kodak ESP Office 2170 All-in-One review: Kodak ESP Office 2170 All-in-One

Kodak ESP Office 2170 All-in-One

Justin Yu Associate Editor / Reviews - Printers and peripherals
Justin Yu covered headphones and peripherals for CNET.
Justin Yu
5 min read

The Kodak ESP Office 2170 is a multifunction printer that can print, copy, and scan on a budget thanks to a new print engine inside that separates the printheads from the dual-ink cartridges. This new hardware design lets Kodak cut the price down to a lower cost per page than many competitive devices in the same sub-$150 category. With an attractive design that shows definite improvement over previous models, a comprehensive software bundle (PC-only), and innovative features like an automatic paper sensor, stereoscopic 3D printing, and the Kodak Pic Flick app for BlackBerrys and iPhones, the ESP Office 2170 is worth your dollar.

6.8

Kodak ESP Office 2170 All-in-One

The Good

The <b>Kodak ESP Office 2170</b> proves to be a capable home office performer, with an impressive software bundle, simple installation, and a new print engine design that keeps ink costs low.

The Bad

The printer lacks double-sided printing and has a small LCD screen that hinders photo-editing functionality. Also, Kodak's All-in-One Home Center software works only with Windows, leaving Mac users without 3D printing or photo-editing features.

The Bottom Line

The Kodak ESP 2170 is worthwhile if you run a small business and need a low-volume printer that can output high-quality snapshot photos, but bigger offices and Mac users should keep shopping.

Design
Kodak builds the 2170 with the same general design as the Kodak ESP C310, but instead of a small cockpit on top, the 2170 has a control panel that sits at a fixed angle on the front of the machine, supporting a diminutive 1.5-inch LCD display and a host of shortcut buttons for directional scrolling through menus, a keypad for dialing fax numbers, and shortcut buttons to start the copy, fax, scan, and photo functions.

There's also a small green Wi-Fi indicator LED on the right side of the control panel, and just below the buttons you'll find a multimedia card reader for Memory Stick, xD-Picture Card, SD, and USB via the PictBridge-compatible port just above it.

The $50 price difference between the C310 and the 2170 goes a long way, with the 2170 offering plenty of extra options like a 25-page autodocument feeder and a rear-loading, 150-sheet paper input tray that marks a vast improvement over older Kodak models that used a clunky, unreliable feeder situated underneath the printer. Additionally, the paper input tray has a smart sensor that automatically recognizes the size and type of paper you're inserting and adjusts the printing preferences accordingly, so you won't waste precious photo paper.

On the downside, the overall paper capacity is low, considering that competing printers like the Canon Pixma MG6120 can hold 150 sheets in the cassette with another 150 sheets loaded into the autodocument feeder. We won't knock Kodak too much for this oversight, but large offices will need to refill the tray frequently.

Although Kodak markets the 2170 as an office printer, there are only two ways to connect it to an accompanying computer: Wi-Fi and USB. Strangely, there's no Ethernet port on the back for a wired network connection. We set up the wireless connection easily enough by entering in our network name and password, and were able to get working in less than 5 minutes. Still, we expect some IT professionals will find the lack of wired networking a deal-breaker.

We're thankful that Kodak finally ditched the thin plastic arm that lifted up the cover of the ink bay on older printer models. Instead, the company joins the rest of the industry by using a hinged design that allows the lid on the 2170 to stay open by itself, allowing easy access to the ink cartridge bay.

Kodak also redesigned the black and tricolor inks so that the printheads are physically separate, which requires a little more work to install at first, but saves you money in the long term since Kodak doesn't have to ship printheads with every cartridge. Using Kodak's advertised ink costs and estimated page yields, the cost per page is roughly 3.7 cents per page of black ink and 11.3 cents for color, making the 2170 one of the most affordable printers on the market in terms of the cost of consumables.

The printer ships with a helpful driver disc that walks you through the installation process and includes Kodak's All-in-One Home Center software. The Home Center acts as a hub for the copy, print, and scan functions. The copy feature is easy to navigate and offers a unique collage copy setting that duplicates several pictures in the same orientation as the originals. The scanning center is simple as well, but lacks the option to scan directly to a fax, so you have to first save the photo to your computer and initiate a fax from there.

The new Home Center also lets you print stereoscopic 3D images, which means you'll need a pair of red and blue sunglasses (not included) to see them pop. Kodak sent us a pair to test the technology with and told us that future models will ship with the sunglasses packaged with the unit.

The process of printing out a 3D snapshot photo is simple, but you have to plan for the 3D in advance by taking two shots of the same image: one with the subject centered and another 3 inches over. The software simply combines the two pictures into one image and prints it out. Kodak claims the 3D functionality makes the 2170 an equal draw for business as well as consumers, but we can't imagine the average consumer printing more than a few of them before the novelty wears off.

Performance
The ESP 2170 neither impressed nor disappointed us with the results of its output speed tests. As you can see in the chart below, it registered roughly average speeds across the presentation, photo printing, graphics, and text categories, so we have little to complain about in terms of its new print engine. Compared with the Canon Pixma MX410, the 2170 trades slower photo and text document results for faster graphics and PowerPoint presentation output.

Printing speed (in pages per minute)
(Longer bars indicate better performance)
Presentation speed  
Photo speed  
Graphics speed  
Text speed  
Epson WorkForce 520
2.73 
2.61 
2.26 
12.51 
Lexmark Interact S605
3.63 
2.07 
3.96 
7.83 
Canon MX410
2.34 
1.74 
2.03 
6.08 
Kodak ESP Office 2170
3.47 
1.25 
3.44 
5.1 
Canon Pixma MP495
2.55 
1.1 
2.15 
4.07 

The ESP 2170 uses a similar cartridge design to the C310, but the tricolor cartridge adds an extra vibrancy to photos and graphics-heavy documents. We still noticed some blotchiness and transparency in skin tones, but we wouldn't expect perfect accuracy in a three-ink system regardless.

The photo print came out the best out of all the tests, with acceptable saturation levels for business documents. Scan quality also came out well, but retained the dark compression issues we saw in the C310's prints. Finally, the color scan produced accurate results--if perhaps a little too bright--but the overall impression was sharp and defined.

Service and support
Kodak supports the ESP 2170 with a one-year manufacturer's warranty with toll-free phone and online-chat tech support available every day. The Kodak Web site provides access to manuals, driver downloads, troubleshooting tips, graphic tutorials, and a list of frequently asked questions.

Find out more about how we test printers.

6.8

Kodak ESP Office 2170 All-in-One

Score Breakdown

Design 7Features 7Performance 6Support 7