Unlike a number of budget multifunction printers out there the Epson Stylus SX218 has a reasonable price tag and reasonable running costs too in terms of the cost of its printer cartridges. The price of Epson SX218 ink cartridges depends whether you use original or compatible inks, genuine Epson ink cartridges can be bought singular or as a multi-pack which saves a little bit of money but the real savings are to be found with compatibles which cost 50% less than the originals. The functionality of the Epson SX218 is impressive on paper and some of fits features are impressive in the real world also. Printing quality is the strong point of the SX218, doesn’t matter what types of document your printing its quality is extremely good for a printer at this price. Printing speed is not so impressive and the official figure of 34ppm (pages per minutes) is greatly exaggerated and in reality is more like 4ppm. The SX218 has a built memory card reader which enables printing directly from a memory cards as well a PictBridge connection for the same with digital cameras and camera phones. Scanning functions of the SX218 are pretty basic although is perfectly adequate for most people everyday scanning requirements. The copier function works with the need for a PC to be present which is great when you need to copy something in a rush and don’t have time to wait for the PC to boot up. Epson seem to have made a solid multifunction machine with the SX218 and it should be a hit with those looking for value for money.