Epson Stylus DX5050 - Slow Text Printing

I just bought a DX5050 and the performance is adequate for a cheap
printer when printing photos, etc but the text mode seems to print
really slowly.

When in text mode it takes about 20 seconds to print an A4 sheet of
plain text, i.e. approx 3 pages per minute. This can be greatly
increased by setting draft mode, but then the printed text is so faint
that it's practically unreadable.

Does this performance sound correct, or should I return the printer for
replacement?

--
Walter.