- Table of Contents
- Intro
- Review Updates
- Comparison
- Best Printers
- Lineup
- Page Updates
- Conclusion
- Discussions
Epson is a company that makes a variety of printers to suit the needs of most common households and small and big businesses. Aside from specialty printers like label printers or disc printers, their consumer-level all-in-ones are mostly inkjets, as they stopped making laser printers several years ago. They have a stunning number of inkjet printers for nearly any use, with the WorkForce, Expression, and EcoTank lines being the most popular.
Updates
- 11/24/2022 Epson EcoTank ET-2400 reviewed
- 11/10/2022 Epson Expression Home XP-5200 reviewed
- 11/08/2022 Epson WorkForce Pro WF-4830 updated
- 10/11/2022 Epson Expression Home XP-4100 updated
- 09/08/2022 Epson EcoTank Photo ET-8550 reviewed
Best Epson Printers
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Best Epson Printer
Family8.7Small/Home Office9.0Student9.3Black & White8.9Photo8.3The best Epson printer we've tested is the Epson EcoTank Pro ET-5850, an all-in-one inkjet model with a refillable ink tank. It has many connectivity options, including Wi-Fi, Ethernet, and USB, and it's compatible with Apple AirPrint and Mopria Print Service. The scanner is equipped with an automatic document feeder to process long, multi-page documents quickly, and it can also perform duplex scanning, albeit in two passes. The scan quality is okay; good enough for documents but not ideal for photos, as it has trouble capturing finer details.
As for its print quality, it produces very sharp black and color documents. It has a good color range and is exceptionally good at producing small details, but the pictures look grainy. Its printing speed is excellent, as it can push out 25 black or color pages per minute and takes very little time to wake up from sleep. The ink tanks hold a lot of ink and let you print many pages before you need to refill them again, so you won't have to buy ink bottles often. The tanks are easily accessible when you need to fill them, and the ink bottles aren't overly expensive, which helps keep your maintenance costs low. All in all, it's a great option for any office and is among the best EcoTank printers we've tested.
If you find this model too pricey, you can check out the Epson EcoTank Pro ET-5180. It has nearly identical features and yields more prints, but it doesn't feel as well built, and it prints much slower at 14 black or eight color pages per minute.
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Best Mid-Range Epson Printer
Family8.3Small/Home Office8.1Student8.6Black & White8.2Photo7.7If you don't need all the features of a high-end model like the Epson EcoTank Pro ET-5850 but still want something that performs well, get the Epson EcoTank ET-3850, one of the best Epson EcoTank printers we've tested. It's also a supertank model, meaning it has a refillable ink tank instead of cartridges. Aside from a few flimsy plastic pieces like the automatic document feeder, this printer feels reasonably well built, with a design that allows for easy access to paper jams. You get the usual connectivity options like USB, Wi-Fi, and Ethernet, and it even has voice assistant integration, allowing you to initiate printing via Apple's Siri or Amazon's Alexa.
This model prints black and color documents well. Some finer details don't always come through, but the quality is still very good. Printing speed is so-so; it's decently fast with black and white documents but slow with color documents. A 4" x 6" photo can take over a minute and a half to print, although the photos look very detailed and colorful. What makes this model stand out is its incredibly high page yield. A full tank gets you around 7800 black and 4600 color prints; needless to say, the cost-per-print is exceptionally low. If you regularly scan documents, know that the scanner can only process three pages per minute through the feeder, and it doesn't support duplex scanning, so you'll have to flip the pages manually when scanning double-sided sheets.
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Best Budget Epson Printer
Family8.0Small/Home Office7.8Student8.4Black & White8.1Photo7.9For our budget pick, we chose the Epson WorkForce Pro WF-4830. It's an all-in-one color inkjet model, but unlike the higher-end picks above, it uses traditional ink cartridges instead of a refillable ink tank. It feels sturdily built and sports a large and responsive touch-sensitive display that's easy to use. Its ADF-equipped scanner processes up to 18 pages per minute, supports duplex scanning, and has an optical character recognition feature that lets you scan documents into text files for quick keyword searches. Its wide connectivity options include external storage support, meaning it can print directly off a USB flash drive.
Printing-wise, the WF-4830 performs well. Text looks very sharp in documents, and photos look detailed and reasonably color-accurate. It prints black documents quickly but is slow with color documents. Its input trays hold 500 sheets of paper, meaning you can complete large print jobs with minimal interruptions. As expected, its page yield is much lower than the EcoTank models, meaning you'll need to replace the ink cartridges often. The cost-per-print is still low because the cartridges are cheap; it's just more inconvenient because it requires a lot of maintenance. If you want to save some money, check out the Epson WorkForce Pro WF-4820 variant, which performs similarly but has a 250-sheet input tray and a slightly smaller ADF capacity.
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Best Cheap Epson Printer
Family7.3Small/Home Office6.4Student7.4Black & White7.0Casual Photo7.2If you need a cheap printer to get the job done, we recommend the Epson WorkForce WF-2860, a simple all-in-one inkjet printer designed for home use. It has a decent build, a small but responsive touch-sensitive display, and plenty of connectivity options, including Wi-Fi, USB, and Ethernet. It works with Epson's mobile companion app, which you can use to print, scan, copy, and perform maintenance tasks. The scanner has an automatic feeder to scan long, multi-page documents but no duplex scanning, so you'll have to flip the pages manually.
It's quick to initialize and get a single page out, and it prints black and white documents decently fast at 16 pages per minute. However, it's slow to print color documents and photos. Like most budget models, the page yield is where you have to compromise a bit, as its ink cartridges only yield around 250 black and 170 color prints. The overall cost-per-print is good, although color printing can get expensive if you print a lot. There are XL cartridges available if you want to increase the yield, and the printer also accepts third-party ink, which might be cheaper.
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Best Epson Photo Printer
Family8.6Small/Home Office8.4Student8.9Black & White8.3Photo8.8If you want to print photos, the Epson EcoTank Photo ET-8550 is the best we've tested. It uses gray and Photo Black ink in addition to the usual cyan, magenta, yellow, and black, allowing it to produce extremely detailed and colorful photos. It tends to oversaturate colors, so the photos look visually pleasing, albeit not very color-accurate. It takes less than a minute to print a 4" x 6" photo, and it supports various paper sizes up to 13" x 19", which is great for printing posters. You don't need to worry about high maintenance costs as it's a supertank model with amazing page yields and cheap ink.
Of course, although it's primarily designed for photo printing, you can still use it in an office setting. It supports USB, Wi-Fi, and Ethernet connectivity and can print directly off an SD card. The scanner is pretty basic, so there's no automatic document feeder or duplex scanning capability. It doesn't require much maintenance; you just need to ensure you print often enough to prevent the printheads from clogging. Epson's mobile companion app has many features, including the ability to create a QR code to let guests connect to the printer, and Google Classroom integration, which allows you to log into your Classroom account and print assignments.
If budget is a concern, there's a cheaper variant, the Epson EcoTank Photo ET-8500. It performs exactly like the ET-8550; however, it only supports paper sizes up to 8.5" x 11".
Compared to other brands
- Diverse lineup. Epson has a very diverse lineup that includes printers for home and business use. They also have printers dedicated to printing photos, labels, discs, etc. They also make a good number of dot matrix printers.
- EcoTank. Epson's EcoTank ink system has one of the best yields for inkjet printers.
- Monochrome inkjet printers. Epson is one of the few companies that make monochrome inkjet printers.
- No laser printers. Epson no longer makes laser printers, so they don't have any options that are good for occasional printing.
- Photo printing quality is only decent. Although Epson has dedicated photo printers, the photo printing quality of their all-in-one printers and their office printers isn't as good as other brands.
Although Epson printers are popular, they tend to get overshadowed by other brands, as their performance tends to be more middle-of-the-pack. Like other manufacturers, they have a diverse lineup, but Epson is the only one that doesn't produce any laser printers. Since inkjet printers generally have slow printing speeds, they're less desirable for businesses that perform high-volume printing regularly. Their EcoTank printers are successful, though, and are usually among the best for page yield.
Lineup
Epson has a diverse lineup that caters to different needs, and they're generally separated into the two categories below. Although the EcoTank line is a separate line of its own, the EcoTank designation is also used in conjunction with some of the models below to indicate the use of a refillable ink tank system. Epson makes enterprise-grade printers as well, which are only available for businesses.
For Work:
- WorkForce: High-performance printers for small or home offices.
- WorkForce Pro: High-yield printers for small or home offices.
- Point-of-Sale: Receipt printers for small businesses.
- ColorWorks: Commercial label printers.
- Pro Imaging: Wide-format photo printers.
- Impact: Dot matrix printers.
- DiscProducer: Disc printers.
For Home:
- Expression: All-in-one family printers.
- PictureMate: Photo printers.
- LabelWorks: Label printers.
- SureColor P-Series: Professional-grade photo printers.
Recent Updates
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Nov 11, 2022: Verified accuracy of picks; no change in recommendations.
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Sep 12, 2022: Restructured article to better match user expectations. Removed the Epson EcoTank ET-2800 and the Epson WorkForce Pro WF-7310. Added the Epson EcoTank ET-3850 as the 'Best Upper Mid-Range' pick, the Epson WorkForce Pro WF-4830 as the 'Best Mid-Range' pick, the Epson WorkForce WF-2860 as the 'Best Budget' pick, and the Epson EcoTank Photo ET-8550 as the 'Best Photo' pick.
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Jun 13, 2022: Verified accuracy of picks; no change in recommendations.
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Apr 14, 2022: Made the Epson EcoTank ET-2800 the 'Best Epson Home Printer' and the Epson WorkForce Pro WF-7310 the 'Best Epson Printer For Photos'. Changed the 'Best Epson Small/Home Office' category name to 'Best Epson Printer For Small Businesses' to better align with the product pick.
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Feb 14, 2022: Replaced the Epson WorkForce Pro WF-4830 with the Epson EcoTank ET-2800 for 'Best Photo'. Verified availability of picks.
Conclusion
Epson is one of the top brands for printers, and they offer a variety of printers to suit most needs. However, aside from their hugely popular EcoTank printers, the rest of their lineup doesn't stand out very much. It's disappointing that they no longer make any laser printers since many small offices still rely heavily on the printing speed and efficiency of laser models.
