Epson EcoTank ET-4800  Printer Review

The Epson ET-4800 is decent for small offices. You can print thousands of pages before the black and color tanks run empty, so even if you print a hundred pages a week, you won't have to buy refill bottles too often. It features a flatbed scanner, an automatic document feeder, and a built-in fax, ensuring you're well-equipped for most office tasks. Unfortunately, the printer cannot scan or print double-sided sheets automatically, so you'll need to flip the sheets over yourself when prompted by the printer. Additionally, it prints slowly, so you'll have to wait a while for your document to print, especially if your office has multiple users sharing the printer.

The Epson ET-4800 is an acceptable choice if you want a printer that stays ready to print even after long idle periods. Since it is an inkjet, leaving it unused can still cause the printheads to clog, so printing occasionally helps prevent the ink from drying out. The printheads are not replaceable, but the high-capacity flushing system typically clears minor clogs and allows for multiple deep-cleaning cycles without requiring ink refills. That said, if a clog becomes too severe for flushing to resolve, your options are very limited. Aside from this issue, the large ink tanks offer excellent page yields, making refills rare, and the wide range of connectivity options allows you to print easily from most devices.

The Epson ET-4800 is great for photos. Pictures look sharp and detailed, but the color accuracy is slightly off. It's fine for casual photo prints for art projects or home decor, but it's far from the best choice if you use photo prints for semi-professional or professional purposes. Unfortunately, the printhead has clogging and misalignment issues, which can cause banding.

The Epson EcoTank ET-4800 delivers outstanding page yields. Its supertank cartridges can produce thousands of pages before needing a refill.

The Epson ET-4800 delivers disappointing printing speeds. It produces about eight black-and-white pages and four color pages per minute, which falls slightly short of the advertised ten black and five color pages per minute. It also lacks automatic duplex printing, so you need to manually flip the pages when prompted.

The Epson ET-4800's print quality is very good, showing sharp text and clearly visible fine details. However, white text on gray backgrounds, especially with thinner fonts, can appear blurry and may be difficult to read.

The Epson ET-4800 offers adequate scanning performance. Text scans clearly, but the image processing removes many fine details, such as graph lines and watermarks. This is in part due to it boosting contrast and color saturation, which may not suit photo scans. The scanner features an automatic document feeder, but it operates at a slow speed of approximately 1 page per minute and doesn't support automatic duplex scanning.