Epson WorkForce Pro WF-7310  Printer Review

The Epson WorkForce Pro WF-7310's build quality is outstanding. It's a large printer made of a very sturdy-feeling plastic, with feet that help keep the printer body stable. There's easy access to potential paper jams via a removable panel at the rear of the printer, while the maintenance box, which collects extra ink used during printing and maintenance, is easily accessible inside the printer body. The printer lid for accessing the internal components stays open on its own and closes slowly if let go while closing, thanks to a lid dampener. Additionally, the output tray is motorized and automatically slides out when receiving a print job, but since it doesn't slide out the entire way, you need to manually pull it out more for larger print jobs.

The Epson WF-7310 requires typical inkjet printer maintenance. Like all inkjet printers, there's a risk of clogging the printheads if the printer is left unused for months. However, there's an extensive list of built-in maintenance tasks, including printhead nozzle check, printhead cleaning, and printhead alignment, which helps keep the printheads in working order. There's also an ink cartridge replacement routine, paper jam removal help, as well as paper guide cleaning, which cleans the paper feeders. Additionally, you can easily access the sheet roller for maintenance via the rear panel.

Because the WF-7310's black cartridge yields a very low number of pages before running out, you'll need to replace it frequently if you print in black often. This can be tedious as you not only need to turn the printer on, but you also have to go into the settings and set the printer to cartridge change mode before the printer lets you replace the cartridges. Fortunately, you at least won't need to refill the paper as often since it has two separate paper cassettes with a combined 500-sheet capacity.

The Epson WF-7310 has a decent display screen. Its interface is easy to navigate, letting you easily perform print and scan tasks and adjust the settings. However, the printer might not register your actions if you press the buttons too quickly. You can easily see the screen's contents when either standing or sitting, but you have to stand right in front of it to see properly since visibility is worse when looking at it from the sides. You can also adjust the display tilt by tilting the entire control panel it's built into.

The Epson WorkForce Pro WF-7310 has a middling cartridge system. The printer yields an awful number of black pages, meaning you'll have to replace the black cartridge often if you print frequently in monochrome. The color page yield is decent, but you'll likely need to replace the color cartridges just as often if you intend to frequently use the printer for large-format color prints. There are high-capacity 812XL black, cyan, magenta, and yellow cartridges available, rated to yield 1,100 black pages and 1,100 color pages before running out. There's also an extra high-capacity 812XXL black cartridge available that's rated at 2,200 black pages. The printer requires you to turn the printer on and select the "Ink Cartridge(s) Replacement" option in the Settings menu when replacing the ink cartridges. Otherwise, the printer asks you to close the lid if you open it without first selecting the proper options, which can be tedious. If you want a printer that yields more prints, check out the HP Smart Tank 5101.

During our tests, this printer didn't properly recognize our magenta third-party cartridge even though our other cartridges worked fine. However, we could print properly after placing the original initial magenta cartridge back in. Epson's official webpage states that they continuously issue firmware updates which might cause once-functioning third-party ink cartridges to stop working. Using third-party supplies could void your warranty.

The Epson WF-7310 doesn't have a scanner. If you want a similarly-priced printer with a flatbed scanner and an ADF, check out the Brother MFC-J4535DW.

• Start Here guide
• Detachable power cord
• CD-ROM with driver and software setup
• French stickers (Canadian model only)
• DURABrite Ultra Ink initial cartridges:
• 1x black
• 1x cyan
• 1x magenta
• 1x yellow

The Epson WorkForce Pro WF-7310 has an okay cost-per-print overall. The cartridges are relatively inexpensive, but you need to replace them frequently because the printer yields a sub-par number of pages before the cartridges run out of ink. It's a bit better for black-only printing than color printing, so you'll likely be paying lots in upkeep costs if you intend to print large-format color documents. If you want a similar printer with a lower cost-per-print, check out the Canon PIXMA TR7820/TS7720.

The Epson WorkForce Pro WF-7310 has great printing speeds overall. It prints black-only text documents impressively quickly, so you can get longer reports and spreadsheets out without having to wait. However, color documents and photos are much slower to print by comparison. Additionally, expect double-sided documents to take noticeably longer, even if you're only printing in black and white. On the bright side, the WF-7310 doesn't take too long to get one-page documents out, so it's a decent choice if you frequently queue short print jobs.

The two front input trays hold 250 pages each for a total of 500 pages, while the rear feeder can hold only a single sheet of paper.

The Epson WorkForce Pro WF-7310's upper paper tray supports a wide variety of paper sizes, from 3.5" x 5" up to 11" x 17" sheets, as well as various media types, including plain paper, photo paper, and even cardstock. However, its lower paper tray only supports plain paper, from 7.2" x 10.1" up to 11" x 17" size. If you want to print on large-size 13" x 19" A3+ paper, you need to use the rear feeder, which can hold only one sheet at a time.

The Epson WF-7310 has a decent color gamut overall. The telltale zig-zag line is visible across most of the photo, but there's a lot of grain in the transition between colors which adds a noticeable amount of noise. While the transition to white near the top is well-identified, the transition to black near the bottom gains a reddish tone, and the blacks extend a little too far up into the greens and yellows. This means you'll likely notice imperfect transitions in bright-to-dark gradients.

The Epson WF-7310 produces decently accurate colors. It has a difficult time reproducing blues accurately, but most colors look only slightly different than the way they're meant to appear. The WF-7310 prints casual photos just fine, but it isn't suited for color-critical work like professional-grade prints or reproductions.

The Epson WF-7310 is compatible with the superb Epson Smart Panel app. You can use it to print photos and documents, print or upload scanned media, perform maintenance tasks, and monitor ink levels. You can also access Class to print assignments or scan documents from Google Classroom, and there's easy access to the Epson Creative Print app and Epson Gallery website for artistic prints or printing on different media formats. Although you can't print Word documents or text files directly from the app on iOS, you can still do so via Apple AirPrint.

The Epson WF-7310 is compatible with all commonly-used desktop operating systems. On Windows, you need to install the printer drivers, but you don't need an app to use all the printer's features. On macOS and Chrome OS, you don't need to install any apps or drivers. On macOS, you can use AirPrint, and on Chrome OS, you can just print directly.