Epson WorkForce WF-2930  Printer Review

Build quality is okay. It's made mainly from plastic; while the main body feels sturdy, smaller parts like the paper output tray and ADF lid are much flimsier. You can remove a cover on the rear of the printer to access the duplexer and clear paper jams when printing double-sided documents. You can also lift the scanner to access the cartridge bay and prop it up using the support spar. However, it only opens to a roughly 45° angle, which doesn't give you much room to maneuver when inserting new cartridges or clearing paper jams for single-sided prints.

The Epson WF-2930 has a few maintenance requirements. Like any inkjet printer, its printhead can clog if you leave it unused for an extended period. However, you can run a few built-in maintenance routines, like Printhead Nozzle Check, Printhead Cleaning, Power Cleaning, Printhead Alignment, and Paper Guide Cleaning.

You can replace the cartridges by turning the printer on and selecting the Ink Cartridge Replacement function in the menu. The flatbed scanner can be lifted to access the cartridge bay, though it doesn't open very wide, which can make it a challenge to swap in new cartridges or to reach the sheet rollers and clear paper jams. On the other hand, clearing paper jams for double-sided documents is very simple, as removing the rear cover gives you clear access to the duplexer.

This printer features a 'Print Failure' tab in its menu system to walk you through the necessary steps to fix issues like dirt or spots on copies and streaks or lines on prints.

The screen is adequate overall. It isn't touch-sensitive; you can only navigate the menu using the controls to its right, which offer good physical feedback and are quite responsive. It has great viewing angles, so you can easily see what's being displayed, whether you're sitting down, standing up, or looking at it from the side. However, it's noticeably smaller than that of the Epson WorkForce WF-2950. Unlike that printer, you can only view one of the 12 settings tabs at a time, rather than seeing all the tabs on a central menu, forcing you to cycle through each option individually. That said, this does mean that it's easier to read the writing on each tab. Unlike this printer's predecessor, the Epson WorkForce WF-2830, there's no Wi-Fi status indicator to let you know if you're connected to your home network at a glance. You can see the 2830's screen here.

Page yield is poor, so you'll have to replace the cartridges often if you print multi-page documents daily. The printer will stop an in-progress print job when any of its 232-format cartridges run dry, though it will give you the option to print color documents in black and white if you're out of color ink but still have some remaining black. However, this option is only available under certain circumstances and for a limited amount of time, with most print jobs requiring some level of color ink to be left remaining. When the supply of black ink is running low, you'll receive this message instead. A high-yield black ink cartridge (232XL) is available, but there aren't any high-capacity color cartridges.

This printer won't print any documents, even full-color ones, when its black ink cartridge runs dry. It's also worth noting that the initialization process for new cartridges takes quite a bit of time and wastes a lot of ink.

The Epson WF-2930's scanner has a decent feature set identical to that of the Epson WorkForce WF-2950. An automatic document feeder lets you quickly scan multiple single-sided sheets. However, the lack of duplex scanning means you'll need to flip each page manually when scanning double-sided sheets, which can be time-consuming. The scanner lid's hinges offer a small height adjustment range, meaning you can squeeze in thin textbooks or magazines.

It also offers optical character recognition technology. It works fairly well and has little trouble with identifying plain text. However, it does have a bit of trouble recognizing special characters and accents. You need to install the Epson Scan 2 app to use this feature.

Scan quality is fantastic. Scanned text is clear and legible, and fine details are accurately rendered. The scanner slightly increases saturation and contrast compared to the original copy, making some text easier to read. However, this can be a small issue if you frequently scan photos and want accurate color representation without further editing.

• User documentation
• Power cord
• Set of Claria T232 starter ink cartridges:
• 1x black
• 1x cyan
• 1x magenta
• 1x yellow

The quality of printed black-and-white documents is good. Fine details are accurately rendered, and printed text is easy to read. However, white text within a lighter-colored background can be somewhat hard to see, and light colors like yellow that have been converted to grayscale are faint.

Color document print quality is good. Text is sharp and legible, and most fine details, like thin lines or shapes, are fairly easy to see. That said, colors look a little desaturated, and some graininess is present.

The cost per print is okay. Replacement cartridges are cheap but have a low page yield, so you'll swap them out often if you print a lot.

Printing speed is slow, though not to an unusual degree for an inkjet printer. It isn't the best option if you need to print a large batch of documents quickly, whether in black-and-white or in color. You'll also be waiting around a while if you print a photo using the high-quality setting, which takes nearly three minutes.

The Epson WF-2930 supports most standard paper sizes. You can set custom sizes up from 2.2" x 3.4" (54mm x 86mm) to 8.5" x 47.2" (215.9mm x 1,200mm).

The Epson WorkForce WF-2930 produces a good range of colors. Its performance is very close to the Epson WorkForce WF-2950 in this respect, as it does a good job of reproducing lighter shades of blue but struggles with lighter, more saturated purples and greens. Darker colors are also rendered more brightly than expected, and color transitions are somewhat grainy.

Color accuracy is poor. Most shades are represented quite differently from their source. On the upside, despite the high level of deviation with skin tones, they look fairly natural in the real world, though not to the extent that they'd be suitable for professional use. Regardless, you aren't likely to notice its poor color accuracy too much if you're printing documents with small pops of color.

Small details are reproduced with fantastic accuracy. Fine elements in photos are easy to see, though some distant details are blurred by halftones (dot effect).

This printer supports borderless printing, but only on specific paper sizes:

• Letter
• A4
• 8" x 10" (203.2mm x 254mm)
• 5" x 7" (127mm x 177.8mm)
• 4" x 6" (101.6mm x 152.4mm)

The printer will also notify you that you may notice a loss in quality when borderless printing is selected, as seen here.

The Epson Smart Panel mobile app has many features. You can print, scan, and copy documents, check the ink levels, view the user manual, and execute maintenance routines like printhead cleaning and alignment. It also has an ID card-scanning feature that lets you copy both sides onto a single page. The app has Google Classroom integration, so you can easily print assignments. A 'Guest Connection' feature generates a QR code to let friends quickly connect to the printer, and a 'Document Capture' feature lets you scan a document with your phone's camera to generate a copy.

The iOS version of the app doesn't print Microsoft Word and .TXT files properly in their native formats, so you need to convert them to PDFs before printing. The app recommends you do so automatically to avoid any formatting issues. It isn't an issue when using Android devices, as documents are automatically processed to the proper format when they're uploaded using Google Cloud.

You need to manually install drivers on Windows to use the printer, but not on macOS and Chrome OS devices.