Epson EcoTank ET-2850
MSRP $350.00
“Epson’s EcoTank ET-2850 prices a bit extra upfront, however contains greater than a 12 months’s provide of ink and nice high quality.”
Professionals
- Giant ink reservoirs final a very long time
- Ink ranges seen at a look
- Nice print high quality
- Very high-resolution scans
- Two-year guarantee
Cons
- Print velocity is a bit sluggish
- Cell app setup did not work
- Blueish tone to some prints
Epson is aware of how irritating ink cartridges could be, which impressed the creation of its EcoTank printer. With massive, refillable tanks, your inkjet lasts a very long time with no need to fuss with ink. When it’s time to high up the EcoTank, you refill from bottles, eliminating the waste that’s inherent with ink cartridges.
It seems like an awesome thought, so we put it to the take a look at to see how nicely it really works with the low-cost Epson EcoTank ET-2850 all-in-one printer.
Design
The EcoTank ET-2850 appears enticing with a impartial white physique that may mix into the house and workplace, or in black if you happen to desire. It’s very compact for an all-in-one, measuring 17.6 by 22.3 inches and standing simply 10.7 inches tall.
Epson needs you to know that is no mere strange inkjet, and visual ink reservoirs on the entrance panel do the trick. The cyan, magenta, yellow, and black ink tanks have translucent panels that present the remaining ink. You may’t make out the person colours behind the plastic, nevertheless it’s reassuring to see the ink ranges and big printing capability at a look.
You fill these reservoirs from Epson ink bottles, which every maintain sufficient ink for over a 12 months of printing. It’s straightforward: Simply unscrew the bottle, tip it into the right tank, and wait till the printer drinks its fill. A diagram contained in the printer reminds you to not squeeze the bottles throughout refilling, in case you neglect within the lengthy interval between. To utterly fill black takes over a minute, however colours solely want about 30 seconds every.
Epson notes that a few of included ink will get used within the preliminary setup to cost the system. Future substitute inks ought to present extra prints per bottle.
The middle panel tilts up for straightforward viewing and incorporates a 1.4-inch coloration show with buttons on both aspect for operation. The show guides you thru duties with ease, however two of the buttons have uncommon symbols that may be complicated on such a small show. A touchscreen would have been extra handy.
The paper tray on the again holds as much as 100 sheets, which is on the low aspect, however the Epson EcoTank ET-2850 isn’t a enterprise printer, in order that’s not an issue. You’ll in all probability be switching between plain and photograph paper often. The clearly labeled tray lets you understand which aspect faces up when loading paper, and the dimensions guides are straightforward to regulate.
Printing efficiency
The Epson EcoTank ET-2850 isn’t the quickest printer, however you in all probability gained’t thoughts until you anticipate it to blast by way of a stack of paperwork rapidly. Black-and-white paperwork print at about 10 pages per minute (ppm), whereas coloration cuts that in half. If you need velocity, laser printers are sometimes a lot sooner than inkjets when printing a number of pages.
Photograph prints on 4-by-6-inch paper come out rapidly and look nice. The print decision is 4800-by-1200 dpi, eliminating pixelation in high-quality photographs. The EcoTank ET-2850 prints are crisp and colourful sufficient to fulfill my each day printing wants and may even suffice for particular tasks. Should you want extra vivid and exact coloration, Epson makes 6-color EcoTank printers devoted to photo-quality printing for professionals.
I did discover a slight blue tint a few occasions, however after setting the paper sort to Photograph High quality Ink Jet, the photographs got here out with correct tones. I selected this setting even when printing on shiny paper.
Particular options
The Epson EcoTank ET-2850 is an all-in-one printer that features a flatbed scanner. It may scan at as much as 1,200 dpi decision, 4 occasions that of some competing printers. Scanning with that a lot element takes about two minutes for a whole web page, nevertheless it preserves each element. This rivals the decision of among the greatest devoted scanners.
An OCR function can save a scanned doc as a searchable PDF, a particular function. The OCR high quality varies and works greatest with high-quality, fashionable paperwork. An outdated essay that I pounded out on a typewriter a few years in the past was clear to my eyes, however gave the OCR some bother.
The EcoTank ET-2850 may also function a copier and contains an choice to cut back or enlarge paperwork. Epson additionally presents free templates accessible to get you began with artistic tasks.
Software program and compatibility
Epson’s EcoTank ET-2850 is suitable with Home windows, macOS, iOS, and Android. You don’t have to put in drivers on Home windows PC or Mac, however getting the most recent software program is a good suggestion to make sure entry to each function. iPhone and Android apps allow you to examine ink ranges and print remotely.
Putting in the cellular app in your smartphone and following directions is the quickest technique for a lot of printers, however the Epson SmartPanel app couldn’t connect with the EcoTank ET-2850 from my iPhone or Android cellphone for some motive.
After a number of minutes, I switched to handbook setup, which was a lot easier. I like to recommend putting in the EcoTank ET-2850 with the bodily buttons and show to keep away from this trouble. Connecting through a smartphone or laptop was straightforward after setup was full.
I started testing with my iPhone and instantly seen that I needed to set the paper measurement on the printer and within the cellular app each time I modified paper. If I walked away, forgetting to pick the media sort and measurement, I needed to return to the printer earlier than printing. Fortunately, you may swap off these annoying warnings by turning off “Error Discover” below the settings for paper supply.
Value
The Epson EcoTank ET-2850 retails for $350 however is usually on sale for round $300. It comes with 4 starter bottles of ink. Based on Epson, a whole set of ink bottles lasts for as much as two years of printing. That seems like an unbelievably very long time, however I can confirm that the ink tanks are large. The ink ranges barely moved even after 26 coloration paperwork, 29 4×6 photograph prints, and two full-page borderless coloration photograph prints.
Epson estimates the ink in a set of bottles is equal to 90 ink cartridges totaling over $1,000 in value. By that measure, the EcoTank ET-2850 is an unimaginable cut price. The included ink bottles state 6,500 estimated pages for black and 5,200 estimated for coloration. The yield for future substitute ink bottles needs to be 7,500 pages for black and 6,000 for coloration.
Epson features a very beneficiant two-year guarantee, twice so long as most printers on this worth vary. You may wish to set the EcoTank ET-2850 as your default printer to reap the benefits of its lengthy guarantee and practically infinite provide of ink.
Is that this the printer for you?
It’s exhausting to go flawed with the Epson EcoTank ET-2850. For house use, it is a nice all-in-one that takes the entire trouble out of ink substitute. After the preliminary setup, you’ll solely want to go to the printer to alter paper, make copies, or scan.
There are a couple of nagging points with the software program that might make setup tougher than it needs to be and the paper change warning was fairly annoying till I found out the way to flip it off. Most issues work nicely, however I by no means might get double-sided printing to work from any machine, even a Home windows PC.
The upfront value is greater than finances printer fashions, however if you happen to intend to print continuously, you come out approach forward after only a few months. With the EcoTank ET-2850, your greatest constraint is paper, not ink. Should you anticipate to print lengthy paperwork or coloration prints in excessive quantity, the slower velocity may turn into a problem.
Past that, the Epson EcoTank ET-2850 is a good all-in-one inkjet with nice photograph printing high quality that I’d advocate to anybody that desires to keep away from the waste and expense related to ink cartridges.
Editors’ Suggestions