Top Best 10 Wire Printers in December 2021

This Epson multifunction color inkjet printer, scanner, and copier is perfect for home use. Once connected to a wireless network, printing from any device connected to the same wireless network is quick and easy. The print quality is superb, and is much better than inkjet printers I have used in the past.

The setup was very easy and took about 20 minutes. The first step is to download the Epson app.The app seamlessly walked me through the setup process by providing step by step instructions. Next I filled the individual ink tanks with the corresponding ink color using the provided bottles. If you are concerned that the process of pouring the ink will be messy, don’t be. Epson made the process as easy as can be. All it takes is opening the cap, and placing the ink bottles upside down on the nozzle above each tank. Then wait about 2 minutes per bottle for the ink to drain into the tank. I was able to hear the sound of the ink draining, and the fill line will show when the process is done.Remember to not squeeze the bottle, it drains on its own and automatically stops when the tank is full. Epson has also made it impossible to fill the wrong tank with the wrong color, by shaping the bottle nozzles differently. For example, It is not possible to pour magenta ink in the black ink tank because the bottles only fit the proper tank.

The next step was to use the app to locate and initialize the printer and connect to my wireless network. Once connected to my wireless network, printing wirelessly is as easy as pushing a button from my laptop or wireless device. The printer was recognized by my Windows and Chromebooks, as well as my Apple and Android devices and phones. Virtually any device on my wireless network can converintly use this printer. This is a very useful feature because most people spend as much, or more time, on phones and tablets as they do on PC’s. When called to service, the printer takes less than a minute to wake up and print. The print speed is slightly quicker than your average inkjet printer.

The LCD screen is large enough to easily read and use. The copy and scan functions can be controlled using the control panel on the unit, or the app.

A nice advantage to having a wireless printer is that it can be placed anywhere in the home that is convenient or where there is space. It is also equipped with a USB port for wired connectivity.

Epson really thought of everything with this unit! It features excellent print quality, flawless operation, and the projected print page yield from using ink bottles over cartridges is many times greater.

My biggest gripe with home printers is their lack of innovation. I feel like the tech in the printer my parents had growing up is pretty much the same that you’ll find in nearly every “new” printer on the market today. You pay for spendy ink cartridges and get mediocre prints from a device that isn’t particularly fast and looks like a plastic block. I appreciate what Epson has done with this printer to at least try to shake things up a bit. Functionally, the ET-2850 is like most home office printers - it connects wirelessly, prints, and scans. However, there are two very notable features of this printer that make it stand out:

#1: The Epson Smart Panel app. Aesthetically, it’s nothing special, but functionally, it works REALLY well. The app walks you through the setup of the printer with clear instructions and pictures. While it takes awhile to do the entire setup process, I truly believe anyone could do it. The app lets you play with photos, documents, ID cards, scan things directly to your phone, access printer information like ink levels, manuals, and so so much more. I’m in my late 20’s and up until now, when I’ve needed to print something, I have always printed from my desktop. This is the first printer, largely due to the Smart Panel app, that I feel confident printing to from my phone or iPad. I can edit what I need using the app and feel confident that it’s going to come out right the first time, every time. When documents print, you also have the ability to select/ deselect two-sided prints. Nice little feature that saves on paper. I’ve always had to manually print, flip, print again to get things to print on both sides of a page.

#2: You guessed it - the reloadable ink tanks. This may be the first really good innovation I’ve seen in a home printer since...well...ever? Each tank holds nearly all of the ink that comes in the included bottles. The black bottle is 127 mL and each colored bottle is 70 mL. For reference, high capacity cartridges average 16 mL of ink. This is significantly more ink than cartridges, which means you’re going to be refilling significantly less often, throwing away less plastic, and of course saving money in the long run. The tanks on the printer are easy to refill with an “auto stop” feature. Refill cost is comparable to cartridges. But remember, you’re getting more ink and refilling far less. At Best Buy, you can get all three colored ink refills (cyan, magenta, AND yellow) for $41.99 and black ink refills for $19.99. If the ink lasts two years as advertised, we’re talking about $30/ year. My one concern with the tank system is that there are tubes and I assume pumps that bring ink to the jets. Being a newer system, I hope that longevity isn’t an issue. TBD.

It feels a little weird getting excited about a printer, but Epson really did a nice job with this one. Up front cost is a little higher than most, but I truly believe that cost will be made up with ink savings. If you’re in the market for a new home printer, definitely consider this one!

The Epson EcoTank ET-2850 is an all in one solution that allows to your print whatever you may like, in color or black and white, without worry about running out of expensive toner and also helping save the environment. The Epson Ecotank included ink bottles will allow you to print almost 6500 in black and white and almost 5200 pages in color, that is a little over 500 pages of black and white and a little over 400 pages of color a month. The EcoTank ET-2850 is the perfect printer to satisfy your print needs for home, school and even work from home. Let’s go over the features, and PROs and CONs of the Epson EcoTank ET-2850.

Setup: The setup process for the EcoTank ET-2850 could not be any simpler. In the box you will receive the printer, power cable, black, yellow, magenta, and cyan ink bottles and instructions on how to setup the printer. The EcoTank ET-2850 is a wireless printer, so it has built in WIFI. To setup the printer you would need to download the Epson Smart Panel app. Once the app is downloaded all you need to do is click “+” on the top right corner and the setup process begins. The printer is automatically picked up by the application and will guide you through the rest of the process. You will need to fill the tanks with the appropriate and included ink and then it runs through about a 10-minute ink initialization process and after that you are ready to print.

Features: The Epson EcoTank ET-2850 is an all in one solution. This is a printer, copier and a scanner. You can print wirelessly and it has a flat bed scanner for scanning and making copies. The scanner has a scan resolution up to 1200 x 2400 dpi (Dots per square inch), for high quality and detailed scans. The printer has a print resolution up to 5760 x 1440 dpi, allowing you to print high-quality photos. The EcoTank ET-2850 can print black and white pages at the speed of 10 pages per minute and about 5 pages in color. This printer can also print two sided pages at the speed of 6 pages in black and white and 4 pages in color per minute. This is a rear fed printer, so instead of a tray for your plain paper, there is a slot in the back where you need to put the paper with a capacity of 100 sheets. This printer has a pretty compact design so it will not take up much space on your desk.

PRO:

***Cheap Ink*** - I was able to find the compatiable replacement ink on Amazon for about $20 for all 4 bottles. (Generic Brands)

Easy Setup

High Quality Scan

High Quality Print

Wireless Printing

Compact Design

Two-sided printing

Easy refill ink

Cut down on toner cartridge waste

CON:

Small Display – 1.4 inches – Although is it comes with a color display, the display on this printer is rather small, its somewhat difficult to see any clearly.

Slow print speeds – 10 ppm in black and white 5 (Single Sided)

6 ppm in black and white 4 (Two-Sided)

Overall, The Epson EcoTank ET-2850 is a good all in one solution for any of your home, school and work from home printing, scanning and copying needs. I have been using this printer at home for kids school and some of my office work and it has worked great. The scans and prints came out crisp and clear. I do wish that the display on the printer was a bit larger or even completely remove the buttons with a touch screen display and I was not a big fan of the print speeds but the quality of the print made up for the speed. All in all, I would recommend the Epson EcoTank ET-2850 all in one printer.

There are three printers in this series, and I am reviewing the mid-tier option. This is more expensive than the ET-2800, but it does NOT offer automatic 2-sided printing. It is up to you to determine if the extra cost is worth is. There is a considerably more expensive ET-4850, and the main difference is a paper tray cartridge and a sheet-feeder on the scanner.

Well, on to this printer: It uses GIANT bottles of ink that look like they should last for a while. Because you have to dump this ink, setup is easy and mess-free, but takes several minutes to empty the bottles. The bottles are keyed so that they will only fit into the proper tank, and a viewing window on the front of the unit tells you how much ink you have.

As to installing drivers, this takes a while, and there are a few "feedback" options that you should uncheck on the first screen. Aside from being a bit slow, the install process went without a problem. It has a USB connection, but I opted instead to use the WiFi connection. It appears to be 2.4 GHz only, but that is acceptable for a device like this.

The print quality is quite good. You have the option to balance quality vs. the amount of ink used, and the results look good. There is also a 2-up option. One disappointment is that there is no actual paper tray at this price, but up to 100 sheets sticks out of the top-rear of the unit, making it look awkward. To get the paper tray you have to step up to the high-end unit.

The scans look good, and the software allows you to scan straight to a PDF file (nice touch), and even add more sheets for a multi-page document. This is a feature that I really appreciate.

The only real problem that I had was when I was printing a double-sided document. One page got jammed (probably my cat's fault) and I had to clear the jam. The printer SHOULD have re-printed the jammed page, but it did not. Other than this, performance so far has been flawless, but I have only had the unit for a few days.

I currently own another Epson EcoTank printer so I know how much money you can save using this technology. I needed another printer and selected this one because of its footprint and white color. It is an attractive printer.

Set up was very easy using the instructions in the box which direct you to download the app and then follow along as it guides you in how to fill the ink tanks. The process is simple and the bottles did not leak any ink.

The connectivity to our network was quick and easy and I was able to start printing quickly, The print quality is very good.

I like the fact that the paper loads from an upright position in the back. That allows te printer to be placed close to the wall which is exactly where I planned to put it.

Overall, I would say that this printer does everything it advertises it can do. The only drawback for me and the reason I do not give it 5 stars is because it does not support Chrome OS. The main reason for getting this unit was to connect to a Chromebook and many Epson printers do support Chrome OS, but this one is very new and it does not yet do so, according to the Epson website. I hope they will fix that in a subsequent firmware upgrade. For now, it works with the USB connection for that tablet computer.

Loving this printer! I have had no issues with it as of yet and I feel positive that it will stay that way. Quick and painless printer… from your phone too! Isn’t that what we all want!? Well, that’s what I wanted at least and I got it. Plus, no more cartridges, I think it’s awesome that it is actual ink you pour into the little tanks. I just started homeschooling our 2 year old and needed to print out LOTS of bright colorful schooling pages and this printer didn’t even miss a beat.

I love this printer I'm running out of paper not ink, so cool. Was easy to set up, easy to use, love it.

The printer works really well, and it is certainly amazing.

The Epson - EcoTank ET-4850 is a solid AIO ink-jet printer. I so wanted to give this product a resounding 5 Stars but considering the overall design and the obvious physical layout - I truly believe that at this price-point, Epson could have easily included a bigger LCD-touch screen. For average sized hands (fingers), the provided touch panel is usable but would be much more user friendly with at least another inch of diagonal size - much less a mere half inch more.

At 2.4 inches, this touch interface comes off a bit cramped during the entire setup process and during daily use. Looking across the entire line of affordable Epson inkjet printers, this is the only model with the touch screen. IMHO Epson should have upped the touch screen size and included one on the lower model without the document feeder.

With that out of the way, there really isn't much else to complain about on the EcoTank ET-4850. I'm a huge fan of refillable tank printers. It's the future!

This AIO includes full-on Wi-Fi, Ethernet, USB and RJ11 (phone/fax) connectivity. The unit is well built and easy to set up. It took me all of about 20 minutes to print my 1st test page. It was nice to see Epson include an installation CD with all the needed software. You get all the customary drivers & utilities along with an easy to run Software Update program. The process was smooth & painless and I was even notified that there was an available Firmware update during the set up. I own other Epson products and I have to say that they've put a great deal of effort into making their setup & software installation routines intuitive & enjoyable. Other printer manufacturers can learn from this.

The EcoTank ET-4850 handles a wide variety of paper types and in its most basic mode, holds 250 sheets of standard paper. While printing a variety of documents & pictures, I didn't experience a single miss-feed or paper jam. Photos come out with brilliant clarity and amazing color depth. Regular color documents are produced with crisp text and reliably consistence ink dispersion across the entire sheet and across multiple pages.

The printer is about average in terms of noise output during operation but it is very quick. The auto document feeder is also solid in operation and a nice feature to have if you do a lot of copying or scanning of multi-page documents.

This is my second EcoTank model and I can personally vouch for the big cost advantages of the refillable tank ecosystem. Once you've owned & used this type of printer, you'll never go back to using wasteful sealed cartridges ever again.

Pros:

Solid construction

Smooth guided setup with the provided CD disk

2-sided printing

Scan to Computer from the printer control panel is brilliant & useful

Excellent color rendition across documents & photos

The complete in-home office tool for those that also require a fax machine

High-capacity paper tray

Super economical ink system

Cons:

Touch screen is simply too small @ this price point and hinders ease-of-use

For small offices and busy home offices, the new Epson EcoTank SuperTank ET-4850 All-in-One cartridge-free printer is a nice step up from ordinary. Print, copy, scan and fax from this all-in-one, saving big on ink throughout ownership.

Here is a sample of its pedigree from Epson:

• Unique PrecisionCore Heat-Free Technology™ and Claria® ET pigment black ink produce extremely sharp text – plus impressive color photos and graphics – on virtually any paper type

• Built-in Scanner & Copier — High-resolution flatbed scanner and a 2.4" color touchscreen for easy document copying and navigation

• Robust Paper Handling — Auto Document Feeder, paper-saving auto 2-sided printing and a 250-sheet paper tray for high productivity

• Built-in Scanner & Copier — High-resolution flatbed scanner and a 2.4" color touchscreen for easy document copying and navigation

• Modern Connectivity — Features Ethernet and wireless, plus hands-free voice-activated printing. Easily print from your smart device with the intuitive Epson Smart Panel® App

What about EcoTank SuperTank?

•Innovative Cartridge-Free Printing — High-capacity ink tanks mean no more tiny, expensive ink cartridges; Epson’s exclusive EcoFit® ink bottles make filling easy and worry-free

• Dramatic Savings on Replacement Ink — Save up to 90% with replacement ink bottles vs. ink cartridges – that’s enough to print up to 7,500 pages black/6,000 color, equivalent to about 90 individual ink cartridges

• Stress-Free Printing — Up to 2 years of ink in the box – and with every replacement ink set – for fewer out of ink frustrations

• Zero Cartridge Waste — By using an EcoTank printer, you can help reduce the amount of cartridge waste ending up in landfills

• Print speeds up to 15.5 ppm black and 8.5 ppm for color

• Scan resolution up to 1200x2400 dpi

• Print resolution up to 4800x1200

That’s what Epson tells us. Keep reading for my take!

**WHAT’S IN THE BOX**

• Epson ET-4850

• Four bottles of Epson ink, with enough ink in the box for up to two years of printing

• Power cord

• Documentation, including Software CD for Windows, warranty, quick start guide

**THE SETUP**

There are two ways to set up the printer. For users who already are part of the Epson universe with the Epson SmartPanel app on their phone OR getting the product ready to use, setting up Wi-Fi through the printer’s display without first having the app. Both methods ask the user to follow the prompts either on mobile phone’s screen or on the printer’s 2.4” color touchscreen display.

Users are asked at a strategic point to install the ink from the supplied ink bottles, the printer responds to the ink being loaded, and then we are asked to confirm that ink is installed. The printer finishes priming the print mechanism for printing.

Load some paper and set the paper size guides in the generous, 250-sheet paper tray.

When these basic settings are completed, the Epson can print a test page to confirm its print alignment settings are good and that’s it, ready to go, except for any needed firmware updates.

Loading about 100 sheets of plain paper in the tray.

I chose to set up the printer for wireless only, though it has an Ethernet port for those who want a hard-wired connection to the network. There is also a standard USB Printer connection for those who want hard-wired connection to a computer. Finally, there is a standard RJ11 phone port with another port, a pass-through for a phone line connection necessary for fax use. The other jack can accommodate a hard wired telephone. None of the requisite cabling is included.

Finally, with the printer on Wi-Fi, computers need the software to access the ET-4850 and print, copy, scan and fax. As with virtually all new printers or all-in-one devices like this one, Windows and Mac computers will automatically download the software on the computer recognizes the connected printer. All our Macs and all our Windows computers were easily set up for printing and scanning, with one Windows PC set up for faxing.

Epson Remote Print was set up according to direction enabling the ability to print from a laptop or desktop computer to an Epson Email-enabled product anywhere in the world.

Printing from mobile devices, from computers and as directed on the touch screen are all possible.

Scanning to a mobile device, computer and cloud is available.

Tipping out the bottom of the display for best viewing angle, it is time to . . .

**PUT IT TO THE TEST**

From a Mac, I sent a Web page to print, then a 3x5 photo in digital form. The photo lacked the snap I was hoping for, so I loaded a sheet of Epson photo paper. Much better!

Copying (up to 100 copies) is easy both from the ADF or on the platen. Scanning, too, looked nearly perfect at all quality settings. Of course, higher resolution scans, as with prints and copies, take longer than at lower quality settings.

Printing envelopes loaded in the paper tray worked well as expected.

Scanning test – passed with flying colors.

**WHAT’S MISSING?**

There is no bypass slot for straight-through printing of iron-on patches or on any media that ought not to be bent and rolled through the normal paper path. All media must be picked up from the paper tray.

**CONCLUSION**

Except for a non-existent single-sheet bypass pick-up slot, this is a well-executed all-in-one printer. There is added value by virtue of inexpensive replacement ink bottles and the initial generous supply of ink included in the box. It’s a good deal all around.

**WARRANTY**

One year manufacturer’s warranty increases to two years with registration, including full unit replacement.

The main reason to buy this printer is the EcoTank. As that is where the money saving is. They report this printer should net you about 6,000 color pages or 7,500 black/white pages before needing to buy a new ink BOTTLE (approximate numbers which may vary). Those bottles bought individually are $20 for black, or $13 a piece for color. Or if bought as a bundle $39. Compare that to the traditional ink cartridge which prints about 220 – 350 pages per cartridge for about $17 (for black) or $39 (color) per refill (again approximately). Additionally, there is less waste with bottles as they can be reused and there are less of them due to lasting longer. Which is a win all around. These EcoFit Bottles also lock into place before they transfer the ink into the printer, so you aren’t going to be dealing with a mess and makes the whole process very easy even for novices such as myself. This is the whole reason I bought this printer.

But you may be wondering why this printer costs more upfront compared to other ink cartridge printers. The reason is because their business model is to make money off their printers over their ink where it is opposite with others. In the end this actually saves you money in the long run, but you are paying upfront which some people don’t like.

Thankfully, you still get a modern All-In-One Printer which supports printing, coping, and scanning. You navigate between all the options via a very small 2.4” touch screen which is very responsive but doesn’t have a glass covering which makes it feel a bit less premium. It can Fax 100 pages at a time. The scan resolution is 1200x2400 DPI which is good. I didn’t fax anything so didn’t test that. But did find that the scan resolution was good and didn’t have any issues with it. The biggest negative is the print speed. Which is 15.5 pages per minute for black/white pages or 8.5 pages per minute for color which is bit slow and not recommended for those who value speed and print a lot. Compared to about 20 pages per minute for black/color from your typical ink cartridge printer. Thankfully with a resolution of 4800x1200 DPI pages come out looking clear with easily readable print. Especially, if you calibrate the printer which takes some time but is totally worth it. I found it to be better than my other ink cartridge printers that cost about $100 – $200 which I would expect at a higher price point. For those who care it supports plain paper, photo paper (but isn’t a photo printer), glossy paper, and matte paper up to 8.5”x14” legal (normal printer paper is 8.5”x11”). The tray itself holds 250 pages (which is about half a paper ream) and it has an auto document feeder and supports automatic two-sided printing (which I really like as I hate doing it manually) which works well. Printer noise is minimal, the specs report 52 dBA, which to my ears is about right. Normal human conversation is about 60 – 70 dBA for comparison. They say the monthly duty cycle (how many pages it can print per month) is 5,000. Obviously, I didn’t test that because I’m not someone who prints a lot.

Moving onto the smart features this printer supports either wired (ethernet) or wireless. Initial setup is easy. It will have you download the Epson Smart Panel app, which then literally walks you through the process of setting everything up via instant message which I thought was pretty neat. Through this it shows you how to install the ink, connects it to a Wi-Fi network (appears to only work on 2.4 GHz bands), goes through a 10 minute ink initialization (which can damage the printer if there isn’t any ink in it), went through a firmware update, alighted the printer for the best printer quality, Epson Connect (cloud printing aka smartphone printing), setup via wireless on a PC (usual way), and last you can setup fax features but need a phone cable to allow that which I didn’t do. Overall, the process was seamless and easy as it gave instructions the entire way with links when required. But was a lot longer compared to other ink cartridge printers (mostly due to that 10 minute ink initialization and alignment settings). You can connect directly to the printer via USB 2.0 (instead of the old school printer type cable). The same Epson Smart Panel App allows your smart device to print. You can also set it up to be voice activated. So, it checks all the boxes for a modern age printer.

Overall footprint of the device is very small, especially for how much it can do. Which I like A LOT. The build quality is great and a lot better than your typical printer. I found it to be the best “home” printer that I’ve ever felt regarding build quality. With the only loose tray being the one for the paper. I like that you can see how much ink you have left by peering at the front bottom right which isn’t digital but a window. Which I prefer over a digital reading and keeps me up to date on my ink usage better since it’s kind of right there. Touch screen doesn’t have a glass front (which makes it feel not as premium) but touches are very responsive and accurate. When I was scrolling or going from menu to menu I didn’t notice any lag. There are also a lot of customizability settings such as quiet mode. It also shows how strong of a connect to the Wi-Fi you have along with the Bluetooth connection to your phone. Epson App is also easy to navigate and user friendly.

CONCLUSION:

This is an excellent printer that you pay upfront for with savings later due to the ink savings. Print speed is a bit slow and initial cost is high. Touch screen could be bigger but is very responsive without lag. Epson Smart Panel App is useful for those who only own smart devices (phones/tablets). Overall, I have very little cons with a lot of pros. I find it to be a worthy investment if you aren’t printing a crazy amount of pages monthly and don’t mind slower print speeds. It’s easily the best printer I’ve ever owned. But also costs about 2x as much.

This Epson EcoTank printer is excellent, and it is a must-have consumer office machine. Gone are the old spontaneous frequent replacement cartridge. Now anyone can make an economical print in color and high volume. I am an accountant, and I got this printer exclusively for my home office. Printing cost is reasonable that now my wife and two kids use a lot for their virtual school. It is getting plenty of use. Setup and connection take about 20-25 minutes to complete and require careful step-by-step instructions to fill the tanks with ink. I downloaded and used the Epson Smart Panel app for the entire setup (this is optional). Each color bottle is uniquely keyed, which makes it easy and error-free to fill each color tank. The uniquely keyed bottles are an excellent idea to prevent filling a color tank with a wrong color. Filling the tank, one must be careful not to squeeze the refill bottles. After the tanks were all filled, I followed a few more steps and connected the printer to the Wi-Fi. The touch screen responds very well, but the size could be a bit larger for bigger fingers.

I like the convenience that I can print and scan from a mobile device. The Epson Smart Panel app has a tone of features on how to print or scan. A unique printing is ID cards; I can print both sides of any ID using the app in two steps. Scanning is fast with either the glass flatbed or the automatic document feeder. So far, I haven’t had any issue with the automatic document feeder. Once you get used to the machine, you will be scanning and printing stacks of documents. The prints come out with vibrant colors, and the blacks are dark enough. This Epson EcoTank printer does its primary purpose very well: to print fast and economically without compromising quality.

The Epson EcoTank ET-4850 is a great home office printer. Setup was quick, and instructions were easy to understand. The size of the device was my initial concern. Fortunately, it sits comfortably on my desk by just being taller and having more depth than the average personal printer. The ET-4850 is packed with features. It isn't perfect, but executes exceptionally in many departments. The most important aspect is how does it perform with print jobs? Print jobs finished in a timely manner and with great color even for double-sided printing. Scanning produced high quality images, and the document feeder worked as normal. This Epson printer is very robust in connectivity with Wi-Fi capabilities, ethernet port, and USB cable option. Unfortunately, you're not supplied with a USB cord or ethernet cable, but they're inexpensive items. One desire is for the printer to handle photo printing better. This is not intended for that functionality, but the ET-4850 is very close to being the last printer you will ever want to buy for your home.

Especially capable ink printer with a small footprint that will be right at home in many spaces and roles. In any application where space may be limited the Epson ET-4850 will be good option for an All-in-One (copy, scan, fax, print). Can see the ET-4850 in a student’s dorm room, at home, and in offices.

Strong point is the cartridge free high-capacity ink reservoir system which is stated to provide up to 7500 black pages and 6000 color. That is a remarkable amount of printing from one ink reservoir fill. Concerned that by adding ink to the printer could be messy, far from it, it is as simple as it gets and not a drop is leaked. Filling the reservoirs, the first time required about ten minutes.

Document printing is striking quality suitable for professional correspondence, student papers, resumes, essays and for quick everyday prints. Photo printing is brilliant.

Likes:

1. Small footprint - replacing a much larger all-in-one and love the space saving

2. Tilting control console with Color LCD screen – tilts from Vertical to Horizontal

3. Print Quality – excellent for my resident student

4. Auto-Document Feeder

5. Not having to replace expensive ink cartridges

6. Auto 2-sided printing

7. 250 sheet capacity

8. All-in-One features built into a capable small office printer

9. Ethernet and Wi-Fi

10. 2-year warranty – speaks to dependability

The unit is somewhat noisier than the larger unit I am replacing, not an issue but noticeable.

After a week of usage and a substantial amount of printing, from 175 double sided print job to many documents have found the Epson EcoTank ET-4850 to be Rock Solid, never skipped a beat.

Just received the ET-4850 multi-function printer and opened it immediately to setup it up. Setup took about 30 minutes using the Epson Smart Panel app on my iphone. It walked me right through it from filling tanks to WiFi with no problems.

Filling the ink tanks was a breeze - hard to believe just how easy it was and how much it can reduce future costs of ink! Great job Epson.

Print setup was easy as well - ran through the adjustments and tweaked a few settings with no issues. Print quality looks good for normal document printing. Photo printing was very good - especially using photo paper.

Scanning was easy to use, but the initial quality suffered. After playing with the resolution and a few other settings, I have it working better. The document feeder works well too. I used it both scanning and copying - flawless.

I only gave a 4 star rating as I can't seem to find a way to set/retain the default scan save location. I want it to go into the "My Scans" folder on my PC.....

Other than the default scanning location issue - this printer is quiet, fast and easy to setup! Sure to be a solid performer in your home!

Very nice printer. The ink tanks are large on this one. They say you can print about 7000 pages before you have to refill one. This model includes a fax as well and a port for a phone with the fax line. The screen is a touch screen and it is easy to navigate. I set this up using my phone and it takes you step by step. The ink for the first time setting up the machine uses about a quarter from the tanks as it charges the lines in the printer. This is pretty much a one time thing unless you run the printer dry. It also pretty quiet vs other printers I have owned in the past. You are able to print via you cell phone and wirelessly on your computer. All in all this is a nice complete package in one unit.

This printer is a superb choice if quality and cost per page is important to you. The Epson ET-3850 wireless EcoTank All-in-One Printer is a very reliable, inexpensive, easy to use and compact device which will economically and quietly print large quantities of documents at a very nice quality level.

Epson is one of the three major units of Japan’s Seiko Group (the other two produce Seiko watches and SII microelectronics.) Seiko created the printing timers used in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, then developed the first electronic mini-printer (the EP-101) in 1968. In 1975 the company created the Epson name to brand the next generation of printers based upon the EP-101 technology. Epson literally means “son of EP” and it introduced dot matrix printers in 1978. Epson created the micro piezo inkjet technology (which is the basis for most modern inkjet printers) in 1993. To combat the cost and waste associated with inkjet cartridges Epson released the first of the EcoTank line of printers in 2015. When it comes to printer technology you can’t go wrong with Epson!

Here are the key features of this great multifunction printer:

• Epson ET-3850 All-in-One Color Inkjet Printer/Copier/Scanner

• 2.4 inch color LCD control screen with animation of help function

• Connectivity: Wireless (802.11b/g/n), USB, Ethernet 10/100

• Ink capacity/page yield: Black 127 ml = approx. 7,500 pages, Cyan/Yellow/Magenta 70 ml each = approx. 6,000 pages

• Print resolution: up to 4800 x 1200 dpi

• ISO print speed: 15.5 ppm (Black), 8.5 ppm (Color)

• Automatic duplex (two-sided) printing

• Multi-page printing on a single sheet – up to 16 pages/images per side

• ISO duplex print speed: 6.5 ppm (Black), 4.5 ppm (Color)

• Paper capacity: 250 sheets in lower tray

• Paper sizes: Adjustable down to 3.5” width, Letter, A4, Legal, #10 envelopes

• Duty cycle: Up to 5,000 pages/month

• Scan function: up to 1200 x 2400 resolution, 8.5 x 11.7 inch flatbed (A4 paper size)

• Copy function: up to 99 copies, reduce, enlarge, borderless, duplex

• Epson Smart Panel app for Apple and Android phones

• Dimensions: 14.8 inch Wide x 13.7 inch/19.8 inch (w. tray extended) Deep x 9.7 inch Tall

• Weight: 16.1 pounds

• Includes Photo+, Photo Editing, ScanSmart, NetPrint utilities, setup and driver software

• Two year/50,000 sheet limited warranty

First impression of this printer is that is elegantly styled in an arctic white with subtly rounded corners to relieve the bulkiness seen in some competitors’ devices. It has a minimal impact upon your workspace with a nearly square footprint (just 14.8” x 13.7”) and stands a compact 9.1” tall. Epson cleverly designed the sheet feeder to fold flat when not in use, minimizing both the height and the width of the printer. The power cord has no bulky transformer on it so it adds to the clean look of the printer. Overall you will be pleased to share your office with this beautiful unit, especially since when in operation it is very quiet. Wirelessly connected, it can be located in any convenient space – it does not need to be next to the PC it is serving. This is ideal for homes and small offices since you can also use this great device as a supplemental copier.

Setting up this printer is very easy. Epson protects the printer during shipping with tape around key parts, but all of the tape is bright blue and very easy to remove. The quick setup instructions are well-written (unlike those of some other manufacturers) and you could just read them. But an even easier method is to download the Epson Smart Panel to your phone. Attach the power cord to the printer, but don’t turn it on. Then just obey the illustrated step-by-step instructions in the app. Filling the ink tanks on the printer Is foolproof. The ink bottles have alignment tabs which securely hold the bottle while it fills the respective printer tank and the filling process stops automatically when the tank is full. There will be some ink left in the bottle, so reclose it and store it in a seal bag (see photo) to prevent possible leakage. Flip down the ink tank cap and repeat the process with each ink color.

Once the ink tanks have been filled, turn on the printer’s power and follow the detailed instructions in the Epson Smart Panel. The system will be charged with ink in a process that takes about ten minutes. The control panel will display the progress during this step.

Next, load some paper and the printer will conduct an alignment process during which four pages will be printed and you will be asked a series of question to select the line on the page which best matches the sample shown on the control panel.

Once the alignment is complete you can continue to follow the Epson Smart Panel app to connect the printer to your wireless network. Alternatively, you could use the CD included with the printer to establish the wireless connection. The CD also contains the supplemental software which you will use to get maximum benefit from the printer.

If, for some reason you do not want to use the printer’s wireless connection option, there are two other connection methods: attaching an Ethernet cable to your router or using a USB cable to your PC.

Any computer on your network should be able to access the printer. If you don’t want to use the setup CD and have a Windows PC just go to Settings, then Devices and select Add Printer. The Epson printer should be discovered and the driver automatically downloaded.

The Epson ET-3850 has a large (250 sheet) paper capacity in the lower paper drawer. It loads easily and is adjustable for multiple paper sizes. To print envelopes you must remove the paper and adjust the paper guides to the width of the envelope. If you want to use legal-size paper the end of the paper tray flips down to accommodate the longer paper.

Print quality is really excellent, even in the economy (standard) mode. In the higher quality (business document) mode the print quality matches most laser printers I have used. The printer driver provides nice printing options like 2 on 1, 4 on 1 and up to 16 on 1 (number of page images on a single sheet of paper), borderless, scaled, fit-to-page, booklet and others. The most useful option is the automatic duplexing (two-sided printing) which it manages without drama.

Photo printing quality is quite good and will satisfy most purposes. (If you want really outstanding photo printing quality you should invest in a dedicated photo printer with more than three ink colors.) This printer’s color capability will be best used in printing business documents (graphs, multi-colored text, PowerPoint slide copies, etc.) and it does a very nice job on such tasks. The printing speed is not equal to that of a laser printer but certainly acceptable at about 16 pages/minute (black) and about 8 pages/minute for color documents (speeds estimated by my own testing.) For home use and most small offices this is more than adequate.

Scanning, at resolutions up to 1200 x 2400 dpi, can be managed from the printer’s control panel or by using the included Espson Smart Scan Utility (or by just using Windows Fax and Scan utility.) I recommend Epson’s utility which will scan to a PDF, stich large documents together and facilitate OCR, among other features.

The copy function is excellent, producing up to 99 copies in black print or color from each original with options for shrinking or enlarging originals, adjusting contrast, etc. The color control panel walks you through the options available or you can just hit the start button to make a single copy with the default settings and the automatic document feeder.

Other bonus features include easy printing from phones and tablets using the free Epson app.

But the most important feature of the Epson ET-3850 All-in-One Inkjet Printer/Copier/Scanner is that wonderful EcoTank. It holds 127 ml of black ink and a total of 210 ml of color ink (70 ml each of cyan, yellow and magenta). Those massive tanks will print about 7,500 sheets of black ink documents and about 6,000 sheets of color documents. If you print ten pages a day that initial ink supply will last you for more than three years! The best part is the incredibly low cost of the ink. The refills for the ink tanks are far less expensive than replacement cartridges. The cost comparison to standard ink cartridges is amazing. A typical replacement inkjet cartridge for other printers costs $30 to $40 and will print 220-350 pages at an ink cost per page of about $0.09. The ink cost per page of the EcoTank system is about $0.004 – less than 5% of the cost of a standard inkjet printer! If you are upgrading from a traditional inkjet printer you may be used to minimizing your printing to avoid the expense of ink cartridge replacement. This Epson Et-3850 will free you to print much more readily since you have a cost per page lower than almost any other printing device on the market.

Those savings are due to the fact that you are not replacing the print head, as you must with each new ink cartridge, and the elimination of the plastic cartridge body cost. The ecological benefits of eliminating this waste are a nice bonus. The only replacement item on the Epson ET-3850 is a “maintenance box” which collects excess ink. It costs about $15 and probably needs replacement every other year.

The only caution that I would advise is that you print at least one page in black ink and one color copy every month to keep the ink lines from potentially drying out from lack of use.

The more I use the Epson ET-3850 EcoTank All-in-One Inkjet Printer/Copier/Scanner, the more I like it. I can happily give this great printer a full five stars and my unqualified endorsement. Buy it without qualms!

Disclaimer:

I am a member of Best Buy’s Technical Insider Network, TIN for short. Reviewers in this invitation-only program are provided products for the purpose of writing honest, unbiased reviews.

First Impression:

The Epson ET-3850 is lite weight when compared with other multi-function printers I have owned. Single page text and duplex page text print quickly and print to first page is as fast as any laser printer I have used. I was very surprised by how quickly full-page graphics print. Flatbed scanning is quick and detailed. However, colors are not accurate enough for my tastes. I found color accuracy issues with both scanning images and printing images. Scanning documents via the page feeder is terrible. Loading ink is super easy and mess free. The ink tanks hold enough ink to last a good long while under moderate use. See below for further details.

Setup:

It took me 20 to 30 minutes to setup this printer. Unboxing was easy but time consuming. There was a lot of protective tape used to prevent the printer’s moving parts, doors, and sliders from being damaged in transit. The printer includes four bottles of ink (Magenta, Blue, Yellow, Black), an installation CD, quick start guide, and the usual warranty information. See included photo.

You can setup the printer in a few ways: install the included software suite, configure from the printers control panel, or use the Epson app on your cell phone. I chose to configure the printer using the app on my phone. The app walked me through setting up the printer, filling the ink wells, priming the printer, setting up the network, and more. The app setup process is interactive and resembles a texting conversation. I included an image of one of the setup steps.

Loading the ink from the bottles was quick, painless, and clean. To see how clean, I laid a scrap piece of pure white towel on the table in front of the ink wells. Each color is loaded one at a time. The neck of the bottle fits snuggling into the tank head and forces the bottle’s seal to open. The tank is gravity fed and will auto stop filling when the tank is full. On bottle dripped a few drops of ink as I removed the bottle from the tank head. I removed this bottle too slow and tilted it to one side as I removed it. Otherwise, there was zero mess. The attached photo is the white after all tanks were filled.

The Ink priming process takes about 10 minutes. The print head alignment process takes about another ten minutes. I did not like the alignment process. It was four printed pages of being asked to tell the difference between six possible line configurations and picking out the best. The alignment images were so small that I had to inspect each printed page under a magnifying glass just to see them. Then, I spent a good minute or two trying to figure out which of the six picks were most correct. I think Epson could have accomplish the results with larger alignment images. Anyone without perfect 20/20 vision will have a very difficult time with this.

Finally, if you do not have a CD player then you can go to Epson.com/support and get all the software that ships with the printer including the printer drivers.

Printing:

Fantastic speed and clarity. Single page black and white zoom out of the printer. All ink jet printers I have owned print one line of text at a time. The ET-3850 seems to print a quarter of the page at a time. I cannot confirm if this is happening, but I stand by my statement that this a fast printer. I would say as fast as a fully warmed up and ready to print laser printer. Duplex printing is a little slow mostly because the printer must pull the page back into the printer and flip it over. The duplex mechanism is still close to what I have experience with a laser printer.

Color accuracy, however, needs improvement. My biggest gripe is Red. Reds come out orange and never match the original source material. For a test, I downloaded a simple color wheel. See attached images. I printed the color wheel using high resolution settings. The Red and Orange look almost the same. I scanned the image back into the system using both the Automatic document feeder (ADF) and the flatbed scanner. Each scanner read the image differently. Both samples are included in the attached photo. Finally, I photographed the printed color wheel with my Sony Alpha camera in full daylight. I realize the white balance in the photo is off but the differences between orange and red are still evident.

As a second test, I scanned in a book cover that had a very vibrant red to it. I then printed that scan and got a very weak red color like the color wheel. I did not include an image of this test because it did not prove anything different than what my color wheel images already reveal.

The next test was the difference between the ADF and the flatbed scanner. The ADF has color accuracy issues, paper jamming issues, and does an over-all crummy job creating an accurate scan. See attached photo. For this test, I used the book cover I mentioned in the last paragraph. You can see that the flatbed scan is crisp, clean, and vibrant. The document feeder is a printed copy of the book cover from the flatbed scanner. You can see the colors are dull, washed out, and the image is full of horizontal white lines and artifacts. The artifacts are more clearly present in the pure text example I included in the same image. I would compare the image quality of the ADF to that of a fax machine. The text I scanned is from a report that I printed from the ET-3850. The original hard copy looked crisp and without any artifacts. I did notice that the AFP did not smoothly pull the document through the paper feed and through the scanner. I think this led to both the poor scan quality as well as some of the paper jams I encountered.

Faxing:

The ET-3850 has zero faxing capabilities.

Interface Panel:

The interface panel is easy to use, quick between the menus, and well laid out. The display is not touch a screen. Everything is driven by a touch pad. The interface panel is on a hinge that allows that screen to be parallel with the floor for easy use. Then it can folded out of the way when not in use. The LCD panel does have a time-out and will eventually turn off. The power button light will not turn off under any power condition other than unplugged. The power button light is bright enough to light up a small room. If you find this annoying, then you will need to put a piece of tape over the power button. I was unable to find a setting that turned off or dimmed the power light.

Images:

Full page color prints on standard quality are almost as fast as a full page of black and white text. Fine detail prints take about three times longer. To be honest, I did not see much of a difference between standard quality and high quality. I did not see a setting to allow the printer to do borderless prints. It will print full page with an eighth of an inch white boarder around the image. The printed images are clean, lines are sharp, but color saturation can be muddy at times. For example, I printed the one and only image that I can find on the internet of the Battlestar Galactica from Blood and Chrome. On the screen, I could make out all the detail between the Galactica and the space station in the background. Detail was lost in center of the image where the high contrast features were overtaken the darker colors. The detail that did show was much darker than in the original image.

I also saw a similar affect with the image of the Enterprise B from the book cover of Star Trak Shipyards from Eaglemoss. The starship has a lot of dark blues. This caused parts of the ship to fully vanish against the darker background when I printed the image I made from the ET-3850’s flatbed scanner. Is this good enough for term papers and business reports? Yes. Is it good enough to print high quality printers for display in your office? No.

Finally, Reds are not accurate.

Final thoughts:

This printer may not be for you if you require the use of all the features this printer provides. The ADF mechanism is not the best I have used. Color accuracy, paper jams, and scan quality are all major issues for the ADF. Print quality is excellent if you don’t require color accurate reds. I also find detail lost in scenes where a lot of like colors saturate the image.

This may be the printer for you if your main goals are lighting fast prints great flatbed scanning capabilities. Epson does market this printer as a home printer and not a home office printer. If you do not need the ADF or faxing functions then this is a good printer for work from home school, or collage.

One thing that I really love about this printer is the ADF tray folds up into a flat surface. This may sound minor but ADFs waste space. This allows safe storage of laptops, papers, books, whatever you have.

Taken as a whole, the ET-3850 needs some work before I could recommend. If you need a solid MFP that is fast, holds a lot of ink, and can produce great looking reports then this is an easy printer to recommend.

I hope you found this review helpful. Thank you.

The Epson EcoTank ET-3850 printer has ink for years. That's not hyperbole, it really does have ink for years. And, when that ink runs out, you could replace the black and color cartridges for around $60 on BestBuy.com. If you can get past the initial expense, the EcoTank ET-3850 is an economical printer that does a good job with daily prints, photo prints, and scanning. For those reasons, I recommend the ET-3850.

Setup:

Epson includes a compact disc with drivers and software, but as my PCs no longer have disc drives, I had to download PC software from epson.com/support. Look for drivers and software for the ET-3850.

After installation, the software found additional updates on check.

But, if you choose to go the mobile route, the Epson Smart Panel software was easy to use and provides a simple interface to set up, print, scan, or troubleshoot the printer. Smart Panel was an easy and convenient way to print documents or queue photo prints directly from my phone.

The printer can connect via WiFi on the 2.4ghz band (wifi-direct or over a router), LAN, or USB. There is no included USB or Lan cable. I chose to hook the printer up via WiFi. As long as I was connecting straight to the router, the setup was easy. If I tried to hook up to a WiFi extender, the printer had trouble connecting and communicating with my devices. Not sure if that was a problem with my extender or the printer, but, if you can, your best bet is to hook up to your primary router.

Installing the 502 ink was easy and I didn't have any mess. There's a locking system in place to keep the ink from spilling before the tube docks with the printer. But I'm not sure what would keep someone from putting the wrong ink into the wrong slot. I couldn't tell if the colors and black were uniquely keyed. Maybe they are, but I wasn't about to test and find out. Long story short, make sure you match up the colors to the right dock.

Also, I should point out that in addition to the ink, the printer requires a maintenance box, part number T04D100, which wears out over time. Price for the maintenance box varied, but it seems to run between $15 and $25 depending on retailer.

Experience:

The printer is fast with regular prints. Dual sided printing worked, but did experience more of a delay. I printed photos on Epson Premium 4X6 and 5X7 photo paper. I thought the prints came out great. I love the color from Epson printers and the ET-3850 was great in that regard. Blues and purples really popped and lines looked crisp and sharp

Cons:

Not enough to ding the review, but there are a few design decisions that I wish where changed or improved upon. First, there is no USB or SD Card input. As a result, you won't be able to print directly from a USB stick.

There's only one paper tray (or paper cassette). If I want to switch from printing standard documents to printing envelopes or photos, I have to take out the existing paper and make adjustments to the tray and the software on the printer.

The auto document feeder was a bit of a struggle. Thinner paper wasn't picked up as easily and I found myself working to get some documents through. But on the whole scanning worked well and looked good.

Conclusion:

All of that aside, I like the printer. It's nice seeing the physical ink levels from the front of the device. I like how the photos look. Document prints have been done well and single sided prints have come out fast. All-in-all, the ET-3850 is a solid printer for any home office.

SUMMARY

Printers have always been troublesome pieces of tech for me, which is usually down to just a few recurring things:

1. Getting the printer to stay connected wirelessly to the print devices

2. Troubleshooting errors when they occur

3. Having to constantly buy ink cartridge bundles to replace colors which never last

So far, this EcoTank printer has tackled each of my three biggest issues with clever solutions that finally make a home office printer which is both a great performer and supremely easy to use. Between no issues connecting to all of my printing sources, a very helpful companion app that makes understanding the printer easy, and the EcoTank system which uses ink reservoirs instead of cartridges, there is a lot to love with this printer. Yes, it does have a higher upfront price tag, and is not going to win any speed printing competitions, but when you consider the amount of ease you get, not to mention the low running/operating costs, the price tag becomes a lot more reasonable.

SET-UP PROCESS

From the get-go the EcoTank ET-3850 makes a great impression, and that is down to the set-up process. I would highly recommend anyone getting this printer to download the Epson Smart Panel app, which features a virtual assistant like set-up process where the app talks you through setting-up the printer step-by-step, which is admittedly quite quick as easy. Most of the set-up involves removing all of the packaging material on the printer, loading the ink via the included bottles (which stop filling automatically once the reservoirs are full), connecting to your Wi-Fi (which can be done via the app while the ink initialization is getting ready), and running an optional but recommended print calibration process to dial everything in. Once that is all done, its simply a matter of connecting to the printer from your print source and then you are off to the races. Paper can be loaded via a standard tray on the bottom of the printer which pulls out, and you can pull out a separate tray right above it to catch paper as they print.

OPERATION

The best place to start here is with the headlining feature, the EcoTank/Supertank which uses ink reservoirs instead of cartridges. What this means is that not only do you use much less plastic without needing to constantly replace plastic cartridges, but you also get a lot more ink for your buck, with a quoted 2 years’ worth of ink in the box, assuming normal printing loads. We print quite a lot at our house, certainly above average given our jobs requiring physical materials & documents, and thus far we have barely seen the ink levels move in the EcoTank reservoirs. Speaking of which, being able to physically see the reservoirs empty with the semi-transparent windows on the front is a small but amazing feature. It was always annoying dealing with surprising warning messages that you were almost out of ink when using cartridge-based systems, but now you can actually see where you ink levels are at in real time, and use that to help prepare for what colors you might need. Likewise, you don’t have to deal with annoying multi-color cartridges, so if a particular color is running out quicker than the others, you can just refill that color. Likewise, if you don’t use a whole bottle of ink, you can simply reseal the bottle and save it for later, so no ink is wasted.

In terms of operation when it comes to user interface, this is largely good, but not the best I have used. You use buttons to navigate the admittedly small screen, which does feel a bit of a step back compared to modern touchscreen displays. I’d prefer to have a slightly larger touchscreen with smaller buttons, but in terms of overall usage, this isn’t a deal-breaker by any means. The actual UI itself is fine as well, with easy navigation to the various menus and sub-menus, and clear locations for everything within the software.

Now for the big one: printing. First, to start with the good, print quality is great. Text is sharp and colors look great. You can print from your computer or your phone, and you are able to print with smart assistants for voice-activated printing. Where printing faulters a bit is with speed, which I would classify as “good but not great”. You are not going to be left waiting all day for things to print, but if you are a super printer who needs high volume documents quickly, you might want to invest in a model or two higher than this. The printer does possess what Epson calls PrecisionCore Heat-Free technology, which leaves pages cool even after lots of printing, and doesn’t result in any distorted text or graphics. Likewise, you do get automatic two-sided printing as well, which is one of my must-have features with any printer.

Now I know I have focused a lot on printing, but this is actually more than a printer, as the ET-3850 also has a scanner & copier as well, which likewise perform very well across the board. Finally, one last positive I want to mention is the size of the printer. As this printer is designed for mostly home office functionality, you want it to be as compact as possible. The ET-3850 on that note is surprisingly compact, with more height than width, which is how I prefer my printer to be, given desk space is a valuable resource in my relatively small home office.

CONCLUSION

Honestly, if you couldn’t tell already, I really like this printer. It has all of the essentials I need in a home office printer, and then builds upon this with a very large ink tank system, great print quality, a very easy set-up system, strong companion app, and compact form factor. Like I mentioned at the start of this review, it does possess a significant upfront cost, but for all of the cost you save in maintenance and the great ease of set-up/troubleshooting, it doesn’t feel like a bad value at all. Highly recommended.

I am so happy that I stumbled upon this printer!! This new Epson EcoTank ET- 3850 is perfect for the at-home office, or for an at-home printer. The setup was super easy, and the printer allows you to print in many ways. I love that this printer comes with its own email address when you register it, and you can simply email the printer and it will print pictures or documents. I also love the app that you can download on either iOS or Android, it also makes printing super easy. I have never had a printer that can do double-sided printing before, but once you have one that can do automatic double-sided printing, you realize quickly what you were missing. I had to print out some forms for my child’s daycare and this printer didn’t skip a beat when printing on both sides, it's incredible. As I said previously, setting up the printer was easy and with the initialization test prints, they were spot on right out of the box. The tray holds 250 pages of paper, and the tray aligns the paper perfectly. The screen is 2.4 inches and is color, I really like how you can adjust the screen and buttons by pulling them out and up, that way the screen is facing you while looking down at it, but also can be put back vertically. This printer can literally do it all whether it be print, scan, or copy, and can be used from a mobile device, computer, email, Wi-Fi, or through the app. The most impressive component to this printer would have to be everything about the ink. Let’s talk about the ink!! This printer comes with 2 years’ worth of ink in the box! I still can’t get over how this printer takes and stores the ink. Epson knocked it out of the park with this idea. To fill the printer with ink, it's as simple as unscrewing the cap, and setting the bottle to its respected color, and watching the ink bubble down into the reservoir. There is enough ink to print roughly 12,000 pages! I am so happy to never have to buy another messy, fragile, and expensive cartridge again. This printer is the boss of at-home printers, an absolute powerhouse, and not one time has it given me any grief. Never once had the printer not connected and printed flawlessly. I am extremely pleased with this printer and can strongly recommend it to anyone with a home office, anyone who wants to print photos or documents while at home or away, or anyone who has kids with lots of school projects, you won’t be disappointed.

Love the printer. I had a HP that was costing me a fortune on ink replacement because my wife is in nursing school and she need to print a lot of copy. So after about a Month of research I decided to go with the Epson Eco Thank ET-3850. Set up was a breeze with the App. My family really love this printer. For now Its working great. I read a comment about how this printer make a lot of noise when printing. That is true straight out of the box, but you can fix that problem by going through the setting on the printer not the App. There is a setting that you can turn on to make the printer print quiet.

It is very easy to install this printer using the Epson Smart Panel cell phone app. The ability to print from your cell phone is very handy. Next, you go to your PC and install the utilities from the provided DVD disk. You will have the abilities to print and scan from your PC or initiate a scan/copy from the printer control panel. After you have connected the WiFi setup, it is a good idea to check and install the newest firmware, and there is a simple interface to do this.

The installation, though simple, does take about 15 minutes from start to finish. You will install the ink, initialize the ink supply, align the print heads and set up your wireless connection. Don’t rush if it is your first try with the Eco Tank cartridges and don’t touch the exposed top of the supply bottles. Epson very smartly made it so that each color has a different ‘plug’ end such that you cannot put the wrong color ink into the reservoirs. Also the printer senses when the ink reservoir is filled and stops the input of ink – that was kind of magical – well done by Epson.

I tested the printing, copying and scanning for black/white and color printing and was very pleased with the clarity and colors. Of course a big plus is the EcoTank system. The printer includes a larger bottle of ink for each color. I can’t test the claim of 2 years of ink yet, but I certainly observed the ink supplied was at least 5 times what you see in ‘normal’ ink cartridges. Note after the ink is initialized, the reservoirs have lowered because the ink is put into the connecting pipes etc., so don’t be concerned. If you had some ink left in each bottle (which I did have), you can add it at this point. Note to add ink you should use the add ink menu since it will ask you to ‘proceed’ when done so that the ink levels will be recalibrated by the printer.

I’m very pleased with this printer from all functional angles and I am very happy about the EcoTank system which will reduce the time spent for buying/replacing cartridges and will reduce cost of printing for me. I do highly recommend this nice printer.

Average size foot print not small not big. Prints B/W and Color copies fast wireless.Fill bottles easy simple easy to fill tanks. Printed over 100 B/W office documents and 50 color invoices and ink tanks including initial charge only down 1 mark on gauge total of 4 marks on gauge window so I'm guessing 1 mark down would be still 3/4 full looks like long lasting ink supply with bottle fill tank system. Works with Chrome OS and not all printers do. Most functions commands work with keypad buttons picture screen is not really a touch pad control if your used to a touch screen controlling all functions. Wireless printing speed and response is excellent.

Having a vast amount of experience with HP printing devices over the years, I can confidently state that potential purchasers should try to avoid this product for a while. HP is known for clunky software/firmware implementation and there are vast resources available which can be read online & support this historical context.

Immediately upon setting up my printer, I went through the steps of installing the various software packages available on their support website. There's what is called a "Full" package, there are "Universal" and "Basic" driver packages as well. HP installation routines will commonly crash or become stuck with no apparent reason. To compound the issues further - that I faced - the internal printing mechanism produced some horrendous sounds when it went through it's initial 'power-up' sequences for the very first time. I heard what sounded like some extreme mechanical collisions or slamming.

Once I ran through several install/uninstall attempts I was finally able to get the printer to work properly utilizing the "Universal" driver package. Printing, scanning, copying and communication to the MFP's internal configuration all appeared somewhat normal. I did perform a firmware update along the way but this new firmware didn't fix any of the error codes I experienced.

When I queried the "event log" of the printer (through an Ethernet connection), I discovered critical failure notifications. I've attached the screen shot of what I first observed. I also receive consistent error messages that the printer is out-of-paper at the end of print jobs. Something is terribly amiss here. I've attached a screen capture of that as well.

HP Smart is an application that will automatically install in the background of a Windows 10 machine, and this software will not only provide error messages and configuration settings - but it also links into something called the HP print & scan doctor. Essentially a self help diagnostic app. The HP Smart app is a prime mover in the popping up 'out-of-paper' notifications in the Win 10 notification tray.

I do have some good things to say about this printer.

It's faster than the M426 generation and looks to employ more power saving and toner saving feature controls than it's predecessors. Perceived sound can be highly subjective but my particular unit seems much louder than older HP MFP's I've used. Perhaps this is related to some internal, mechanical issues.

The Good:

Faster and noticeably more precise toner application - translated - clearer printing.

Compact in overall size & work space footprint.

The Bad:

Poor software implementation and a tedious installation experience.

Louder in operation.

False positives with the consistent, out of paper error messages.

Prone to "Fuser Drive (internal hardware) 50.04.00 Errors".

I can not recommend the HP - LaserJet Pro MFP M428fdw printer at the present time.

First off, I love HP and its products. They are usually dependable and this one was no different. From the purchase to the setup (of course, I casually glanced at the directions), it only took 10 minutes to have it up and running. I was printing pages shortly after that. I love that it can scan, fax, and read from a USB thumbdrive. It was an upgrade from a previous HP that I had and I could not be happier. I love the sleek design and simple "footprint" that it has... it can set anywhere in a smaller apartment or in a corner of a home office. HP (so far) has proven to be a sturdy, reliable, and affordable option to home printing. Enjoy it.

I purchased this for a laser-foil process. I can print almost any design on some papers and leather and then laminate foil onto the design.

This was the one and only printer I wanted

Best Buy had with a good price.

The LaserJet Pro MFP M428fdw is surprisingly compact for being capable of so much. I was expecting a huge box, but when it arrived I was pleasantly surprised by the small footprint. Setup was easy. I used the printer's touchscreen to set up a wifi connection (a USB connection could also be used). It connected easily to my internet, and my mobile devices saw it immediately as a printer on the network. I printed documents from an iPad and an Android phone, and that was before I did the PC setup! Loved the connectivity. There is an option if you are an IT person and want to set the printer up for an office environment to do so. Since I am using this in my personal office, I did not try setting up the office environment option.

I went to HP's site and downloaded the PC software, including the scanning tool. What's great about this, the printer can scan two-sided documents via the auto-feeder and send them to any computer that you have the scanning software installed on, as well as handheld devices. I tried this with several documents, and only had one glitch where I had to power the printer off and then back on because the scanner locked up. The restart corrected the issue, and I haven't had one since.

I love the fact that this unit can print two-sided copies as fast as other units I have had that only print one side. I printed a 17-page peer-review on leadership studies in less than 7 seconds (double-sided). Simply impressive! Print quality was outstanding. I had several other folks send docs to be printed. Both the Macs and the Windows PC's we tested found the printer on my network immediately and printed to it without having to do anything special.

I tested the fax component of the machine (yes, people do still actually use those...) by faxing a 6-page document to my workplace fax machine and then back. No issues getting dial-tone, no issues sending the fax, and I set it up to print me a success page after it was sent.

In an office environment, or even if you need a high-speed, quality printer at home to scan, fax and print double-sided black and white copies, you can't do much better than this HP. I can't think of an all-in-one printer that I have liked as much as this one, thus the 5-star review. Highly recommended!

HP is my go-to company for printers, and sometimes, scanners. The MFP M428fdw is a fast, very good quality printer, scanner and fax machine. I didn’t test the fax because...who is faxing?

The build quality is high and it seems robust enough for home, SoHo and small office environments.

Scanning and printing are fast, with very good quality.

Downsides? The app you download has struggled with connectivity for me. This may not be the same for you, depending on your WiFi and OS situation. I’m running Windows 10 Pro over a WiFi sub network of our core Ethernet network.

The unit is attractive, quick, quiet and I’m not raving about it, but I will recommend the product.

This is a great printer and scanner. The HP Smart App works perfectly with this printer and I love scanning things to my phone using the app.

It is black and white only and the paper tray is letter only (you have to manually feed longer sheets). I also had issues with scale when printing from my phone using the native Apple print function (easily fixed by printing from the HP app).

This printer is very compact for everything it does. It has a slower quiet mode, but it is already much quieter than my other printer in normal mode. It also is very nice looking and I had no issues with using the touch screen.

A USB cable is included and a phone line for the fax. I didn’t need them thanks to being able to print wirelessly and scan using my phone. It also has a USB port for a thumbdrive.

I would definitely recommend this multifunction printer based on the app and ease of use.

I've been looking for a laser printer that would not break the bank for lots of printing on a small home office. Finally found it!

Box was a little heavy, but the printer feels compact and solid. It has a scanner, printer fax. They even included the necessary toner to start printing. Setup was easy. Make sure you have an internet connection, because the software has to be downloaded. But after doing so, the install was easy, I was able to set it up with my wifi network and now I can print from anywhere.

Print quality is great, as expected from a laser printer and fast. I just looked around and the replacement toners are around $59 to $79, but they last long. The LCD screen was big and easy to read, even for my aging eyes!

I highly recommend this all in one for anyone with a small office/home office!

This LaserJet is an excellent and incredible print producing printer for any business or home office. It prints up to 38 monochrome pages per minute, and it is not loud. It is straightforward to set up on my home office network, its kid of a plug and play device. Once on the network, I connected the printer to my Google Cloud Print account, and this allows me to print basically from any place in the world where there is an internet connection. Cloud printer, when set up correctly, is handy and allows a business to run more smoothly. The box comes included with a starter toner that will yield 1500 pages prints. Replacing toner is relative easy. Double side printer is done manually, but it is quick and easy; it requires the user to place the printed document on the multipurpose tray #1. Text is printed with sharp clarity, providing results that I can rely on for my home business. Now my printings run more smoothly because this printer requires very little intervention- tray #2 holds up to 250 sheets and the multipurpose tray #1 holds up to 100 sheets. I use the multipurpose tray for specialized sheets or reprinted forms. When needed, tray #1 & #2 can accept legal-size documents. The device does not print on envelopes, but to get around this, I use rectangular shipping labels.

Overall, this is an outstanding small monochrome laser printer with professional print quality. It is very convenient and excellent for any office. I haven’t had a paper jam, and it prints lightning-fast without loud noise. If looking for a laser printer, I highly recommend this HP LaserJet Pro M404n.

We have two older Brother laser printers and one of them was starting to sound funny when printing so I decided it was time to try something else. One of my first laser printers was an old HP laser that a friend gave me, that was back in 1995 and it lasted for many years, so I was always a fan of the HP laser printers, just not the pricing as the Brothers were always cheaper and cheaper to maintain until now.

Unboxing:

The printer comes with everything you need to get set up and printing right away. There’s the printer “naturally”, power cord, USB cable, Ethernet patch cord, an already installed beginner cartridge that’s rated at 1500 pages, and all the paperwork.

Setting up:

Setting it up was very simple, I didn’t even have to attach it to my computers USB port first. I just plugged it into our network switch and the HP software I already had for our HP color inkjet found it and asked if I wanted to set it up, pretty simple.

There are two paper trays though, and the one under the front cover is called tray #1, the tray at the bottom of the printer is tray #2, it’s sort of confusing but it works. We filled tray #2 with paper, “it holds 250 sheets”, leaving tray one hidden “it will be used for envelopes and anything we need to feed manually.

I did go to the HP website and downloaded a full set up drivers and software as the HP Windows 10 app seemed a little too limited. It will ask you how the printer is hooked up, “either directly to your computer or on a network”, I selected “network” and it found it within a couple seconds. This wasn’t a difficult set up at all.

Printing and Quality:

Now this printer is fast, really fast once it gets going. The warm up time is very short, just a few seconds and it’s off and running. I do like that there’s a two line display showing status and any errors, with our Brother printers you only get lights and have to reference a guide on top to figure out what they mean.

Print quality is superb; it looks sharper than either of our Brother printers. Text is super crisp and the fonts / graphics edges are nice and sharp, another great HP printer.

Impressions:

This model doesn’t support Wi-Fi or have full automatic duplex printing, not an issue for us as it’s hooked to our network and any two sided printing we may do “very rare in our case” can be done manually.

The printer itself doesn’t make any more noise over our Brother printers, very close noise level, but it does print faster, and the sharpness of the print job is enough to where you can see it upon close comparison.

The included “starter” cartridge does give you 1500 sheets, and a replacement cartridge is rated at 3k, there are high capacity cartridges rated at 7k sheets available if you happen to do a lot of printing.

The brother cartridges were rated at around 1200 sheets but cost half as much, as a normal 3k rated one so in the end the HP is actually cheaper to print with it just costs more initially when you purchase the cartridge.

If you are in the market for a SOHO printer than can handle a lot of printing then I’d definitely look at this one, it can print all day long and not hiccup.

This is a simple ethernet or USB connected monochrome laserjet printer. Super fast printing which claims up to 40ppm. It is a matter of seconds from the time the computer spools it to the time in hand. Multiple page documents completed before most inkjet printers even get the first page out. However, it is single sided only with manual double sided requiring the user to place the documents back in tray 1.

Setup can be simple or complex, depending on how you want to manage the printer. If it is self managed it will use DHCP IP and basic default settings. If it is IT Managed you can get down to the fine details of how you want to use this printer and ensure it meets your security demands. All of the settings can be changed later through its IP web page. The web interface allows for most of the advanced configuration. This includes access lists, firewall rules, security certificates, syslog connection and enabling/disabling certain web features such as AirPrint and Google Cloud Print. It also provides usage details, ink levels and tools in case of print quality issues.

Once it was identified on my network I used the default Windows 10 drivers and the HP Smart app and have experienced a fair bit of delay in getting documents to spool to the printer. However, on a different computer I used the HP m404-m405 installation software first and had no delay. I ended up going back and removing the installed drivers under printer server properties and doing the HP install again and all works perfectly. The installation software requires diagnostic information to be collected, but that can later be disabled in the printer assistant software. During setup it also mentions that Wi-Fi Direct is enabled, even though the M404n does not include wireless.

Besides printing quickly, the black levels are sharp and detailed. Even sending full colored photos to it to print came out in a wide range or gray scale detail. If you are looking for a small quick black only quality printer, that you can customize to meet your security demands, then this is certainly a worthwhile contender.

Honestly, when I ordered the HP - LaserJet Pro M404n Black-and-White Printer, I did not realize that in order to print wirelessly, this machine would require the user to connect this printer to their router with an Ethernet cord, which by the way is not included with the printer. The box contained the printer with the 58 A introductory print cartridge, the power cord, and some setup and explanatory paperwork.

So either you use the Ethernet cord, on you to procure, and then you will have wireless printing, or you can also connect the printer to the computer by USB. It is very important to download the HP Smart app; I got it from the Google Play Store since I use an android smartphone, a Samsung. This app was vital to the setup of the printer, and you can see that I have included screenshots of some of the pages within it. I tried to download the software to my computer through HP's website to no avail, but when I went back and read the original product request, it explicitly stated to download the app, (PLEASE NOTE: To review this item you must be willing and able to download the HP Smart App to your smart phone),.which made installation and connection a no brainer. The smartphone, through the app, finds your HP printers, those already installed and operational and this new one that needed to become operational and takes you through a series of steps to get it going-easy peasy.

As you can see from my attached photos, the footprint of this printer is small and the serviceable-area required to just place it on a good size desktop is very manageable. The speed to get the 1st page out is quick and all the subsequent pages. Print quality is excellent, but I have had issues with other HP printers and it is my bum luck that my issues seem to occur outside of the 1 year warranty. Be vigilant with any odd situations or issues that may make you guess whether or not there really is a warranty issue. I would err on the side of caution and call the HP group to establish any potential issues. I have noted that both Brother and Epson have extended the traditional 1 year term.

Laser printers have several advantages over inkjet printers…but, at the same time, there are certain advantages that ink jet printers have over laser printers. The HP LaserJet Pro M404n is a perfect example. Is the M404n right for you? We shall see……….

UNBOXING & INITIAL IMPRESSIONS:

Many companies have switched to “environmentally-friendly packaging” (cardboard, as opposed to Styrofoam), including HP in many of their lower-end printers. Unfortunately, HP still uses (a lot of) Styrofoam in packaging their higher-end printers. While it does keep the printer ‘safe’ during shipping, the impact to the environment will last for several human generations. As for cables, the ONLY cable included is the power cord…there are no USB and/or Ethernet cables included. On the ‘bright’ side, the printer’s toner cartridge comes pre-installed.

SETUP:

This was both simple, and difficult. The physical setup, as well as installing the drivers & software, were a breeze. Setup consisted of plugging in the power cable, connecting the Ethernet cable (the printer can be connected directly to a single computer, via USB, if you don’t want/need network printing capabilities), powering the printer up, and answering a few simple questions on the printer’s 2-line LCD display. For driver/software installation, you have two options – you can download the HPEasyStart file (6.43MB), or you can download the full-install package (111.5MB). The first option is the easier, and smarter, way to go, as it will only download the components needed for your specific setup, and will walk you through every (well, almost every, as I later discovered, and will explain, below) step of the install/configure process.

As mentioned, there is a slight problem in configuring everything, that being that, while configuring the EWS (Embedded Web Server settings, the ‘Internet connection’ is not automatically connected. After installation is complete, if you go to the “Web Services” tab, on the ‘Summary’ page, under ‘Internet connection’, it will indicate “Not Connected”…even though ‘Web Services Status’ shows “Enabled”, and ‘Printer connection to HP Connected’ indicates “Connected”. As discovered during a phone call with HP’s tech support, the printer’s Network connection needs to be set to a static IP, as opposed to the dynamic IP setting configured during the setup. You do this in a 2-step process. First, on the “Network” tab, under ‘General’, click on ‘Network Protocols’, and change it to “Enable IPv4 only”, then click <Apply>. Next, go to ‘Wired’ (“Network” tab), then ‘IPv4 Configuration’, and change the IP Address Configuration from “DHCP” to “Manual IP”. If everything is working as it should, your previously auto-assigned IPv4 information should automatically be filled into the ‘Manual IP’ & ‘DNS’ boxes. To finish, just click <Apply>. If you go back to the “Web Services” tab, under ‘Summary’, the Internet connection line should now read “Connected”. Needless to say, a relatively minor problem, but a bit of a PitA in regards to getting the info needed to fix it (the HP tech support person didn’t provide the solution…it was jointly discovered during the phone call.

PRINT QUALITY AND SPEED:

This is one area that laser printers greatly excel over inkjet printers. Print quality IS OUTSTANDING…the blacks are “black”, grayscale is “grayscale”, text & images are sharp…no more, and no less, than what I would have expected. HP claims a maximum print speed of 40ppm, and it’s quite accurate…and not accurate. Using a 42-page document, I ran three tests, although the first two tests produced almost-identical results. First, I printed one page, from the printer in “Sleep Mode”, then one page with printer ‘awake’, and finally the remaining 40 pages, also with the printer ‘awake’. Whether the printer was ‘asleep’, or ‘awake’, it made no difference, which I’ll explain.

With an inkjet, printing is, essentially, a 1-step process – you click <Print>, the computer sends the print data to the printer, and it prints whatever was sent. With laser printers, on the other hand, it is a 2-step process. Step 1 consists of clicking <Print>, which sends a command to the printer that a print job is about to start, the laser printer “warms up”, and finally the printer sends back a command that it’s “ready to receive the print data”. The second step consists of said print data being sent to the printer, and the printer printing what it received. In ALL three tests, the first step took approx 1.5 minutes (+/- 4 seconds). In the first two tests, the printer completed the second step in approx 10 seconds. As such, while the “printing” took only 10 seconds, the total printing process took approx 1 minute, 40 seconds. Moving onto the final test, the second step took 62 seconds. So, in essence, this does prove that HP’s claim of “printing” up to 40ppm is accurate…however, when combining the time of both steps, the total printing process took just under 2.5 minutes. While the “total printing process” might be much longer than HP’s 40ppm claim, that’s still faster than most inkjet printers. Considering that the printing was done at the ‘Normal’ setting, an equivalent print job on an inkjet might have taken considerably longer (even if printing “black only”).

ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS:

HP lists the LaserJet Pro M404n as having two paper trays…and, in a matter of speaking, it does…but, not entirely. What is labeled as ‘Tray 2’ is actually your primary tray, located at the bottom of the printer, and capable of holding up to 250 sheets. Before I cover ‘tray 1’, I will mention that you can purchase/install an additional paper tray (which becomes ‘tray 3’), and has a 500-sheet capacity. Getting back to ‘tray 1’, this is accessed by opening the front panel, and manually loading (up to 150 sheets) the paper (a flip-up extender allows it to accommodate legal-length paper), or envelopes. While you could, technically, leave ‘tray 1’ loaded all the time, its real use is in temporary usage. If you want two different paper-types loaded on a regular basis, I would highly suggest/recommend purchasing the 500-sheet ‘tray 3’. Also, the 2-line display could be better. At minimum, a 3-line display should have been included. Better yet, a color touch-screen display, as seen in almost off of HP’s other LaserJet printers (including less-expensive models, wouldn’t have been too much to ask for. Looking at all their LaserJet printers in the same general price-range ($200-399), there are 9 different ‘series’, 5 of which have touch-screen displays, including two models that are up to $100 cheaper than the M404n.

THE GOOD:

• Excellent print quality

• Extremely high-speed printing

• Easy to understand/use software

• (Mostly) Simple to set up

• Compact size (for a business-oriented laser printer)

THE BAD:

• Getting the printer “internet connected” isn’t automatically accomplished, requires manual settings

• No auto-duplex printing

THE UGLY:

• For the price, HP could have easily included a touch-screen display

FINAL VERDICT:

If you’re only printing a few pages at a time, then an inkjet printer is probably your best bet. If you need to print in color, I stand by that same comment. Lastly, if your monthly printing is fairly low (say, less than 50 pages/month), then you should ask yourself if you REALLY need a laser printer. However, if you have any need for printing high-volume print jobs and/or you print over 100pages/month and/or you need printouts to be waterproof (inkjet prints are NOT waterproof, and WILL bleed if gotten wet), then a laser printer will fit your needs. The are less expensive laser printers (from HP, as well as from other manufacturers), but they will have less features/functions, slower print speeds, and (typically) only a single tray). There are also laser printers with lots more features/functions (including fax capability), faster print speeds (up to 60ppm w/ HP), and multiple trays (up to 5 w/ HP), but they can cost into the thousands of dollars. If you’re looking for a reasonably-priced black-only laser printer, with a reasonable number of features/functions, that also prints fast, HP’s M404-series of LaserJet printers will fit the bill. There are five models to choose from, with the M404n being the middle-of-the-pack.

Disclaimer: This product was provided free, or at reduced cost, for the purpose of reviewing the product. Nevertheless, the above review, be it positive, negative, or anywhere in-between, is a 100% honest review, and the price paid played absolutely no part in my review.

PROS

Fast at 40ppm

Easy web page configuration after initial setup

CONS

No duplex capability

Slow warm-up

Setup was not complicated but it was a little bit tricky at first but after I went through the required manual steps, it became very easy. It can be connected via USB but it does not come with the cable. Not a problem for me since I prefer connecting directly to the network and because I must have a few of them hanging around anyway.

If you print mostly black and white, this LaserJet Pro M404n will save you time and money, especially if you print a lot. I say that because if you print just a few pages here and there, you may actually find this printer to be slow. The reason is that laser printers usually will not start until they are warmed up and this one is no different. Printing just one page only, for instance, will take you almost 2 minutes with this printer. But once it is warmed up, it will print up to 40 pages per minute. My average was around 36 pages as it depends on what you are printing and other factors but that is still a lot of pages in single minute.

Print quality was superb and although inkjet printers nowadays do a great job, they still do not compare when it comes to black and white on a good laser printer like this one. Although it does not print colors, photos were very detailed with perfect shades of gray. Again, you would not get this quality in black and white with an inkjet printer.

Because I print a lot on both sides of the paper, I missed the duplex feature. That probably was my only disappointment but if you do not need that feature or are patient enough to flip the paper for the second page, you will be satisfied with it. It comes with a 350-sheet input capacity but can be upgraded to 550 sheets.

Although laser printers are used mostly in offices, I would recommend the M404n at home too. The cost per page plus the quality are worth it. The cost of toner may seem high at first but they can print thousands of pages and they won’t go bad as ink would. For professional results in black and white, look no further.

We purchased this printer as a replacement for the CFO at my place of business. It is a great machine with a relatively small form factor, so it easily fits on her desk. The CFO seems to be happy with it. And that makes my job that much easier. Have always had great service from our HP printers.

We had to replace one of the department's old HP printer.

It is very efficient on toner. They complained about the printer going to sleep. I was able to set the sleep mode on longer minutes, but auto-sleep cannot be off. However, after I changed the settings it looks like users didn't complain anymore.

Excellent printer. I mean, that really does sum it up. Not only does it do a great job printing, but it saves sssooooo much money in ink cartridges. According to Business Insider, printer ink in cartridge format costs considerably more than human blood. How crazy is that?

Each ink bottle is the equivalent of 90 ink cartridges. I don't know about you, but I always lamented running low on ink and the thought or dropping $35 to $55 for three or four replacement cartridges. In some cases, it almost made more sense to buy a new printer and just toss the old one. Multiply that by 90 and yeah, that is a LOT of $$. On Epson's website, you can buy all 4 replacement cartridges for less than $60 and I'm sure if you shopped wisely, you will find it for less. I'll let you do the math, but yes, that is HUGE savings.

While it's hard to tell specific cost savings because everyone uses the printers differently, I do have some experience with the Epson EcoTank platform (picture attached) because I have had the Epson EcoTank 3760. I have had it since July 2020. I ran a diag on it today... since then, I have printed 365 pages of which 99 were in color. As you can see from the picture (ET-3760), the black has barely used 1/4 tank and the 3 color tanks have barely moved. Again, think of the savings.

The Epson EcoTank offers a clean app for printing from phone and is simple to set up as a network printer. As mentioned, we have two EcoTank printers on our network and setup and choosing which printer to use is super-easy.

Set up was simple, but not particularly quick and I am perfectly OK with that. Each tank took between 2 to 2.5 minutes to fill. Well worth it considering the savings. Connecting to network was a breeze. Tuning the ink jets was also a little time consuming but completely worth it given the savings.

We also have a couple printers that offer "subscription" cartridge services and I absolutely attest that this EcoTank environment is much preferred both for convenience and for money savings.

End of the day, I RARELY give 5 stars, but for the Epson EcoTank 3830, I am honestly having a hard tome finding faults. Excellent choice.

I would (and HAVE) recommend to friends without any hesitation. I end where I started... Excellent printer.

**PLEASE NOTE** This product was provided to me at reduced or no charge in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. This review is exactly that, honest and unbiased.

The Epson ET-3830 is a multi-function inject printer with a small form factor. A change from the norm is that this printer doesn’t use ink cartridges. It has tanks inside the printer that you refill. The refills are bottles of ink. Each bottle contains far more ink than the traditional ink cartridge. Filling the internal tanks using the bottles is simple to do. Also, while filling the tanks I didn’t have any mess or leaks from the bottles. This is a nice design by Epson. I should be saving quite a lot compared to traditional ink cartridges. The set of starter bottles of ink that come with the printer are full bottles. When you initially setup the printer, it will fill tubes with some of the ink. After it filled the tubes, I was left with a little over 75% of ink in the tanks. Using the remaining ink from each bottle, the tanks ended up with 100% cyan, magenta, and yellow. The black tank was back up to about 85%. It’s not wasting the ink, it’s just that a portion of it is in the tubes that connect to the print head.

The 3830 has a flatbed scanner, but no document feeder. You have the option for duplex printing and this can carry over to duplex printing for documents that you copy. Perform a copy of one side of a page, the printer prints it, pulls the printed page back into the printer, then you flip the original copied page over, it scans it, then prints it out on the back of the printed page. I didn’t have any problems with this, but for those who need to copy many pages at a time, you may be better off with a different model from Epson. If you mostly copy a few pages, then you may be ok with this model.

Duplex printing in a multi-function printer of this size is a great feature that others of similar form factor may not have. General printing of text is fast. The text on plain paper is very clear and the characters are well defined resulting in a clear printed page. It can also print edge to edge. I was able to print a photo on plain paper edge to edge. I won’t be using this printer for photos, but it’s nice to know I can add in photo paper and print a photo if I need to.

The printer setup took me about 10 minutes. That’s getting through network configuration, print head alignment, and updating the firmware. Epson has a mobile app that also works with the printer. I used the iOS version without issues to get the printer setup on my network. The color LCD screen on the printer isn’t a touch screen, but next to it Epson added a set of buttons that enable you to navigate the menu system. I didn’t have a problem using the buttons and they were responsive for me.

The box and packaging were more than sufficient to protect the printer. Within the box you’ll find the printer, power cable, full black/cyan/yellow/magenta ink bottles, a CD, and a quick start guide.

Overall, I’m impressed with the new design that does away with ink cartridges. I’ll be saving money in the long run with this new design. It has all the features I need such as duplex printing, scanning, copying, and wireless networking. I would like to see Epson add a touch screen in the future, but that is the only negative I can mention about the ET-3830. I would recommend this printer to anyone needing an all-in-one printer, but doesn’t need a document feeder.

The Epson - EcoTank ET-3830 All-in-One Cartridge-Free Supertank Printer is a well-designed printer with an easy-to-use color display and a well-executed set of functions that are easy to understand and figure out. Not only that I love the idea of a printer with tanks that you just fill up with ink bottles. What the heck took so long for printer manufacturers to come up with this idea? While I would much rather see printers have standard document feeders that can scan 15 pages at a time. Other than that I am very impressed with this Epson Eco=Tank printer. The small color on-screen settings functions were the easiest to navigate that I have seen and were simple to understand. I really appreciated the effort that was put in there. It did not take much time to get the printer up and running and the smartphone app and wireless capabilities are greatly appreciated. Another thing that I have never seen and really appreciate is a full slide-out paper tray for printed-out material. It is very well designed and thought out which seems to be an ongoing theme with this printer. This is my first Epson printer but I like what I am seeing. I would definitely recommend one to a friend or family member and has also caught my interest when looking for a new printer in the future!

The Epson EcoTank ET3830 is perfect for home user or home office user. It prints clear and quickly. It’s packed extremely well. My box was a little dented on one corner, but the printer was unscathed. Included in the box – Quick setup guide, 5 bottles of ink (Black, yellow, cyan, magenta, and blue) and installation CD. The ink included should last up to 2 years according to the Epson EcoTank ET-3830 specifications.

Setup was easy. The Epson EcoTank CD can be used for installation or you can download the installation file from the internet if you don’t have a CD/DVD reader. I downloaded the .exe file and installation instructions were easy to follow. During Setup you can decide whether you want to connect through WiFi or USB. I chose WiFi as my printer is in a different room from my laptop. Network wireless connection setup was quick and easy as the Epson EcoTank recognized my router’s IP address in less than a minute. Better and a lot quicker than my previous printers.

The Epson EcoTank printer has a 2.4” LCD screen for all the various functions. Unfortunately, it’s not a touch screen so you have to use arrows to navigate through the different functions. The print is also very small and can sometimes be difficult to read. There is plenty of room on the front of the printer for a larger LCD screen.

Filling the printer with the included ink is even quicker than changing cartridges. The ink automatically stops when the respective color tank is full. Navigation through the display icons allows you to copy, print, scan, and perform any maintenance functions.

The Epson EcoTank ET-3830 does not have a fax. Its functions are only copy/print/scan which is perfect for most users. I don’t have a landline so it’s fine for me.

The Epson EcoTank ET-3830 can also be operated through a cell phone app. The Epson Smart Panel app can be downloaded from Google Play or Apple App Store. With the Epson Smart Panel app, you can access all the functions of the printer from print to trouble shooting and everything in between. Printer settings are also available on the Smart Panel app. Connecting the app to the printer is as easy as search and connect. It took me less than a minute to connect the Smart Panel app to my Android Smartphone. The Epson Smart Panel app also allows guests to access the printer by simply scanning a bar code from your phone to the guest’s phone. No password is needed which makes the connection secure.

PROS summary –

- Exclusive EcoFit ink bottles make filling tanks easy and without any mess

- Can print up to 7500 b/w and 6,000 color pages without refilling the tanks. This is approximately equal to 90 single ink cartridges.

- Ink can last up to 2 years before having to refill the tanks.

- Save money from having to buy separate ink cartridges.

- Paper tray can hold up to 250 sheets at one time.

- Printer can accept several different sizes, including photo paper and envelopes.

- Epson Smart Panel app can access the printer in every way; print, copy, scan, maintenance, etc.

CONS summary –

- Epson Photo + - windows app can only accept up to 260 characters in the address bar for importing photos. This makes it impossible to import photos in subfolders that result in more than 260 characters.

- Epson Photo + windows app also can only open a .etdx extension file, which is a template within the app. It does have several templates to arrange photos but is limited to the number of characters in the address bar. Hopefully Epson will change this in the future with an update to the Epson Photo + app.

- The LCD on the Epson EcoTank ET-3830 printer is very small, only 2.4”. There is enough space on the front panel that it could be made bigger for easier viewing.

The Epson EcoTank ET-3830 is a very good printer/copier/scanner for the home and/or home office for the fact that it uses ink tanks instead of ink cartridges. Thus, saving you a lot of money on separate cartridges. I do recommend this printer for the savings as well as the clarity of printed matter and photos.

As for the Epson Photo + photo app, if you’re more than just a “take a picture and print” type of photographer, I suggest using a different photo app for importing and editing photos. The Epson Photo + app could be an excellent photo app, but Epson needs to allow the opening of ALL picture types (.jpg, .jpeg, etc.). Epson should also tweak the app to allow an unlimited amount of characters in the address bar instead of just 260 characters.

This Epson EcoTank 3830 was really quick and easy to set up. The printer comes with all the ink bottles you’ll need to fill the tanks. Epson claims you’ll get over 6,000 black/white and color pages out of these tanks. I can’t speak for those claims yet because I’ve only been using it for about a week but I believe it. My friend has a similar printer and hasn’t had to refill it yet and its been almost a year. You can download an app that will guide you through the set up, and you can also use the same app to print photos and documents as well as scan. It will also update the firmware for the printer for you. The printer prints really quick. It printed a full color page for me in less than 5 seconds. It honestly surprised me! The printer has a pull out tray that holds at least 100 pages. I was also able load 4x6 photo paper into that tray and print photos with it. The 4x6 photo print wasn’t the best quality, but it looks good to my eyes. I honestly think the app compresses the photo you are going to print when you transfer it wirelessly. Perhaps EPSON can update the app to allow higher quality photo prints on 4x6 paper.

As far as filling the tanks with ink, It was very easy to do and did not cause any mess. I was worried I might spill some ink when filling it. The bottles have rubber stoppers that open and close when you put them on the printer refill slots. I’m very pleased with this printer and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a fast, high quality printer for their home or small business. It prints very fast, and I have not had any connection errors. The wireless printing has been very stable and reliable. Printing from your phone, tablet or computer is super easy with this printer.

Pros: Fast, Reliable, Wireless capabilities, Long lasting affordable ink

Cons: No complaints from me

So we were excited using this Epson ET-3830 as it comes with 1 year free ink. We soon realized that we would need a refill sooner than expected.

Pros:

This printer is a little more compact than other printers we have had. It leaves a smaller area foot print and is lighter than others. The paper feed tray is directly underneath and you don’t need to feed it from a back tray, thus preventing jams. I like also that the feeder tray for a completed print is the size of a normal 8.5x11 paper and can be adjusted forward.

Connecting it to my home wifi was such a breeze, probably the easiest of any printer as I can input my information via the app on my smart phone and not have to use the small display on the printer. The print quality is really clear and smooth, especially for a ink-jet printer. Setting it up and connecting it using the Epson app was an enjoyable experience because it sets up like a text message feed.

And that’s where things got frustrating…

Cons:

Set up again was a breeze…but it took over 10 minutes because there was so many steps to do. This was the first time I’ve used an Epson printer that required me to fill the ink cartridges once I open it from the box. Each of the four color cartridges comes with a bottle of ink that you physically have to fill (which takes approx 75 seconds to fill). The ink fill was not the worst or it.

Printing out the adjustment pages was what was very annoying. I printed up 5 pages of comparisons that you need to judge in order to adjust and calibrate, almost like going to the Optometrist (1 or 2, 3 or 4, etc). All of this calibration could’ve been concentrated on less pages.

Another frustrating point, was I did not use that much ink on this calibration set up, and already the ink levels dropped 20%! I had left over ink in the bottles and ended up using all of them and it still did not fill the cartridges all the way! I’m afraid to see how much is used on a daily/weekly basis with printing. I see now that the 1-year free would come in handy.

Overall, I was very disappointed with this Epson ET-3830 for the reasons of wasting paper in initial set up and the ink usage for just a small amount of printing.

Just opened the Epson ET-3830. The box contains the printer, a large bottle of black ink and 3 regular sized color inks, yellow, cyan and magenta, and a 110v power cord. I got the printer unboxed and out of the plastic, set it up on the desk and grabbed a handful of paper. Then I opened the setup guide because I always seem to struggle setting up printers. I see that there are two options, either by PC or with a smart phone. I chose to try my Android phone and scan the QR code in the quick set up guide. It takes me to Epson’s Smart Panel app in the play store and installs it. Does it work you ask? Yup, it sure does.

I start up the app and just follow the prompts. It is set up like a text message from a friend. You just go step by step and by the end the printer is ready to print and is connected to your Wi-Fi. Adding ink to the EcoTank is a breeze. The bottles have two tabs that fit into slots/ports on the printer so there isn’t any mess. They take a minute or so to fill up and auto stop when the tank is full regardless of whether the bottle still has ink in it. That leads to less waste since the bottles print so many more sheets than a print cartridge. There are 5 tests to make sure it is aligned. I did them all, but really didn’t need to. Every choice I was given stayed with the default, but YMMV.

And that’s it. It just works. I can connect wirelessly to my other PC’s, my phone and tablets and my Mac Mini. There is also a USB and Ethernet port in the back should you want to connect it that way. It has auto 2-sided printing and enough ink to print 7500 black ink pages and 6000 color pages. It may seem trivial but having front loading paper is important especially once you’ve used a printer that loads in the top or back. It holds half a ream (250 sheets) allowing for less loading and more productivity. My only disappointment is that the LCD is still not touchscreen. With the icon’s lit up, I forget and try pressing them all the time. Most if not all my other printers have touchscreen controls and I love them. Here, it’s another step or two depending on if I try and press the LCD screen first. If it were the only printer I used, I’m sure it wouldn’t be and issue. Muscle memory would take over after a few uses, but with multiple printers, I never seem comfortable with the directional and ‘ok’ buttons. That said, it’s a tiny inconvenience on an otherwise great printer.

Some details off the box: Scan resolution is 1200x2400 dpi/ppp and print resolution is up to 4800x1200 dpi/ppp. ISO print speed is 15/8.0 ISOppm and two-sided ISO print speed is 6.5/4.5 ISOppm. I haven’t tested it, but the box states it works with Apple AirPrint.

Not normally an Epson guy but after setting up and using this for a couple of weeks I'm sold. Set up is accomplished via the app, which is super simple. The app walks you through step by step, almost too helpful..

Once set up print a test page, make a few adjustments if needed, it walks you through that too, and viola. One thing I will caution you on, when filling the ink, don't be in a hurry and don't assume it won't drip. They have designed a great product but you will get a small drip after removing the ink bottler from the printer, just be aware.

Printing quality is great for an inkjet type printer. I haven't had time to calculate the cost but the convenience of refilling the unit instead of buying print cartridges certainly appeals to me. I have gone through quite a bit of ink, which included the initial calibration pages.

The scanner and soft wear works flawlessly. I would like the option for a feeder but there is only a flatbed scanner.

Overall, I like the printer, features but am cautiously optimistic about operational costs.

Overall I would recommend this printer, I would upgrade to the model with a feeder if you are planning on scanning many documents.

Doesn't default to automatic duplex printing and instructions don't tell you how to set this option on as default. Instead, defaults to manually duplexing. Once I figured it out, it works great - better than previous HP business laser duplex printer method. The M480 prints both sides at once, rather than mechanically turning over paper to print other side.

Instructions for updating firmware also lacking in sufficient detail for updating via USB slot.

Marked down review due to inadequate and sometimes misleading instructions. Otherwise, I'm very happy with performance so far.

On-line chat support not very helpful.

great printer: Windows likes it but HP Smart won't talk to my Mac

i bought this and have never been able to print . I continue to call HP and it prints once and then next its says doesn't reconize. Worst printer ever

HP printer are the best. They print high quality. Can’t say enough about the quality of HP.

I love my new printer and don’t have to be concerned about paying a fortune for ink cartridges. Also couldn’t do without my Alexa now. They are both such good quality and so useful every day.

Dont but this if you’re a mac user. The setup didnt work, and while it advertises air print, the printer requires a wired connection. Which is just ridicolous. Ive had a cannon thats 5 years old that included wifi, and thought this would be a standard feature today, but apparently not.

I’ve regretted my every HP purchase since 6MP. This printer came out of the box wanted a firmware upgrade immediately. It wouldn’t connect to my internet connection, not with the additional HP Etdirect 3100W accessory, HP SmartApp or a direct printer cable. Each succession of my HP hardware purchases was more problematic than the previous. I doubt I will purchase anything from HP again, regardless even what Apple suggests.