Epson WorkForce Pro WF-4630 review: For $300, small-office inkjet offers better output and value than a color laser

Epson’s new $300 WorkForce Pro WF-4630 is just the kind of affordable, capable multifunction printer most small offices could use—even if they think they need a laser. A laser MFP may offer better text output (barely), but everything else lines up in an inkjet’s favor: purchase price, supply costs, and graphics output. Epson’s WF-4630 is the avatar for the breed: easily fast enough for small office work and packed with features. It also produces outstandingly sharp text, thanks to Epson’s new PrecisionCore print head.

The ethernet/USB/Wi-Fi-connectable WF-4630 stands approximately 13.5 inches high by 18 inches wide. It’s not the massive unit you’ll see in a printer room, but the size that sits on a table closer to the action. Output arrives in a fold-out catch above the bottom 250-sheet paper tray. A second, 80-sheet vertical rear feed will handle paper up to 8.5 by 47.2 inches (banners, anyone?) and provides a straighter path for envelopes and photo paper.

Image: Michael Homnick

The Epson WorkForce Pro WF-4630's output tray extends out from the front of the unit to catch printed pages.

The WF-4630 is managed via a 3.5-inch color touchscreen and a well thought-out set of buttons, including a keypad for fax duties. Epson's on-display interface is super-easy to navigate, and there’s now a preview of scanned documents. Sweet.

The driver dialog is typical Epson, logically and cleanly rendered. Epson also provides the standard set of now commonplace Web, Wi-Fi direct, remote, and email printing features with the WF-4630.

Copying, faxing, and scanning are facilitated by a letter/A4-size flatbed scanner for single-page documents and an automatic document feeder (ADF) for longer documents. The scanner lid telescopes slightly for magazines and the like, while the ADF scans both sides of documents automatically. Nice. The only thing nicer would be duplex scanning via dual scanner elements rather than re-feeds.

Image: Michael Homnick

The 3.5-inch color touchscreen on Epson's WorkForce Pro WF-4630 sports large, easy-to-understand icons for all the main functions.

The output from the WF-4630 is outstanding, and I mean outstanding for any type of printer, inkjet or laser. Text is extremely sharp, as are the focus and edges of both monochrome and color graphics. Color graphics, while a bit sharper, still offer the usual Epson palette—warm but not overly so.

We did run into one issue with our first test unit, where occasionally lines were offset to the right about four times per page. Our second unit exhibited this flaw in the first run, but rarely after that. 

Image: Michael Homnick

All functions are accessible via the Epson WorkForce Pro WF-4630's 3.5-inch color touchscreen.

The Epson WorkForce Pro WF-4630 not only produces great-looking documents, it’s a very good performer. Standard, letter-sized, monochrome business documents arrived at 14.9 pages per minute on the PC, and 13.4 pages per minute on the Mac. Even better, there’s little to no wait time before pages start arriving as with laser printers that need to power down to keep cool.

Full-page photos on plain paper issue forth at approximately 5.5 per minute, while the same photo prints to glossy stock in about 40 seconds. Scans complete at a moderate but workable pace: 10 seconds for a preview, 32 seconds at 600 dpi and just over a minute at 1200 dpi.

Image: Michael Homnick

The Epson WorkForce Pro WF-4630's ink cartridges fit into spring-loaded bays behind a front panel.

Supply costs are up a hair from previous generations, but still very cheap. When using Epson’s standard 1,100-page cartridges ($35 black, $30 for cyan, magenta, and yellow), ink costs for the WF-4630 are well below normal: 3.2 cents per black page, and 2.7 cents per page/per color for 11.3-cent four-color page—several cents lower than most consumer-grade inkjets and low-end lasers. The real savings begin with the $42, 2,600-page black (1.6 cents per page) and $44, 2,000-page color tanks (2.2 cents per page, per color). With those more capacious supplies, you’re paying a mere 8.2 cents for a four-color page.

Epson warranties the WF-4630 for one-year, with a recommended monthly page load of 2000 pages. You may extend the warranty to two years for $40 and three years for $60. The fact that extensions are available speaks to the overall quality of construction, which is generally quite sturdy.

The WorkForce Pro WF-4630 inkjet is a sweet little multifunction that does everything well. Supply costs are distinctly better than those of similarly-priced laser printers and low-end inkjets. If you want to spend less time adding paper, the functionally-equivalent $400 WorkForce Pro WF-4640 doubles the capacity of the bottom tray to 500 sheets.

From PC World. Electronics product reviews and advice for best reference

Review: Epson WorkForce WF-3540 All-in-One Printer

Jon L. Jacobi has worked with computers since you flipped switches and punched cards to program them. He studied music at Julliard, and now he power mods his car for kicks.
More by Jon L. Jacobi

If you're looking for a small office inkjet MFP with a comprehensive feature set that will handle more than minimal volume printing, the $200 (as of 2/1/2013) Epson WorkForce WF-3540 is a good place to begin. It's quick, and the output looks nice. Equipped with automatic duplex printing and scanning, 500 sheets of capacity, relatively affordable ink, and easy controls, it's quite the bargain. It also connects via USB, Ethernet, or Wi-Fi so you can use it in virtually any computing environment.

Installing the WorkForce WF-3540 is a mere matter of a few dialogs and about 5 minutes. As mentioned, you can connect to it wirelessly, via Ethernet, or directly using USB. The software bundle includes the trusty Epson Scan and Abbyy Finereader Sprint 9.5 for OCR. The control panel features a 3.5-inch LCD with contextually lit touch buttons on the panel surrounding it. The menu structure is quite easy to navigate--far easier to use than its WorkForce WF-2540 cousin we recently reviewed.

Paper handling on the WorkForce WF-3540 is top-notch. In addition to two bottom-mounted, 250-sheet paper cassettes, there's a single-sheet rear feed for photo paper, envelopes and the like. Tip: Push the paper down into the rear feeder until you feel it grab; the paper sits farther down than with most printers.

The scanner features an automatic document feeder (ADF) which scans both sides automatically (by re-feed). The lid to the letter/A4-sized platen doesn't telescope to accommodate thicker materials, but that's the only issue, and a minor one for an office-oriented MFP.

The output from the WorkForce WF-3540 is quite nice. Color graphics printed on plain paper show reasonably good color accuracy. Images printed on glossy photo stock, while a tad brights are as nice as anything you'll see this side of a dedicated photo printer. Text is sharp and black, and even draft-mode documents are easily readable. Scans tended to be dark, though copies suffered no such issue.

The WorkForce WF-3540's speed is quite good for this price point. Monochrome pages print at approximately 11.5 per minute (ppm) on the PC, and 11.4 on the Mac. Snapshot-sized (4-by-6-inch) photos print at 4.8 ppm to plain paper, and 0.5 ppm to glossy photo stock. A full, 8.5-inch by 11-inch photo printed on the Mac, takes about two and a half minutes.

Scan speeds are average or better. Previews take about 10 seconds. A full-page color scan at 600 dpi takes about 35 seconds, while a 1200-dpi scan of a 4-by-6-inch area takes about a minute and half.

Ink costs for the WorkForce WF-3540 are decent, if you opt for the extra high-capacity (large) cartridges: 3.2 cents per page (cpp) for black and 2.7 cpp per color, or 11.3 cents per four-color page. The high-capacity cartridges are less of a deal: At almost 5 cpp for black, 3.6 cpp for each color, and 14.4 cents per four-color page, they’re priced more like standard-size cartridges.

Melissa Riofrio

There is one complaint we'd like to register about Epson's recent habit of providing documentation only online. Installing a link to online documentation is all well and good, but there's room on the installation CD. Do your users a favor and provide a local copy of the user's guide.

The WorkForce WF-3540 is the only $200 MFP we’ve reviewed recently that isn't missing one feature or another. It's not as cheap per page as the Brother MFC-J4510DW, but it automatically scans in duplex and doesn't striate color output in normal mode as the Brother does. The WF-3540 is also significantly faster and cheaper to operate than Canon's Pixma MX-892. If you're not printing in massive amounts where ink costs will catch up to you, it's the best thing going at this price point.

From PC World. Shop computer and accessories from Amazon here

Epson and Meta Augmented Reality Glasses Take on Google Glass

Sorry, I could not read the content fromt this page.Sorry, I could not read the content fromt this page.

From Laptopmagazine. Visit Amazon Computer and Notebook Center Here

Review: Epson WorkForce WF-2540 All-in-One Printer

Jon L. Jacobi has worked with computers since you flipped switches and punched cards to program them. He studied music at Julliard, and now he power mods his car for kicks.
More by Jon L. Jacobi

The $130 (as of 12/24/2012) Epson Workforce WF-2540 All-in-One Printer (copy/fax/print/scan) has a 30-page automatic document feeder, it outputs nice text and graphics, and it has triple-threat USB, Ethernet, and Wi-Fi connectivity. Those are attractive features on any color inkjet multifunction, but there's bad news: Ink costs are high, and glossy photos print at some of the slowest times we've ever seen. Scan speed is nothing to write home about, either.

Setting up the WF-2540 is a breeze. With USB, Ethernet, and Wi-Fi all on board, you're free to attach it to a PC or network in any location you wish. The WF-2540's smallish non-operational footprint: 15.4 inches wide, by 14.8 inches deep, by 8.7-inch high also aids in the versatile placement. However, those numbers (shown in a photo on Epson's Web site), are a tad misleading. When you extend the guide for the 100-sheet rear vertical feed (there is no flat input tray), the height climbs to 11 or so inches. With both the guide and control panel in operating position, the depth is more like 17 inches. That's still relatively compact, but not as small as it would be with a bottom-mounted tray.

The WF-2540's software bundle is basic, but capable. The Epson Scan program is intuitive and mature, and it will handle any scanning task you throw at it. That would be everything except automatic two-sided scanning, which the WF-2540 does not support. Abbyy FineReader Sprint 9.5 is on hand to take care of OCR chores and there's also the full gamut of Web and local wireless printing options.

I didn't find using the WF-2540 quite as intuitive as many printers. The 2.5-inch LCD display, buttons, and keypad are fine; there's just something a little off in the implementation. You're forced to hit the OK button at times when the menu/home button would normally function, and there are just enough other little oddities to make the experience less than top-shelf. You'll get used to it, but it could be done better.

Manual duplexing is never intuitive. For the WorkForce WF-2540, onscreen prompts help--for PC users. Unfortunately you'll get no such assistance if you're using a Mac.

I also had some issues replacing the ink cartridges. Perhaps it was my ham-handedness, but several times I received "invalid" cartridge messages. Re-seating (several times) cured this, but the unit can be finicky about the replacement operation. Talk to it nicer than I did, and you might do better with it.

While the WF-2540 gets you into an inkjet multifunction for a relatively small initial investment, ongoing costs will hit you hard if you print in any sort of volume. That's a roundabout way of saying that per-page ink costs are very high. The standard $17/175-page black is a whopping 7.4 cents per page (cpp) and the $9/165-page cyan, magenta, and yellow cartridges are 5.45 cpp apiece. A 23.75 cent four-color page is not a bargain. The $30/500-page XL black, and $13/450-page color cartridges reduce that to 6 cents per black page and 17.3 per four-color page--still well above average.

Melissa Riofrio

Performance-wise, the Workforce WF-2540 also proved a disappointment. Normal documents and copies exit quickly enough for home use, but scans are pokey, and the unit is very slow with glossy photos. Monochrome pages output on the PC at 6.7 pages per minute (ppm) and 6.5 ppm on the Mac. Snapshot-sized (4-inch by 6-inch) photos print at almost 4 ppm to plain paper.

The problem with glossy prints varies by settings. When using photo paper we normally test in the highest-quality mode, but this slowed the pace of the WF-2540's output drastically. Snapshot photos printed in the mode to glossy paper took over 2 minutes, and full-page photos printed on the Mac an incredible 10 minutes. The full-page photo’s print time improved to approximately 6 minutes by stepping down one grade to High-Quality mode, and to about 3 minutes going down yet one more grade to Quality mode. There was no perceptible loss of fidelity in High-Quality mode compared to Best mode, and only a modest one when we used Quality mode, so stick with those on the WF-2540 unless you're looking to kill time.

On the plus side, though you'll have plenty of time to go to the store for more expensive ink during some of its operations, the WF-2540 produces very nice output. Virtually everything that comes out of it is top-notch. Text is sharp and black, and color prints are nice. Shadows are a bit dark, and the colors colder than originals, but overall the output sports a classy feel for a four-color (cyan, magenta, yellow, black) system.

The Epson WorkForce WF-2540 All-in-One Printer is attractively priced, and the triple USB/Ethernet/Wi-Fi connectivity is appealing, but taken as a whole--Epson missed the mark with this one. Ink costs are high, and photo output is slothful and then some. Look instead to the Dell V525w or HP Officejet 6600 e-All-in-One Printer . Both units have cheaper ink and comparable features at roughly the same price. Better yet, spend another $50 and get something more feature-complete.

From PC World. Shop computer and accessories from Amazon here

Epson WorkForce Pro WP-4590 Review: Low-Cost Corporate Laser Alternative

The Epson WorkForce Pro WP-4590 color inkjet multifunction works quickly and uses cheap ink, but it isn't available through normal retail channels. It's aimed at large businesses that value service and a low total cost of ownership over a low purchase price. Priced at $500 (as of August 13, 2012), the WP-4590 comes with a three-year warranty and is sold only through VARs and other corporate channels. Consumers who are tired of PIB (Printers in Black) might also appreciate this unit's friendlier putty and light-gray coloring.

Accompanying the WP-4590 are the usual competent Epson software and driver installation routine. Since the machine has USB and ethernet, but no Wi-Fi (a bow to security concerns, per Epson), you will be tethered. The control panel sports a 2.5-inch LCD and the usual array of buttons, arranged in a classic and logical manner. If you've ever used an MFP before, you will encounter no learning curve here. The software includes Epson Scan for scanning and PaperPort 9 for OCR chores.

Paper-handling features on the WP-4590 are quite good. It has a 250-sheet tray on the bottom and an 80-sheet rear vertical feed. If that's not enough, you can buy an auxiliary 250-sheet bottom tray for a mere $100. For a laser printer you'd pay at least twice as much for such an accessory. Having the rear feed is especially nice for photos, since it permits the MFP to process heavier glossy paper with minimal bending. The rear feed also allows you to keep two types of paper loaded.

The WP-4590 has a 30-sheet automatic document feeder for scanning and copying longer documents, and it scans in duplex (via a refeed, not with dual-scanning elements). The lid for the letter/A4-size flatbed scanner telescopes about half an inch to accommodate thicker materials. The WP-4590 also supports automatic duplex printing.

The WorkForce Pro WP-4590 is the fastest inkjet we've tested recently, narrowly edging out its consumer-oriented WorkForce Pro WP-4540 cousin. Monochrome pages print at 12.6 pages per minute on the PC and 12.1 ppm on the Mac. Snapshot-size (4-by-6-inch) photos print at 6.2 ppm to plain paper and 1.7 ppm to glossy photo paper. Full page photos print at 0.7 ppm, and copies proceed into the output bin at 6.4 ppm.

The corporate-oriented WP-4590 may be pricier than small-business inkjet multifunctions, but its ink costs are outstandingly low. The unit ships with starter cartridges: a 1000-page black, and 900-page cyan, magenta, and yellow. The 676XL retail replacements are $38.49 for the 2400-page black and $24.49 for the 1200-page cyan, magenta, and yellow cartridges. That works out to 1.6 cents per page for black, and 6.1 cents per page total for color. A four-color page would cost a bargain 7.7 cents. The extra-high-capacity 711XXL cartridges listed on Epson's website are slated to be available only through commercial channels rather than retail. Based on the suggested pricing that Epson provided to us, black will cost 1.6 cents per page and each color will cost 1.7 cents per page, for an even lower four-color cost of 6.8 cents per page.

In our tests, output from the WP-4590 was typical Epson—that is to say, quite good. Text appeared sharp and black, and very close (though not quite equal to) laser output when we used its highest-quality setting. Color graphics were good, looking a tad washed out on plain paper, but coolly accurate when we switched to glossy photo paper. Of course, as an inkjet, the WP-4590 is capable of handling thicker photo papers.

Epson rates the WP-4590 for 1650 pages per month. That's the recommended number, not the industry's absurd duty-cycle rating, which people generally ignore these days. Still, 1650 pages is a fair amount of printing.

The Epson WorkForce Pro WP-4590 is a nice, inexpensive alternative to a low-end color laser MFP for smaller corporate workgroups. It's fast enough for most scenarios, supply costs are outstandingly low, and its long warranty is better than what you’ll get from a comparably priced laser.

From PC World. Shop computer and accessories from Amazon here

Epson WorkForce Pro WP-4590 Review: Low-Cost Corporate Laser Alternative

The Epson WorkForce Pro WP-4590 color inkjet multifunction works quickly and uses cheap ink, but it isn't available through normal retail channels. It's aimed at large businesses that value service and a low total cost of ownership over a low purchase price. Priced at $500 (as of August 13, 2012), the WP-4590 comes with a three-year warranty and is sold only through VARs and other corporate channels. Consumers who are tired of PIB (Printers in Black) might also appreciate this unit's friendlier putty and light-gray coloring.

Accompanying the WP-4590 are the usual competent Epson software and driver installation routine. Since the machine has USB and ethernet, but no Wi-Fi (a bow to security concerns, per Epson), you will be tethered. The control panel sports a 2.5-inch LCD and the usual array of buttons, arranged in a classic and logical manner. If you've ever used an MFP before, you will encounter no learning curve here. The software includes Epson Scan for scanning and PaperPort 9 for OCR chores.

Paper-handling features on the WP-4590 are quite good. It has a 250-sheet tray on the bottom and an 80-sheet rear vertical feed. If that's not enough, you can buy an auxiliary 250-sheet bottom tray for a mere $100. For a laser printer you'd pay at least twice as much for such an accessory. Having the rear feed is especially nice for photos, since it permits the MFP to process heavier glossy paper with minimal bending. The rear feed also allows you to keep two types of paper loaded.

The WP-4590 has a 30-sheet automatic document feeder for scanning and copying longer documents, and it scans in duplex (via a refeed, not with dual-scanning elements). The lid for the letter/A4-size flatbed scanner telescopes about half an inch to accommodate thicker materials. The WP-4590 also supports automatic duplex printing.

The WorkForce Pro WP-4590 is the fastest inkjet we've tested recently, narrowly edging out its consumer-oriented WorkForce Pro WP-4540 cousin. Monochrome pages print at 12.6 pages per minute on the PC and 12.1 ppm on the Mac. Snapshot-size (4-by-6-inch) photos print at 6.2 ppm to plain paper and 1.7 ppm to glossy photo paper. Full page photos print at 0.7 ppm, and copies proceed into the output bin at 6.4 ppm.

The corporate-oriented WP-4590 may be pricier than small-business inkjet multifunctions, but its ink costs are outstandingly low. The unit ships with starter cartridges: a 1000-page black, and 900-page cyan, magenta, and yellow. The 676XL retail replacements are $38.49 for the 2400-page black and $24.49 for the 1200-page cyan, magenta, and yellow cartridges. That works out to 1.6 cents per page for black, and 6.1 cents per page total for color. A four-color page would cost a bargain 7.7 cents. The extra-high-capacity 711XXL cartridges listed on Epson's website are slated to be available only through commercial channels rather than retail. Based on the suggested pricing that Epson provided to us, black will cost 1.6 cents per page and each color will cost 1.7 cents per page, for an even lower four-color cost of 6.8 cents per page.

In our tests, output from the WP-4590 was typical Epson—that is to say, quite good. Text appeared sharp and black, and very close (though not quite equal to) laser output when we used its highest-quality setting. Color graphics were good, looking a tad washed out on plain paper, but coolly accurate when we switched to glossy photo paper. Of course, as an inkjet, the WP-4590 is capable of handling thicker photo papers.

Epson rates the WP-4590 for 1650 pages per month. That's the recommended number, not the industry's absurd duty-cycle rating, which people generally ignore these days. Still, 1650 pages is a fair amount of printing.

The Epson WorkForce Pro WP-4590 is a nice, inexpensive alternative to a low-end color laser MFP for smaller corporate workgroups. It's fast enough for most scenarios, supply costs are outstandingly low, and its long warranty is better than what you’ll get from a comparably priced laser.

From PC World. Shop computer and accessories from Amazon here

Epson Workforce Pro WP-4020 Review: Great Price, Great Output, Cheap Ink

Why should your small office buy a low-end color laser for $400 to $500 when you could opt for the $150 (as of March 25, 2012) Epson Workforce Pro WP-4020 color inkjet printer instead? Good question, especially when you compare it to models like the $450 HP Laserjet Pro 400 Color M451nw. The Workforce Pro WP-4020 offers superior speed and color graphics, near-laser-quality text, and more features, plus a significantly lower price per page.

The Workforce Pro WP-4020 sports USB, ethernet, and Wi-Fi connections. Installation is straightforward, though the display-free, minimal control panel means that you must connect via USB or ethernet to set up the Wi-Fi. The control panel provides buttons for power, cancel, Wi-Fi off/on, and the cleaning routines for the black and color printheads. There are also low-ink warning lights. The print driver dialog is nicely laid out and easy to understand.

The Workforce Pro WP-4020's generous paper handling features include a 250-sheet letter/legal main input tray (which sticks out the front a bit if extended to accommodate legal-size paper) and an 80-sheet rear feed that has a gentler paper path of less than 90 degrees (compared to the 180-degree turn that the main tray requires) that works especially well for thicker media such as envelopes and photo paper. The WP-4020 automatically duplexes (prints on both sides of the page), saving money and trees.

The WorkForce WP-4540's output quality is first-class overall. Text is black, smooth, and precise, even with relatively intricate fonts. Color graphics have the usual (for an Epson inkjet) slightly pinkish cast, but the effect looks natural. Grayscale graphics are exceptionally good, with only the darkest areas rendered a tad muddy. Color scans are good, too, though a tad fuzzy.

You get plenty of speed with the Workforce Pro WP-4020. Documents consisting primarily of plain black text (with a few simple grayscale graphics) printed at 12.6 pages per minute on the PC, and only slightly slower (12.3 ppm) on the Mac. Snapshot-size, 4-by-6-inch photos flew out of the unit at 6.2 ppm on plain paper, but that rate slowed to 1.75 ppm on glossy paper. Full-page photos printed on glossy paper arrived a bit faster than average at 0.7 ppm.

Epson makes the Workforce Pro's replacement cartridges available only in high-yield versions. Black costs $38.49 and lasts for a whopping 2400 pages, which works out to a mere 1.6 cents per page. The separate cyan, magenta, and yellow cartridges cost $24.49 each and last for 1200 pages. That's 2 cents per page for each color, and 7.6 cents per page for a four-color page--sweet for volume printing. Epson ships the unit with starter cartridges that last for 900 pages.

The one-year warranty accompanying the WorkForce Pro WP-4020 is one of our very few complaints about this model, and that's not enough to keep it off the growing list of color-laser killers in the new generation of business-minded inkjets. If you want all of the WorkForce Pro WP-4020's features and a scanner, too, check out its inkjet MFP cousin, the equally impressive WorkForce Pro WP-4540.

From PCWorld. Visit Amazon Computer and Notebook Center here

Epson WorkForce Pro WP-4540 Review: Fast, High-Capacity Business Inkjet

The Epson WorkForce Pro WP-4540 ($400 as of February 22, 2012) does most everything (copying/faxing/printing/scanning) well, but it faces stiff competition in the business inkjet multifunction category. Put another way: It's fast, but not the fastest; it produces great output, but nothing beyond what other models generate; and it's cheap to operate, though no cheaper than its rivals. Unfortunately, said rivals fully support legal-size documents, and the WorkForce Pro WP-4540, for the most part, does not.

One genuinely appealing, unique-in-class feature is the WorkForce Pro WP-4540's 80-sheet rear vertical, multipurpose feed. Combined with the integrated 250-sheet tray and the included 250-sheet, bottom-mounted auxiliary tray, that makes the WP-4540's input capacity a generous 580 sheets. The rear feed eliminates the 180-degree turn that sheets from the trays must suffer, so there's no bending of thick photo papers; it also accommodates legal-size paper, which the trays do not.

The scanner bed is letter/A4-size, and can take sheets from the 30-sheet automatic document feeder. You'll also find an automatic duplexer for two-sided printing (not the driver default), as well as automatic two-sided scanning. The scanning is a double-feed process: Since the unit has no second element to scan the back of the page on the first pass, it scans each side in succession.

Installing the WorkForce Pro WP-4540 was largely a breeze, though Epson still has not fixed its installation process so that wireless push-scanning to PCs is correctly enabled; we had to set exceptions in the Windows firewall ourselves to get it to work. The company is aware of the issue, and promises to address it. Push-scanning via ethernet and USB are not hampered in this manner. The WorkForce Pro WP-4540's documentation is all online except for the included setup sheet; while it is generally thorough, it lacks info on troubleshooting the push-scanning issue.

You can control the WorkForce Pro WP-4540 largely via its 5.8-inch touch panel, but the unit has physical buttons for the fax keypad and common jobs such as copy, scan, and the like. The menu structure is intuitive, as is the Epson Scan software designed for controlling the scanning functions from a PC. AirPrint and email printing are fully supported, and ScanSoft Paperport is included for both the PC and Mac to handle OCR tasks. The MFP has a front USB port, but it‘s only for scanning to USB-connected media; you can’t print from a USB thumb drive or a PictBridge-compatible camera.

The WorkForce Pro WP-4540 was very fast with plain paper at default settings in our tests, producing text at 12.4 pages per minute on the PC and 12.25 ppm on the Mac. Snapshot-size (4-by-6-inch) photos also printed quickly at 6.2 ppm; and though we don't officially clock it, full-page photos on plain paper exited rapidly as well. Things slowed down quite a bit when we printed to glossy photo paper. The same 4-by-6-inch photo prints emerged at a rate of only 1.7 ppm on the PC, and the full-page photo printed at a rate of 0.7 ppm on the Mac. Copies and scans were very quick; the one-page copy times were the fastest for a business inkjet MFP that we've seen, though we did notice a slowdown via wireless occasionally.

Output is first-class most of the way. Text appears black, smooth, and precise, even with closely spaced fonts. Color graphics have the infamous (but slight) Epson pinkish cast to them, but are generally very nice. Monochrome graphics are exceptional, with only the darkest areas rendered a tad muddy. Color scans are good, if a bit fuzzy, while line-art scans exhibit a fair number of distortions--call them fair.

Ink costs for the WorkForce Pro WP-4540 are quite low, far cheaper than with low-end inkjet MFPs, but in line with other business inkjet MFPs. The unit's regular 676XL black ink cartridge lasts for approximately 2400 pages, yet costs only $38.49--a mere 1.6 cents per page. The 676XL cyan, magenta, and yellow cartridges cost $24.49 apiece and last for 1200 pages, or just over 2 cents per page. A four-color page costs 7.6 cents. Note: The WP-4540 ships with 1000-page black and 900-page color starter cartridges.

If you read the product overview section on the company's website, you'll see that the WorkForce Pro WP-4540 is rated for a 20,000-page monthly duty cycle. Dig into the notes on the Specifications tab, however, and you'll discover that the printer is actually meant to handle 1600 pages per month--the recommended duty cycle. To be fair, this is a universal discrepancy among printers.

The WorkForce Pro WP-4540 gets the job done quickly and cheaply, and it has the largest standard capacity in the field. That said, the equally fast and inexpensive-to-operate HP Officejet Pro 8600 Plus e-All-in-One Printer is $100 cheaper and supports legal-size documents, though it's less capacious (250 sheets). The like-priced Lexmark OfficeEdge Pro5500 ($399) is another viable legal-size contender, but it too holds less paper (300 sheets).

From PCWorld. Visit Amazon Computer and Notebook Center here

Epson WorkForce 845 Review: Fast, Vast, and Affordable

The $199 (as of February 6, 2012) Epson WorkForce 845 color inkjet multifunction printer has a lot going for it. In particular, its above-average capacity and paper handling, top-notch performance, and very good output will fulfill the needs of a small office or home office well. A few setup and interface miscues are all that stand between this product and SOHO nirvana.

Paper handling on the WorkForce 845 includes a generous 500 sheets of capacity (split between two 250-sheet stacked trays), automatic duplexing, and automatic two-sided scans of documents placed in its 30-sheet ADF. Duplexing is fully supported on the Mac, as well. The scanner is letter/A4-size, and the lid telescopes almost a full inch--after a solid tug. Looking for full legal-size support? The HP Officejet Pro 8600 Plus has a legal-size platen (and a higher purchase price).

The WorkForce 845 processes plain-paper documents in a hurry. In our tests, text at default settings printed at 11.5 pages per minute on the PC and 11.3 ppm on the Mac--far faster than the average. Our snapshot-size photos printed to plain paper at an outstanding 5 ppm, though they slowed to a rate of only 0.9 ppm on glossy photo paper. Printing letter-size glossy photos on the Mac proceeded at a middling 0.4 ppm, and scan times were about average.

Though fast, the WorkForce 845 produces output that appears anything but hasty. At standard settings, text looks black and sharp. When you choose the slower (and more ink-intensive) "fine" mode, the results are nearly laserlike. Color graphics printed to plain paper are exceptionally accurate, and closer than usual to the quality of their glossy-paper counterparts. Said glossy-paper photo prints have a slightly cool color temperature (and an ever-so-slightly pink bent) but show exceptional detail. Overall, subjects have a bright but realistic appearance. Epson's printers also feature economy and fast-economy print modes that accelerate print speed and can save on ink costs, at the expense of print quality.

The WorkForce 845 is nonconformist in one good way, shipping with Epson's extra-high-capacity cartridges (model 127), a 945-page black and 755-page cyan, magenta, and yellow. Few inkjets offer anywhere as many pages right out of the box. Replacing those cartridges will set you back $29.49 for the black and $20.39 apiece for the colors. That works out to 3.1 cents per page and 2.7 cents per page per color, or an economical 11.3 cents for a four-color page. We recommend that you replace spent cartridges with the same extra-high-capacity tanks, as the merely high-capacity (model 126) tanks are just average in cost: 4.8 cents per page for black and 3.6 cents per page for each color, or 15.7 cents for a four-color page.

The WorkForce 845’s other departures from the norm are less appealing. Why force users to select 'Change ink cartridges' from the Maintenance menu to move the ink carrier into position for removal? On most printers, that action transpires automatically when the user lifts the hood. In addition, the power button requires a nearly 2-second press to cycle the unit on, yet the MFP reacts instantaneously to a power-off press; for most printers, it’s the other way around.

Another problem we rarely encounter with other printers is difficulty setting up push scanning--that is, initiating scans to a networked PC from the printer's control panel. This is a must-have capability in an office environment to avoid running back and forth between the PC and MFP to feed new documents. The WorkForce 845 fully supports push scans via USB, requiring no tweaking--but when we tested the unit via wireless, we had to add an exception for the Epson Event Manager software to the Windows Firewall manually, restart the PC, and then double-check that the exception stuck. And in our case, we had to redo the exception after the restart. You may simply elect to disable the Windows Firewall instead, though this move is dangerous unless your router has a firewall. Epson’s documentation on this process is vague.

The Epson WorkForce 845's annoyances pale in comparison with its strengths: speed, capacity, high-quality output, and affordability. It's a bargain for a small-office MFP. Just make sure to deal with the wireless push-scanning issue at setup time so that you can confirm early on whether the unit will work in your environment. If you'd prefer an alternative, another model worth considering in this price range is the Canon Pixma MX882, which has comparable features but is somewhat more compact.

From PCWorld. Visit Amazon Computer and Notebook Center here