EPSON ECOTANK ET-7700

£550/$550 Instead of being supplied with a few millilitres of ink, this one comes with nearly a pint

Buying and replacing ink cartridges is the main pain of using an inkjet printer. Epson’s new solution comes in the shape of its ‘Ecotank’ printers, available in A4 and A3 formats. This A4 model is supplied with two high-capacity ink bottles, including a 140ml bottle of pigment black ink and 70ml bottles of cyan, magenta, yellow and black dye inks. That’s nearly a pint of ink, sufficient for up to 14,000 mono documents and 3,400 6x4-inch photos. However, even if you’re into high-volume printing, savings might be less than you imagine.

With tanks located behind viewing windows in the front panel, ink levels are easy to keep track of. Canon adopts a similar philosophy in its PIXMA G-series or ‘Megatank’ printers, but they’re only four-ink models without the additional dye black ink, so less appropriate for photo printing.

Scanning, photocopying and printing from memory cards is based on a pushbutton interface with a 2.7-inch screen. Wi-fi and Ethernet are built in, along with a USB 2.0 interface. Large and small internal paper cassettes are supplemented by a rear single sheet feeder.

performance

Photo print speeds are pedestrian, especially compared with the Canon A4 printers on test, which use a similar combination of dye and pigment ink types. Quality is good overall but, while colour rendition is quite accurate, tonal range appears a bit lacking. Bright highlights can look slightly dull and dark lowlights are a little lacking in definition.