Epson Workforce WF-3720DWF

Even more printer per pound

An effective MFP but running costs mean you’ll need to print money

Just a fortnight ago (see Issue 506, page 29) we were marvelling at how far Epson’s printer technology had progressed between its 1980s dot-matrix models and the current Workforce WF-3620 colour inkjet. Well, it’s come on a bit further: here’s the WF-3620’S replacement.

This is still a multi-function printer/scanner (MFP) operated from a colour touchscreen, but the design is cleaner and classier. It’s a shame the minimalism extends to the removal of the SD card slot, which was handy in the fairly unlikely event that you wanted to print straight from a digital camera, although there’s still a port for USB sticks.

More disappointingly, the scanner’s automatic document feeder (ADF) can no longer handle double-sided documents, which was an unusual and useful feature. You can still print both sides of the paper (duplex). Wi-fi is built in, with support for direct output from Apple and Android apps as well as from Epson’s own app and cloud service, and faxing is also possible with a telephone socket.

Our black text document printed at 19.2 pages per minute (PPM), excellent for a budget inkjet printer, while colour graphics slowed this to 5.6ppm. Highquality photos were slow, at over three minutes per 6x4in print. The scanner took 28 seconds to capture an A4 page at a sharp 600dpi, but crawled through a 1200dpi scan in 2.5 minutes. You won’t often need that resolution, and it’s a problem we’ve seen with other MFPS, but the WF-3620DWF was much faster. The 3720’s print and scan quality was decent in our tests, with subtle improvements on its predecessor, bearing in mind this isn’t a top-quality photo printer.

The 3620DWF was previously selling (and can still be found) for a hundred quid. The 3720 has an official price of £140, but as usual dealers are discounting this. As we went to press, some Amazon Marketplace sellers were listing it at under £100, while Argos had it at £120 with a £20 cashback. The catch is that the 3720 takes a new type of cartridge, and colour pages work out at over 9p, even using the XL inks, which is higher than average and much higher than the 3620. Again, prices are likely to come down. For now, we like this printer, but overall we’re not convinced it’s better than the one it replaces, even if it’s prettier.

Black text documents printed quickly but colour is quite expensive