Pro WF-5690DWF
A sturdy, high quality and inexpensive inkjet all-inone that can handle heavy office workloads
SCORE ✪✪✪✪✪ PRICE £149 (£179 inc VAT) from printerbase.co.uk
With its WorkForce Pro range, Epson was arguably the first major printer manufacturer to pitch inkjets directly into laser territory, and the WF-6590DWF shows no signs of a retreat. With claimed speeds of 34ppm mono and 30ppm colour, it’s competing directly on speed, and while Epson doesn’t specify a recommended monthly duty cycle, the stated 35,000 page maximum monthly cycle shows a level of confidence in the engine and paper-feed mechanism.
This looks and feels like a robust office MFP, with a 250-sheet main paper tray at the bottom and an 80-sheet multipurpose tray for heavier or glossy media at the rear. The output tray at the front extends to hold 250 sheets at a time. The downside is that this printer is larger than some of the lasers, measuring 461 x 442mm and standing 342mm high, but it’s quiet in operation and easy to ignore.
It’s controlled through a 10.9cm touchscreen on the front panel, providing easy, instant access to all the major functions and settings, including scanning to connected devices and copying. While Epson could take a few tips from Canon and HP on guiding users through the setup process, it isn’t difficult and the built-in Wi-Fi connected to our test network almost instantly using WPS. Meanwhile, those with a tendency to click Print before checking the page settings will be pleased to see the easily accessible Stop, Interrupt and Reset buttons, all colour coded for finding in a hurry.
The WF-5690DWF works with AirPrint and Google Cloud Print, not to mention the Epson Connect service for remote printing, management and print-by-email. It also plays well with the Epson Print mobile app, enabling you to print, scan, change settings and check the ink supplies from your iOS or Android devices.
As a scanner and copier the WF-5690DWF performs well. It took just 44 seconds to scan a full-colour A4 page at 600dpi, while pages rattle through the 35-sheet ADF at a speed of 4.1ppm. What’s more, the ADF supports duplex scanning, enabling you to scan double-sided documents without having to turn them over manually. The quality is more than acceptable for business use.
When it comes to print speed, the WF-5690DWF can’t quite compete with the fastest lasers. It’s quick to get the first sheet out – 14 seconds with the first page of our colour report – but the lasers pull ahead when it comes to raw throughput. Where the Oki C542cdn can reach speeds of 22ppm black and white and 12ppm colour, the Epson maxes out at 11.8ppm black-and-white and 7ppm colour. That situation doesn’t change when you’re printing duplex, either, with the Epson dishing out double-sided pages at 8.6ppm to the Oki’s 13.3ppm.
However, there’s better news for Epson when it comes to print costs and print quality. Provided you stick to its 2,600-page (mono) and 4,000page (colour) XL cartridges, you can keep costs down to 1.18p per blackand-white page and 3.7p for colour, giving you significant savings over every other printer on test, bar Epson’s own EcoTank ET-2600.
What’s more, print quality is strong across the board. Black text is dark, clean and impressively laserlike on plain office paper, while both business graphics and photo quality is excellent, particularly on glossy photo paper. If you want a printer that can handle glossy marketing materials as well as it does standard office jobs, the WF-5690DWF is a great choice.
This is very much a business printer – where other models have presets for photo paper, this Epson has options for thick, recycled, coloured or letter-headed paper, and there’s no support for borderless printing at all. It adds up to one thoroughly solid office printer for big monthly workloads that’s inexpensive to run. Cost-conscious businesses should put it on their shortlist.