Epson EcoTank ET-7700

£550/$550 It comes with nearly a pint of ink

Epson EcoTank printers come with high-volume ink tanks, which you can replenish with bottled ink. The ET-7700 comes with two sets of high-capacity ink bottles, sufficient for up to 14,000 mono documents and 3,400 6 x 4-inch photos.

Ink levels are easy to keep track of, with the tanks positioned behind viewing windows in the front panel. Scanning, photocopying and printing from memory cards are based on a push-button interface with a 2.7-inch screen, rather than the touchscreen display of the XP-8600.

Performance

The ET-7700’s photo print speeds are pretty pedestrian, especially compared with the Canon A4 printers on test, which use a similar combination of dye and pigment ink types. The print quality is good overall but, while colour rendition is quite accurate, tonal accuracy could be better. Bright highlights in the prints can look slightly dull, and dark lowlights are a little lacking in definition.

Print speed

Photo print speeds are relatively sluggish compared with all of the other A4/8.5inch printers on test.

Ink cost

Although ink is cheap, the printer is relatively expensive, so you have to pay everything up front.

Tech focus

Print size: A4/8.5-inch Resolution: 5,700 x 1,400dpi Inks: pigment black; dye cyan magenta, yellow, black Interface: USB 2.0, Ethernet, Wi-Fi

Digital Camera verdict

Ink is cheap but the printer is expensive, so you have to print an awful lot of photos to break even. The colour output is satisfying, but the tonal range seems to be limited.