Epson EcoTank ET–2850
An inexpensive printer best suited for home use
$349.99 From https://epson.com
Features Auto two–sided printing, wireless and voice–activated print, cartridge–free printhead, pigment black ink, built–in scanner and copier
THE EPSON ECOTANK ET–2850 is a modestly priced ink tank printer offering a simple set of features and very low ink costs. It has a flatbed for scanning and making copies, and a duplexer for two– sided prints. The ET–2850 has a compact body; when set up to print, with its paper support and output tray extended, the unit measures 14.8 x 22.3 x 10.2 inches, and it weighs under 12 pounds.
The scanner lid is lightweight because it does not include an automatic document feeder (ADF) for copying and scanning multi– page documents.
The ET–2850 has one 100– sheet paper tray, which sits at the back of the unit. It can hold up to
20 sheets of photo paper. The LCD is small, at 1.44 inches, and sits in the middle of a control panel with dedicated buttons for operating the menu, including four–way navigation buttons. There is one copy button, so you need to select black–and–white or color in the on–screen menu. The control panel hinges upward roughly 90 degrees.
You can connect the ET–2850 via wireless or USB cable, and from a smart phone you can set up the printer using the Epson Smart Panel app. The ET–2850 also offers voice–activated printing via Siri.
SPEED TEST
The ET–2850 performed at average speed on most of our tests. It printed a five–page text document in 34.4 seconds, or 8.7 ppm. Compared to other ink tank and high–yield printers, this was a little slower than the category average of 30 seconds, or 10.1 ppm. Similarly, this Epson printed a six–page PDF of mixed text and color graphics in 2 minutes and 15 seconds, or 2.7 ppm, which was slightly
slower than the 2.8 ppm average. The ET–2850 lost very little speed when using its duplexer to make two–sided prints. It printed a 10–page text document on five sheets in 1 minute and 32 seconds, or 6.5 ppm. The story was similar for pages of mixed text and color graphics. The ET–2850 printed a six–page document onto three sheets in 2 minutes and 29 seconds, or 2.4 ppm. The Epson ET–2850 was quite slow to make 8 x 10–inch glossy prints at high– resolution, taking 6 minutes and 7 seconds, on average, to print our landscape photograph.
BLACK INK COSTS $20 AND IS RATED TO PRINT 7,500 PAGES, OR JUST 0.3 CENTS PER PAGE
PRINTING PROWESS
The ET–2850 delivered high–quality images. Text documents printed with dark and very sharp letterforms. On duplex prints, the text looked very slightly lighter and faintly less sharp around the edges — but only upon up–close examination. You’d likely never notice a difference. Color graphics printed with natural–looking, well– saturated colors. Fine details were reproduced well. Two–sided prints looked a little lighter overall, particularly in dark shades. Photographs printed on glossy paper were richly saturated and the colors looked natural. In our landscape photo, some very dark shadow areas did look a little blocked– up, lacking some subtle details.
Black ink costs $20 and is rated to print 7,500 pages. That calculates to an extremely low printing cost of 0.3 cents per page. The individual color ink bottles (cyan, magenta and yellow) cost $12.99 each, and are rated to print up to 6,000 pages.
If you’re looking for very low ink costs, and don’t need an ADF for lots of copying, or the versatility of a second paper tray, the Epson ET–2850 is a good choice, with consistent, though not speedy, performance that’s ideal for home office use. ERIC BUTTERFIELD