Epson WorkForce Pro WP-4540 All-in-One Printer Review
Epson WorkForce Pro WP-4540 Color Inkjet Wireless All-In-One with Fax and 580 Sheet Paper Capacity (C11CB32201)
Price : $263.99
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Epson WorkForce Pro WP-4540 All-in-One Printer Feature
- World's Fastest Automatic Two-Sided Printer; up to 50% lower printing costs vs. color laser
- 4-in-1 with Wi-Fi: Print / Copy / Scan / Fax
- ISO Print Speeds: One-sided ISO print speeds of 16 ISO ppm (black) and 11 ISO ppm (color); Two-sided ISO print speeds of 9.2 ISO ppm (black) and 7.1 ISO ppm (color)
- Wireless and Ethernet Network Ready; Instant-Drying Inks; Dual Paper Trays; Automatic Document Feeder
- 580-sheet paper capacity, includes an 80-sheet rear-feed tray for alternative paper, envelopes, labels and card stock; Up to 20,000 pages duty cycle
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Costumer review
110 of 116 people found the following review helpful.
Designed for a small office, but works great in my home
By Terry
The Epson WorkForce Pro WP-4540 is a fairly large, square-footprint, wireless, all-in-one inkjet printer designed to meet the demands of a small office. Notably, it has two paper trays for less down time replenishing paper and large capacity ink cartridges. It is easy to set up as a wireless network printer so that all the computers in the network can print to it. The buttons on the front and the large, lcd panel make it easy for anyone to use without having even read the user manual.
I am using it as a wireless, home printer. There are multiple computers and users in my home - 7+ desktops and laptops - as well as an iPad. We can all print to this printer and have had no problems at all
First thing you will notice is that the box is BIG! It's also relatively heavy and because of the bulky size (it is well padded with packing styrofoam), you may need two people to pick it up and get it out of the box. The Amazon product page lists it as 22 pounds, but this is a mistake. The printer weighs 36.5 pounds without paper. It measures 18.1"W x 16.5"D x16.5"H. It is pretty much the same size and shape as a small, cube-shaped dorm refrigerator. And that is just the footprint size. You will need additional space around the front and the back of the printer to access paper trays and clear paper jams. I have it set up on one of my nightstands and it essentially covers the entire top.
There is an excellent START HERE document included, besides the users manual, which makes unpacking, assembling, and installing this printer a breeze. You will need a computer nearby and it is recommended that you have a usb printer cable (not included), even if you will be setting it up as a wireless printer. If you will be using it wirelessly, you will need to know your wireless router's SSID and your security password, if you have one. If your wireless router is not set to broadcast, it is easy to enter it manually.
Set-up and installation of software takes about 45 minutes. You will also need to install the software on all the computers that will be printing to this printer, so it will take a little time if you have multiple computers on your network.
Epson claims the large capacity ink cartridges make your printing costs about half those of a color, all-in-one laser printer priced at $699 or less. I haven't had it long enough to tell, but the cartridges seem to be reasonably priced at about $25/ea for the color cartridges (good for ~1200 pages) and the black is less than $40 (good for ~2400 pages). They are individual carts so you only replace what is necessary. Smaller capacity cartridges are included that should print about 1000 b/w pages and 900 color pages.
Epson also claims it prints faster than other inkjet all-in-ones priced at $399 or less. I don't have a lot to compare that to, but it does seem to print very quickly.
How does it print? Very well indeed! Although it seems a little noisier than my Epson Workforce 840, it is certainly acceptable. Text is crisp and clear and the ink is dry almost instantly. The max resolution is 4800x1200dpi optimized. Colors are bright, but much more dazzling when using premium quality paper.
When printing to photo paper the result is quite nice, but not photo lab quality. On plain, cheap copy paper, color prints are underwhelming, although that is the case with most ink jet printers. I would say this printer is best for high volume, text- based documents that have color components and the occasional photo printing for personal use. If you plan to print a lot of photos on photo paper, there are better choices.
As an all-in-one, this printer scans, faxes, copies, and is capable of double-sided printing. I cannot fax because I don't have a land line in my home. It scans at 1200x2400dpi hardware and 9600x9600dpi interpolated, and the resulting images are excellent. The scan utility works well and is pretty easy to use. You can even scan directly to an email or a .pdf. There is an automatic document feeder that makes scanning or copying a stack of pages much easier and quicker.
The copier allows you to reduce and enlarge from 25% to 400%. The touch screen on the front of the printer lets you quickly adjust these settings for whatever job you are currently working on. There is also convenient usb port on the front of the printer to allow you to easily print from a flash drive or a portable hard drive or even a camera.
A couple of surprising and exceptional features are AirPrint and Epson Connect. Airprint lets you print wirelessly from your iPad! You will need to install some additional software but that's it. My iPad picked up this printer instantly and printed a page perfectly. There are only a few printers that feature AirPrint currently and I'm very excited this is one of them.
Epson Connect actually assigns your printer an email address and will print documents and pictures sent to it. This is cool. Your printer is available to you wherever you are. I had my son email some pics of my granddaughter to the printer and it received them and printed them out without me having to even turn on my computer! You can log into Epson Connect and set up your preferences, including an approved sender list, as well as change your printer's email address to an easily remembered one. An approved sender list is a good idea because I can envision my printer's email ending up on some mailing lists and having all sorts of spam print out. You could run through a lot of ink that way.
I am greatly impressed with all the capabilities of this printer and the ease of use. I think it really shines as a small office workhorse or a home printer where there are several users.
82 of 91 people found the following review helpful.
The Treacherous Three! 3 New Epson Printers Compared! Which One's Right For You? A Publisher's Critical Review.
By Andre Lawrence
Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R2HL4EYM7A3TYY The Treacherous Three! 3 New Epson Printers Compared! Which One's Right For You? A Publisher's Critical Review.
* A Look At the Printers/ Testing
** The strengths and weaknesses of each
*** Where can I get ink at a (relatively) reasonable price?
* We own a publishing company here in Miami. And, for roughly about 7 years we've owned only Epson. At the time, we moved away from HP because we thought that the Epson printers were improving enough to match HP quality and to beat them economically.
The traditional weakness of Epson had been its photo imaging. We made the decision to go with Epson when they introduced their "Durabright Ink" line of printers and the promise of film-like quality reproduction. While not bad, i.e. passable, it was never quite up to the mark set by the HP line.
That was then.
This year, we're excited by what we've been seeing with Epson. Almost universally with the printers we have, the line of All-In-One printers matches quality and most definitely beats HP in price.
Here are 3 to consider, if you're a small business ("prosumer"), an education setting and up.
* Epson WorkForce 840 Color Ink Jet Wireless All-in-One with Fax (C11CA97201)
* Workforce WP 4540 All-In-One
* Epson Artisan 837 Color Inkjet Wireless All-In-One with Fax (C11CB20201)
(I wouldn't recommend the first two for personal use as Epson has some lower priced models, "The Stylus" series, that will suit your need for about half the price of any of these. The third, coincidentally, "The Artisan" printer, could very well be used in a home of discriminating digital artists.)
**
----- Workforce 840-----
WF 840 is, at about 5 months, still a "new" model. It is a printer, copier, scanner, fax with a wireless "WiFi" connection for both the Windows and Mac OS's. Since it was released in the Spring, there have been a slew of app's, the "Epson iPrint" in particular, that will allow you to print either documents or jpg images from your iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad or any configuration of the Android 2.3 OS.)
The spec's, Epson's statement and my findings in .
+ Uses standard Durabright ink.
+ Can connect through several ports including a USB or through a wireless internet connection.
+ Print resolution is at (an impressive) 5760 x 1440.
+ Scan at a max. resolution of 2400 dpi.
+ Print speed: single sided, 15/9.3 ppm for black/color.
+ Print: double sided, 7.4/5.4 ppm.
+ About $300, retail. $200-225 street price.
The 840 is supposed to be the prosumer printer in this line. It can comfortably hold a ream of paper in dual trays. It feels, by weight, to be about the average weight of a printer, about 12-15 lbs. Our first Epson, All-In-One, felt like a toy in comparison.
*I printed out a pdf of a 200-page book. The double-sided, long-edge, printing at 150 dpi came out exactly 12:15. By my calculations, that makes it a 8.2 ppm double-sided printing. And, it also means that it's better than 1 sheet more per minute than Epson states. And, the printing noise was barely noticeable.
If you need an All-In-One that has the basic the capacities of some of the more specialized printers, this model, WF 840, is a great consideration.
------ Workforce WP 4540------
The 4540, to be distinguished from the 840, is considerably larger AND heavier. It is designed for office use only. And, unless you have a VERY thriving business at home, the 840 may be the better choice for you. The 4540 has its purposes and it surrounds volumes of printing more than anything else.
The newest model, with double the printing capacity and faster printing speed, offers more in some areas and less in others for about $100 more.
Epson's Spec's
+ Print 16/ 11 ppm--black/color single page.
+ Print 9.2/7.1 ppm- double-sided.
+ Print resolution of 4800 x 1200
+ Scan @ 2400
+ Life cycle of the print cartridge- 2400 sheet (black) / 1200 sheets (color).
+ $400
Of the spec's that would be of interest to the office buyer, this is the high yield system. And, there are two (2) grades of ink-- standard and ultra. These high-yield cartridges are considerably different and there are (at the time of this review) no substitute or recyclable alternatives, yet.
I reprinted the same pdf book as I did on the 840 and found, with the exact printing options that the 4540 actually printed the book in 11:45 seconds (see video still). That's only :30 seconds faster than the 840 or 8.5 ppm.
The image (photo) quality from was acceptable, but not exceptional. But, the text quality was near or equal to a laser print.
One of the clients, my company is contracted to, uses Canon copiers. And, although, I like the Canons, an Epson like this is more economical. The comparable Canon runs through print cartridges every couple of weeks and at $100 a pop. Currently, these Epson cartridges are about $35 a piece.
----- Artisan 837------
The 837 is an All-In-One that is especially geared toward high-resolution photo printing. And, since it's an All-In-One, it is ideal for printing and graphic arts.
The spec's
+ Print, scanner, copier and Fax with wireless printing and multiple thumb drive printing capabilities.
+ Print speed 9.6/9.1 ppm black/ color, single-sided.
+ Print 4.9/4.7 ppm, 2-sided.
+ Scans at 4800 dpi.
+ Print resolution at 5760 x1440.
+ 6 separate "Claria" ink cartridges. Standard and Ultra ink resolutions.
+ Cartridge cycle 520 each (standard), 805 high-yield.
* One of the best qualities of this printer is the resolution. I printed out several photos on standard Kodak photo paper and only saw marginally better resolution than an All-In-One printout from 4 years ago. But, when I used some bonus Ultra-fine photo paper, I saw a print that clearly was indistinguishable from film negative. This is a must-have for anyone who needs high-quality printouts.
***
-----Ink------
It's no mystery that the least expensive purchase you'll make is on the printer, itself. The cost of paper followed by the cost of ink is where the real money is at. Much like razor manufacturers that essentially give away expensive razors only to charge a premium for the blades.
What I find to be the most economical is to recycle and to only printout things that must be printed out, i.e., contracts and legal documents that require a hand-signature. We're in the habit of just sending pdf's for most things.
However, here's where the best deal is on ink.
123Inkjet (dot) com
Amazon
DealNews (dot) com
So, to wrap it up.
*EPSON 840--A great general multi-purpose All-In-One. Prosumer, Small company printer. 5 stars.
*EPSON WP 4540--High-end, high capacity, All-In-One. Features not terribly impressive, but fast and with the new ink system, lower ink costs overall. 4 stars.
* EPSON ARTISAN 837. Specialized, arts-related printing system. 6-color, ink cartridge system. Ultra high resolution printing capabilities (on high-end photo paper). Prints photos at around 12 seconds. Multi-printing options available, including WiFi. 5 stars.
46 of 50 people found the following review helpful.
Seems to be going downhill fast
By Shawn
Over the last 6 or so months I have bought 5 of these printers. One for the VP's office one for the CEO's office.. CEO's grandaughter.. CEO's home Study. And Receptionist. These are very low workload users and only print about 30 pages a week.
Immediately on buying the first two from Office Depot one right out of the box was DOA. BAD SIGN.
Now half a year later I have already had to call Epson and had 3 warranty replacements shipped out for various ones.. The VP's started banding very badly and after about 20 head cleanings it only marginally improved.. The CEO only uses the one in his study once a week. Apparently that was too long to let it sit and the printer would not print at all then. The ink must of clogged the heads.. Endless head cleanings and new cartridges produced little on the screen.
I just got a replacement for the VP's one yesterday. I unpacked and installed it.. It comes with 4 new cartridges as the instructions say you must return your old cartridges with the printer.. Well after setting up the replacement and installing the new cartridges the printer takes about 10 minutes to "prime" them.. Well during that procedure it told me I had to replace the Cyan , Magenta, and Yellow because they were bad. These were brand new sealed in the box cartridges I had just received. So I went and got some extras we had and installed them.. They worked in the replacement printer but after a few test prints the pages are banding on this printer as well.
I am currently staring at ANOTHER WP-4540 on the floor that I have to call Epson today and get a replacement.. These calls usually take about an hour while they tell you to go through numerous head cleanings and driver reinstalls that even though you already might have done them they have to go through them again.
Very disappointed in these printers... I mean the warranty is good and they will ship you another one, But it is a refurb and yeah.. you may have the patience for this one at home. I do not anymore. Was not even able to handle simple workloads of low page count . Colors are not true. Reliability is horrible.
You better be an IT expert!
The worst product you can buy