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One of the perennial complaints we get from our readers is the high price of ink. With its EcoTank printers, such as the WorkForce ET-4550 EcoTank All-in-One Printer ($1,099.00 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) and now the WorkForce Pro WF-R4640 EcoTank All-in-One ($1,199), Epson puts a high sticker price on the printers, but includes a tremendous amount of ink. Additional ink is available in quantity for a low cost per page. The WF-R4640 ($2,248.88 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) is the high-end multifunction printer (MFP) model in Epson’s EcoTank inkjet series, and these models can save your business a lot of money over time due to the printer’s low running costs, but only in cases where your company’s print volume is high enough.
Design and Features
The R4640 can print, copy, fax, and scan. It is large for an inkjet MFP, measuring 20.2 by 26.1 by 25.8 inches (HWD) when open for printing, and it weighs 52.5 pounds. Paper capacity is 580 sheets, split among two 250-sheet trays in front and an 80-sheet feeder in back. On top is a 35-sheet duplexing automatic document feeder (ADF) for two-sided scanning, copying, and faxing.
Setup
Setup is a bit different than for conventional inkjets, because of the ink tanks, which are actually more bags than tanks, similar in feel and concept to IV fluid bags. After you shake each bag about 20 times, you place them in bays on either side of the printer—the black tank on the left, the three color bags to the right. You press the clasp on top of each bag into a receptacle until the bag is grabbed and locked into place.
The setup process is easier than the one for the other EcoTank printer we’ve tested, the Epson ET-4550, in which you have to actually pour the ink from bottles into the printer’s tanks.
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Connectivity
The WF-R4620 can connect to a computer via USB 2.0, to a wired LAN via Ethernet, to a local-area network via 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, or to a direct peer-to-peer connection to a computer or mobile device via Wi-Fi Direct. It supports printing from the Epson iPrint app for iOS or Android, and Epson Email Print and Epson Remote Print, which both allow users to automatically print to the R4640 by sending it documents via email. Epson gives you the option of having an email address assigned to the printer during the setup process, which you can change an address more to your liking.
Printing Speed
I timed the Epson WF-R4640 on our business applications suite (using QualityLogic(Opens in a new window)‘s hardware and software for timing), at a blistering 10.3 pages per minute (ppm), effectively matching the speed of the Epson WorkForce Pro WF-4630 ($245.03 at Newegg)(Opens in a new window) (10.2ppm) and a bit faster than the Editors’ Choice HP Officejet Pro X576dw MFP ( at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) , which we timed at 9.5ppm. It’s way faster than the other EcoTank MFP we’ve tested, the Epson ET-4550, which we timed at 3.8ppm.
The WF-R4640 averaged 46 seconds in printing out 4-by-6-inch photos, while the Epson WF-4630 averaged 0:41 and the HP X576dw averaged 0:26 on the same test.
Output Quality
Overall output quality in our tests was a touch below average for an inkjet, with text on the high side of average, slightly subpar graphics, and average photos. Text quality is fine for standard business documents, but maybe not for ones like resumés with which you’re seeking to make a good impression.
See How We Test Printers
Graphics in testing were generally well saturated, with bright colors. Several backgrounds showed mild banding (a pattern of faint striations). Very thin, colored lines were barely visible in a couple of test illustrations. The photos are all roughly the quality you would expect from drugstore prints.
Running Costs
By conventional measure (Epson’s prices and yields for its highest-capacity ink tanks), the WF-R4640’s running costs are very low, at 0.9 cents per monochrome page and 2.4 cents per color page. But this is only for replacement cartridges; for the initial purchase, you are paying a premium for the printer plus the ink. The ink itself that comes with the printer is worth $480, so the printer’s value is $720, based on Epson’s direct price of $1,199.99 for the R4640. This is $320 more than the list price for the non-EcoTank version of the printer (the Epson WorkForce Pro WF-R4640, which we have yet to review).
Conclusion
The Epson WorkForce Pro WF-R4640 EcoTank All-in-One is a formidable MFP, an inkjet with laser-class speed befitting its PrecisionCore print technology. It comes with enough ink to last up to 2 years, and the printer has a 2-year standard warranty. With the WF-R4640, you make a hefty up-front investment, but if you print in high volume you could save a lot of money with this EcoTank solution. The alternative is a conventional (ink cartridge) inkjet, specifically a laser-class model such as the Editors’ Choice HP Officejet Pro X576dw MFP or the Epson WorkForce Pro WF-4630. The HP X576dw, built to anchor a workgroup in a small to midsize business, has specs comparable to those of the WF-R4640, and all three printers are wicked-fast.
If you’re not sure how much use you would get out of the Epson WorkForce Pro WF-R4640 EcoTank All-in-One, and whether it would justify its high up-front cost, you could either get a lower-end EcoTank model like the Epson WorkForce ET-4550, another laser-class inkjet like the Epson WorkForce Pro WF-4630, or the higher-end choice, the Editors’ Choice HP Officejet Pro X576dw MFP. The two latter printers sell at a relatively low price and have low per-page costs compared with normal inkjets. But if you know you’ll print enough volume over time to compensate for the printer’s high initial cost, the WF-R4640 can dramatically bring down your running costs for as long as you own the printer.
4.0
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The Epson WorkForce Pro WF-R4640 EcoTank All-in-One costs a lot, but comes with a huge amount of ink, and additional high-capacity ink tanks are dirt-cheap.
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Source link : https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/epson-workforce-pro-wf-r4640-ecotank-all-in-one
