Epson EcoTank ET-2850 Print/Scan/Copy Wi-Fi Printer, Black with Additional Ink Multipack

The functionality of the printer is to notch, and a must for any home office or just for general purpose. It prints double sided automatically, so you don’t have to keep checking the printer status beforehand. I like the no more ink cartridge system on this. No more renewing cartridges just because 1 colour has run out. You fill the tanks with ink, and with the window ink level in front of you, you can see each colour and when it needs topping up. This way it helps with your carbon footprint, which is better for the environment. So, all said and done I think you get value for money and a whole lot more. It’s wi-fi ready and a breeze to set up. You get a lot more productivity features when you download the Epson printing, scanning and fax software that is available to download from the cd installation disc.

The key point about this device is that it just works with everything on your network, that includes any Linux systems. Its actually easier to use with Linux than Windows. The CUPS and XSANE utilities I use on my Linux system know all about this printer without needing any special drivers! The Windows software includes a very useful photo printing utility that makes great prints but is not so great with the printer paper set up.There are issues with the set up process. The setup guide implies that the quick and easy route is to use the Epson app on your phone. This did not work with my phone, it just did not detect the printer. I followed the simple manual set-up instructions given in the printed setup guide. Once I had the ink loaded and the print system primed, the app on my phone connected with the printer and became useful. Filling the ink tanks is a clean and easy process. It is significantly simpler than working with the ink cartridges that I have used in the past. The filling system is designed to prevent you from overfilling the tanks. Another clever feature of this device.The screen on the front of the device is useful but rather small. I found it difficult to use but not impossible. It takes a little getting used to. Once you have discovered how it works it is easy to use but there is a learning period. Once you have understood how the menus work, it is actually very simple and quick to use. However, once the printer is setup the Epson Smart Panel app is easier to use.Printing and scanning performance is great. This printer is capable of creating borderless prints and this is why it will suspend the print operations if the paper implied by the pending print operation does not match the the paper size and type that the printer has been told is loaded in the paper feed. One of the things that you need to learn is to check that the printer paper settings match the paper in the feeder before starting any print job.The scanner built into the top of the device is of good quality and easy to use. BUT the Epson app restricts you to 600dpi whereas the scanner is capable of 1200dpi. No problem for XSANE but does restrict the quality of the images produced using the Epson app. The app appears to be tuned for creating PDFs rather than imaging photographs or other detailed originals.There's a lot to this device and it does have a learning curve. It prints well on a range of papers and sizes. It is a very capable scanner and copier, with the option of copying in colour or black and white. It is capable of two sided printing which can save a lot of paper. It has two print qualities, normal and high quality. It has a quiet mode to keep noise down but reduces printing speeds. Photo printing is very good for a non-specialist device and will be more than adequate for most people.

Came in it's secure box, had to give the delivery person a password which was emailed to me in advance of delivery, which is a nice secure feature, first time having to do that.It was easy to set up. Everything was in the box. The screen is small but it's surprisingly easy to use anyway, that was my initial concern. You can set up via your smartphone by scanning the QR code. However, halfway through my setup, while waiting for it to do its thing, my phone went into screensaver mode and I think that halted the entire process, it didn't progress and I couldn't move on via the phone app. BUT, just finish it via the screen, it's so easy. I mentioned that in case anyone else had the same thing and didn't know what to do. The phone app is just another method of setup, it's just as easy to use the actual printer screen.Filling the ink was easy, no mess. Each ink bottle has its only nogging shape that slots into its respective tank, and you can sit it there without holding it.Once it was set up it has to print a test page which was perfectly fine. And then it's good to go. People have mentioned the cheap feel of the loading tray at the back, but tbh this isn't any different from past printers. It's the same plastic as my old Brother printer which I'm replacing. It does it's job and that's good enough for me.I bought this as an artist wanting to print my own art and Etsy products and stickers etc. I did a lot of research before deciding on this model, and I'm not disappointed. However it has had some issues I had to get help for from Epson, but they have been very helpful.Such as, the scanner itself. This scanner relies on your network, but it mine seems really iffy with being visible on my home network. My computer can find my old Brother printer with an entire floor between them. This one is sat right next to my computer and more often than not so far it can't pick up the machine when I want to use the scanner (via the scan program). It finds it if I want to print, (I print mainly from Photoshop), but for some reason it's not there when I want to activate the scanner. I've even used my Cricut cable to plug it into the computer but still not very good. Of the 5 times I've tried to scan from the Epson scan program, only 2 did it find the scanner. Now, my ISP is having issues, our network has been weak many days in the past fortnight, but it can still PRINT from my computer/network.I have since contacted Epson to find out why, I will update this when I have a solution. It might just be user error (however even scanning from the printer screen itself doesn't work). And I have only tried this several times. I wanted to mention this in any case.The print quality, though, is well worth it. I went through a lot of Youtube videos to find out the best colour profile in Photoshop for my work, and the results are stunning. I compared my prints next to ones I had ordered from print companies, and my colour and quality looked even better.It prints beautifully on matt, satin and glossy paper (my tests so far), though if you do print on glossy do some research on Youtube because you can get different qualities depending on the settings you use in your programs (i.e. set Photoshop paper settings for matt paper but putting glossy paper through gives a different quality than assigning glossy settings).Also I have experienced the odd roller imprint of some prints. Not all of them, weirdly, just some. And the odd spot of ink where it shouldn't be, always on the edges. I did read about this in other reviews though so it's not a surprise. Seems to be just on the thicker papers.Despite the scanner issues I personally have experienced, I'm very glad I bought this printer. For the price it's exceptionally good and if you use it for your small business like mine I'm sure it will pay for itself.EDIT on the 6th November 2024: The only sure way for my scanner to work is to use the cable and plug it into the computer. No issues that way. It just doesn't like the network for using the scanner, and I've no idea why. I use my Cricut Maker cable so I already had that.Note for when printing full colour A4s. I had an issue where the printer would pause during printing and then after a few minutes just spit out an unfinished page. It was frustrating, until I found a youtube video suggesting reasons why this might be. For me, it was the printer heads overheating/getting too warm after printing one or two A4s back to back. I now wait at least 30 seconds after each A4 print and I haven't had it happen again. It's a tiny inconvenience, but I hope it helps someone else with this issue.