Those speeds are slow compared with most dye-based, cartridge-fuelled printers, but still quicker than Canon’s A4/8.5-inch PIXMA G650 ‘MegaTank’ printer, which runs on six photo-friendly dye-based inks. The latter set of speeds is the same when using Black & White Photo mode, in which only a high quality setting is available. However, switching to high quality mode kills the speed, with the same sizes of borderless color photo prints taking a lengthy 1 minute 25 seconds, 4 minutes, and 9 minutes 22 seconds. In our tests, printing 6x4, A4 and A3+ borderless color photos on glossy paper took 22 seconds, 1 minute and 2 minutes respectively. Print speeds are rapid in standard photo quality mode. The output tray is motorized, which is a nice touch. The latter uses six sheets of plain paper, loaded into the lower input cassette. Subsequent optional extras that are well worth carrying out are a nozzle check and print head alignment routine. Setting up the printer is very straightforward and only takes about 20 minutes, from taking it out of the box and removing all the packing tape and protective inserts, through filling the ink tanks, to competing the 7-minute automatic initialization process. (Image credit: Epson) Epson EcoTank ET-8550: Performance The SD/HC/XC card slot and PictBridge port are conveniently placed at the front left of the printer.
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Connectivity options include USB, Wi-Fi and Ethernet, and the printer also features an SD/HC/XC card slot and PictBridge port.įor printing on larger-format paper up to A3+/13x17-inch, there’s an upright feeder which pulls up from the back of the printer, plus a horizontal feeder that enables you to print banners and panoramic photos up to 2m in length, as well as allowing for specialist media up to 1.3mm thick. Everything’s brought together by a handy 10.9cm color touchscreen with an intuitive interface and, for remote operation via a smartphone or tablet, there’s the ‘Epson Smart Panel’ app. (Image credit: Epson)Īs a printer that’s much better suited to office work than specialist large-format photo printers, the ET-8500 features multiple input cassettes for loading different types and sizes of paper, auto duplex printing, and a large-format 8.5x14-inch scanner to enable direct scanning and photocopying. Unlike in some large-format multi-function printers, the scanner is upsized from A4/8.5x11-inch to an 8.5x15-inch unit. By stark contrast, the ET-8500 impressively comes with a set of full-capacity 70ml ink bottles, sufficient for printing around 2,300 6x4-inch photo prints.
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Even so, P900 cartridges cost around $42/£38 each so are much pricier than replacement ink bottles.Īnother factor is that the SureColor printers are sold with low-capacity ‘setup’ cartridges, which only last for a few large-format prints, so you’d need to buy an expensive full set of replacement cartridges very quickly. For the latter, there’s not a huge difference in the capacity of cartridges versus bottles. The flip side is that the ET-8500 costs nearly three times as much to buy in the first place.Īlthough 70ml looks and sounds like a lot of ink per bottle, it’s worth bearing in mind that Epson’s large-format A3+/13-inch SureColor P700 and A2/17-inch SureColor P900 printers run on upsized 25ml and 50ml cartridges. Epson says that the ink cost is reduced by around 80 per cent overall and that, for photos, it comes down from around 40c/40p to about 4c/4p per 6x4-inch print. That compares very favorably with printers like the 6-ink, cartridge-based Epson Expression Photo XP-970 A3/11-inch model, which only has 9ml of ink even in its ‘XL’ cartridges, at a similar cost of around £16/$17 each. (Image credit: Epson)Īs with other Epson EcoTank printers, a key feature of the ET-8550 is that it has tanks of ink, rather than cartridges, which are replenished via 70ml bottles, at a cost of around $17.50/£16 each. There are dual paper input cassettes at the front for plain or photo paper, as well as a CD/DVD/BluRay tray for printing on white-faced discs.
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