The Epson ET-8500 printer is so loaded with features that it feels like having a business device at home. Its touch screen and mobile app sign its entry in 2023, while its ink supply costs 90% less than cartridges. It still seems fragile to us for its hefty price, and its durability worries us.
Epson has been offering its EcoTank concept for five years, where the cartridges are replaced by tanks that can be filled. Canon, Brother and HP have also dared to break the paid recipe freeing the consumer from buying ruinous cartridges.
This is therefore the first charm of the new arrival at Epson, the ET-8500. This multifunction printer promises “lab-quality” color photos and comes with an ink supply that can theoretically print up to 5,000 color pages. It all depends on the type of printing, a photo obviously consuming more ink than a Word document, but we can make a quick calculation according to the data provided by the manufacturers. A set of four standard cartridges for a Brother LC-61 promises about 400 pages for $115. So it will cost you $1437 for 5000 pages. For this use, a set of six bottles for the ET-8500 costs $148.
Epson’s promises are plausible. We have been using one of the first models, an ET-7700, since 2018 for around a hundred prints per month. We only purchased a new set of bottles this past January.
The filling is well thought out, with bottles that adjust very precisely to the inlet and stop flowing when the tank is full. In addition to digital level control, which can be monitored on your computer or phone, small transparent windows allow you to see where the ink is.
Before discussing the print quality delivered by this new ET-8500, let’s first note what is striking at installation: it is now fully controlled by a mobile app, Epson Smart Panel, which detects the printer and allows full control, from ink level to sending print or scan commands.
The installation was done quickly and without bugs.
This app also allows printing of live photos taken by the phone or double-sided ID cards, borderless copies or copies of books. Photos can be printed up to a size of 13 by 19 inches. Feeding is done through a main tray, a second reserved for smaller photo formats and rear tray. This is mainly used to quickly change paper types without having to remove the main input tray.
The printer itself features a 10.9 cm diagonal color touchscreen. No more countless buttons, you can turn off, change settings, scan or copy from this touch screen.
The digitizer has a capacity worthy of professional devices of 4800 p. p. p. 48-bit. Our photos were well reproduced, well crafted with rich colors, although some adjustments were sometimes necessary to make them less dark.
Print quality is now one of the selling points of the ET-8500. This is of course a brand new printer, and it would have been unwelcome to see poorly printed lines or washed out colors. But we were impressed with the contrast and pure colors delivered, whether for color documents or photos. The results were worthy of professional printing services, although printing was obviously much slower. A high quality 8.5” by 11” glossy color photo takes exactly 4 minutes 10 seconds to be delivered. It may be impeccable, but you will not trade at this speed.
A small touch that connoisseurs will appreciate, the flap that closes the printer when it is inactive opens by itself when a print is ordered. This flap protects the internal components of the printer, and you had to remember to open it manually in previous models.
Finally, you can print on an astonishing number of media up to 1.3mm thick, from cardstock to CDs or DVDs.
We are always a little nervous when it comes time to take out the food containers, which are entirely made of plastic and which we fear will break.
A comment that can be made about many electronic devices: the bright white power indicator is disturbing at night, even in standby mode. You have to turn off the printer to see it disappear.
Too bad the rear input cannot be used to power the digitizer. We could thus scan several pages in a row.
We cannot comment, after only two weeks of testing, on the durability of the printer. On the other hand, we have five years’ experience of the previous model, the Epson ET-7700. It is still functional, prints documents quickly, but requires a lot of maintenance for photos. You basically have to order two or three head cleanings in the software for it to deliver a quality photo. Mixed verdict, then.
At $999.99, the Epson ET-8500 is not affordable. The company’s argument that it pays for itself through ink savings is only valid for heavy users.
An element that has become central for any teleworker or for a family bringing together white-collar workers and students, the printer is undoubtedly worth a more substantial investment than the entry-level models offered everywhere. It is obvious that in the medium term, for around a hundred prints per month, an ink tank printer like the Epson ET-8500 is economical compared to those that rely on cartridges.
The quality of its design and its well-established functions, as well as its versatility, are highly recommendable. But at this price, it undoubtedly exceeds the needs of less active users. Less expensive models like the ET-2800 at $329.99 are more suitable.