Epson

Epson WorkForce Pro WF-4820

Inkjet all-in-oneIndividual cartridgesEpson ReadyPrint

Speed is what the WorkForce Pro line sells, and 25 ISO pages a minute in black is genuinely quick for an inkjet — quicker than several of the laser printers in this catalogue. It comes with the office furniture to match: a 250-sheet cassette, a 35-sheet feeder, fax, Ethernet, automatic duplex and a 4.3-inch touchscreen, all for under two hundred dollars. The catch is the business model. This is a cartridge printer, and the purchase price is low because Epson expects to sell you DURABrite cartridges or a ReadyPrint subscription for years. Epson rates the 822XL set at 1,100 ISO pages a cartridge, black or colour, which works out a shade over four cents a mono page — decent for a cartridge machine, and still roughly ten times what the tank printers here charge for the same sheet.

Approx. price: ~$199
Cost per mono page: 4.4¢
Cost per colour page: 14¢
Cost to own, 5,000 pages: ~$518
Print speed, mono: 25 ISO ppm

Best for

Speed and a full feature set now, with the cartridge bill accepted as the price of it.

marks an estimate. Computed from the consumable's ISO page yield and its list price. An estimate. Purchase price plus ink or toner over the pages shown, assuming four mono pages for every colour page. Price is an approximate snapshot from our last catalogue update.

What it costs to own

Black consumable: Epson 822XL black cartridge · 1,100 ISO pages · ~$47.99
Colour consumable: Epson 822XL colour cartridges · 1,100 ISO pages · ~$36.99 each
Cost per mono page: 4.4¢
Cost per colour page: 14¢
Cost to own, 5,000 pages: ~$518
Cost to own, 200 pages/month for 3 years: ~$658 (7,200 pages)

Computed from the consumable's ISO page yield and its list price. An estimate. How this is worked out

Cost to own · 5,000 pages

Epson WorkForce Pro WF-4820~$518
~$199 printer + ~$319 supplies
Epson WorkForce WF-2950~$815
~$129 printer + ~$686 supplies
Canon PIXMA TR8620a~$691
~$199 printer + ~$492 supplies

purchase priceink or toner. An estimate: purchase price plus 5,000 pages at each printer’s computed cost per page, assuming 4 mono pages for every colour page. Printers whose consumable price we could not source are left out.

Specifications

Manufacturer-published figures. Cost lines are computed from the consumable figures above and are estimates.

Approx. price: ~$199
Cost per mono page: 4.4¢
Cost per colour page: 14¢
Cost to own, 5,000 pages: ~$518
Cost to own, 3 years: ~$658
Technology: Piezo inkjet
Ink system: Individual cartridges
Inks: 4
Black consumable: Epson 822XL black cartridge · 1,100 pages
Colour consumable: Epson 822XL colour cartridges · 1,100 pages
Third-party ink lock: No
Ink subscription: Epson ReadyPrint
Print speed, mono: 25 ISO ppm
Print speed, colour: 12 ISO ppm
Functions: Print · Copy · Scan · Fax
Two-sided printing: Auto
Document feeder: 35 sheets
Two-sided scanning: No
Paper capacity: 250 sheets
Max paper size: Legal
Borderless photo: Yes
Resolution: 4800 × 2400 dpi
Connectivity: Wi-Fi · Ethernet
Mobile printing: AirPrint · Mopria
Display: 4.3" colour touchscreen
Dimensions: 16.7 × 15.3 × 10.9 in
Weight: 22.5 lb
Released: 2020

Features

25 ISO ppm black, faster than several of the lasers here
250-sheet cassette with a 35-sheet document feeder
Automatic two-sided printing
Fax, Ethernet and dual-band Wi-Fi
4.3-inch colour touchscreen
Pigment DURABrite ink that resists water and highlighter smearing

Document feeder Auto duplex No ink lock Borderless photo Ethernet Fax

In its favour

As fast as any inkjet in this catalogue, and faster than several lasers
A complete office machine — cassette, ADF, fax, Ethernet, duplex — under $200
Pigment ink does not smear under a highlighter, unlike most dye inkjets
Large touchscreen makes walk-up copying and scanning straightforward

Against it

A full set of 822XL cartridges costs about eighty per cent of what the printer costs
Cartridges, not tanks: the long-run cost is structurally higher than any EcoTank here
Epson pushes a subscription, which is convenient until you stop printing and keep paying
The ADF scans one side only
Bulky for the size of paper it handles

What owners say

No owner discussion has been collected for the Epson WorkForce Pro WF-4820 yet. The specifications above are the manufacturer’s published figures and the cost per page is computed from them — but nothing on this page claims to know what living with it is like, because nobody here has read owners on it.