Epson WorkForce 610 All-in-One Printer Review

Functionality

Printing, scanning, and copying with the 610 are straightforward. With a maximum print/copy speed of 38 ppm, printing is quite speedy. You can choose to print in Draft, Text, Text and Image, Photo, and Best Photo modes. The printer is fairly quiet and both text and images print cleanly and clearly.

Epson has done a lot to make their printers eco-friendly. The printer was designed to be recycled. Epson states that this printer save energy by using up to 70% less power than a laser printer and it comes with Energy Star compliancy. However, duplexing is manual. We would love to see this unit with an automatic duplexer, which would allow the user to reduce the amount of paper used more easily.

Photos and images have good color reproduction, especially when printed on Epson paper. Ink is dry to the touch immediately after printing, so there is no smearing or smudging. Although we couldn’t test it, Epson states that fade resistant plain paper prints last up to six times longer than similar prints from leading competitors. While extremely speedy at plain text and text and graphics, this printer slows considerably when printing photos, but then it is not promoted as a photo printer.

We really like the ability to use an extra high-capacity black ink cartridge since the black ink is often used up so quickly with text printing and copying. When copying, there is a choice of three quality modes: Draft, Standard, and Best. Copying, like printing was quite speedy.

As noted earlier, the scanning software is quite comprehensive.

The back of the printer holds a 100-sheet adjustable feeder. The paper ejects at the front of the printer. There is also a 30-page automatic document feeder on top of the scanner, which can come in very handy for scanning multi-page documents. Another nice feature is that the scanner lid is hinged so you can copy books and magazines quite easily. The paper flow was seamless and we did not encounter any paper jams or misfeeds. Even envelopes fed smoothly. We also loved the fact that the printer has a clearly marked Stop/Clear Settings button to the left of the fax button area, shown in Figure 10.

Figure 10: The right side of the control panel.

The fax function is easier to use than many other all-in-ones. You can fax from your computer with the included software or from the printer itself using the fax panel shown in Figure 10. The fax works with distinctive ring and VoIP lines. The fax even worked with our magic Jack. As with most fax all-in-ones, the fax setup is a little confusing, so we enjoyed being able to set up the fax through the computer software rather than having to do it on the small LCD screen. You can also use the included PC Fax software to fax directly from your computer.

The rear of the WorkForce 610 has two telephone jacks, an Ethernet jack, and a USB 2.0 port, as shown in Figure 11. In this figure you will also see the power plug. Although the cord is brickless, the plug protrudes from the printer requiring a little extra space in the back of the unit.

Figure 11: The back of the WorkForce 610

Based on Epson’s posted ink cartridge yields and ISO cartridge yields , the cost of printing on the WorkForce 610 come out to be about 2.5 cents per page of black ink and 3.2 cents per color. In comparison to others, this is quite good.

Thankfully, we did not have to call tech support for any problems with this printer, but we were happy to see that the printer comes with a 2-year limited warranty and phone support, without charge, for the life of the product. After you register the printer you also have access to special tools like templates, tutorials and videos that will help you work with the printer.

Please note: You must register the product within 60 days of purchase to get the second year of warranty service. Online registration is available. If you do not register with that time, you will only get a one year warranty.