Epson WorkForce Pro WP-4540 Color Inkjet Wireless All-In-One with Fax and 580 Sheet Paper Capacity (C11CB32201)
Epson WorkForce Pro WP-4540 Color Inkjet Wireless All-In-One with Fax and 580 Sheet Paper Capacity (C11CB32201)
- World’s fastest auto two-sided printing
- 50% lower printing cost than color laser
- Automatic two-sided copy/scan/fax
- 580-sheet paper capacity
- Up to 20,000 page duty cycle
Epson WorkForce Pro WP-4540 Color Inkjet Wireless All-In-One with Fax and 580 Sheet Paper Capacity (C11CB32201)
List Price: $ 399.99
Price: $ 298.77
Designed for a small office, but works great in my home,
The Epson WorkForce Pro WP-4540 is a fairly large, square-footprint, wireless, all-in-one inkjet printer designed to meet the demands of a small office. Notably, it has two paper trays for less down time replenishing paper and large capacity ink cartridges. It is easy to set up as a wireless network printer so that all the computers in the network can print to it. The buttons on the front and the large, lcd panel make it easy for anyone to use without having even read the user manual.
I am using it as a wireless, home printer. There are multiple computers and users in my home – 7+ desktops and laptops – as well as an iPad. We can all print to this printer and have had no problems at all
First thing you will notice is that the box is BIG! It’s also relatively heavy and because of the bulky size (it is well padded with packing styrofoam), you may need two people to pick it up and get it out of the box. The Amazon product page lists it as 22 pounds, but this is a mistake. The printer weighs 36.5 pounds without paper. It measures 18.1″W x 16.5″D x16.5″H. It is pretty much the same size and shape as a small, cube-shaped dorm refrigerator. And that is just the footprint size. You will need additional space around the front and the back of the printer to access paper trays and clear paper jams. I have it set up on one of my nightstands and it essentially covers the entire top.
There is an excellent START HERE document included, besides the users manual, which makes unpacking, assembling, and installing this printer a breeze. You will need a computer nearby and it is recommended that you have a usb printer cable (not included), even if you will be setting it up as a wireless printer. If you will be using it wirelessly, you will need to know your wireless router’s SSID and your security password, if you have one. If your wireless router is not set to broadcast, it is easy to enter it manually.
Set-up and installation of software takes about 45 minutes. You will also need to install the software on all the computers that will be printing to this printer, so it will take a little time if you have multiple computers on your network.
Epson claims the large capacity ink cartridges make your printing costs about half those of a color, all-in-one laser printer priced at $699 or less. I haven’t had it long enough to tell, but the cartridges seem to be reasonably priced at about $25/ea for the color cartridges (good for ~1200 pages) and the black is less than $40 (good for ~2400 pages). They are individual carts so you only replace what is necessary. Smaller capacity cartridges are included that should print about 1000 b/w pages and 900 color pages.
Epson also claims it prints faster than other inkjet all-in-ones priced at $399 or less. I don’t have a lot to compare that to, but it does seem to print very quickly.
How does it print? Very well indeed! Although it seems a little noisier than my Epson Workforce 840, it is certainly acceptable. Text is crisp and clear and the ink is dry almost instantly. The max resolution is 4800x1200dpi optimized. Colors are bright, but much more dazzling when using premium quality paper.
When printing to photo paper the result is quite nice, but not photo lab quality. On plain, cheap copy paper, color prints are underwhelming, although that is the case with most ink jet printers. I would say this printer is best for high volume, text- based documents that have color components and the occasional photo printing for personal use. If you plan to print a lot of photos on photo paper, there are better choices.
As an all-in-one, this printer scans, faxes, copies, and is capable of double-sided printing. I cannot fax because I don’t have a land line in my home. It scans at 1200x2400dpi hardware and 9600x9600dpi interpolated, and the resulting images are excellent. The scan utility works well and is pretty easy to use. You can even scan directly to an email or a .pdf. There is an automatic document feeder that makes scanning or copying a stack of pages much easier and quicker.
The copier allows you to reduce and enlarge from 25% to 400%. The touch screen on the front of the printer lets you quickly adjust these settings for whatever job you are currently working on. There is also convenient usb port on the front of the printer to allow you to easily print from a flash drive or a portable hard drive or even a camera.
A couple of surprising and exceptional features are AirPrint and Epson Connect. Airprint lets you print wirelessly from your iPad! You will need to install some additional software but that’s it. My iPad picked up this printer instantly and printed a page perfectly. There are only a few printers that feature AirPrint currently and I’m very excited this is one of them.
Epson Connect actually assigns your printer an email address and will print documents and…
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|Easy set-up, colors are natural,
I selected this printer because I do a lot of volunteer work for the local animal shelter and this printer does a good job replicating my photographs for flyers on plain paper. Set-up was easy along with the easy-to-understand instructions, taking no more than 30 minutes to first page being printed. It gurgled for a bit during the set-up, but finally printed rather quietly and quickly.
I have my printer hooked up to the computer via a USB cable. I do not use wireless. (The USB cable does not come with this device).
It will take some time to see how economical this printer is, though. I do not use a printer much.
PRO:
Fast and quiet.
Great color
CON:
Build feels a bit cheap with plastic parts for the body.
Heavy
Insists on printing in color even when the “B&W” button is pressed before printing.
This printer came in a huge box, well-protected from harsh treatment. All moving parts were then taped down with durable nylon tape. That tape was all over the inside of this printer. Make sure to remove all the tape before installation!
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|Solid Printer,
I have worked with several different types and manufactures of printers over the years and every printer in which I have personally invested has been a home-use inkjet. Each of these printers has had its pros and cons, some distinguishing themselves as standouts for very poor performance while others have shown brightly. This is my first really in-depth exposure to a higher-grade printer outside of a busy office and so far it has been a positive experience.
First off, this is a large printer, a bit bigger than the average inkjet or even all-in-one printer. As it is targeted against color laser printers this should not come as a surprise. Weighing close to 50 lbs. (according to the shipping info) this printer has a lot of heft.
The printer itself comes partially assembled and it takes a little time to put everything right, from attaching the base to removing all of the tape that holds everything in place. The hard part is that this is such a bulky and heavy piece of equipment; there’s nothing difficult about assembly, it just requires either one strong person to do the lifting or two people working together.
Once assembled and plugged in I turned on the printer and let it initialize. This took somewhere around 10 minutes, during which time it made all manner of odd noises and sounds until it finally offered to print a test page. I touched a button and it quickly cranked out the test page and then said it was ready. After that first power on, time-to-ready has been less than a minute every time.
I had no trouble setting this printer up and connecting it to my wireless network. I did have to fumble my way through the menus on the display to enter in the network key so that it could interact but this was relatively minor. Everything else fell into place easily and I had a minimum of troubles.
This is a FAST printer! One thing Epson does very well is build inkjet printers with astounding print speed and this printer follows that pattern. I have not done an actual measurement on the PPM speed but it seems to be only slightly slower than a professional-grade laser printer.
Some inkjet printers sacrifice speed for quality – not this one. Everything I have printed so far has been clear, crisp and clean. This is important – it would be a failure in its target market if it failed to deliver premium output, but Epson has worked hard on this printer and it shows. So far I have not had any glitches. To be fair, I have not tried printing out photographs yet.
I put this printer in front of the most demanding user I know – my wife, the school teacher. She uses an all-in-one for all its worth, daily, particularly for its ability to make photocopies. I was able to explain to her how to use this printer’s copy functions and had her make some copies of papers she needed for a class she teaches. She quickly and easily figured out how to make two-sided copies and reduced the darkness level, as well as single-sided copies, collated copies and more. She was very impressed with this printer – high praise from her.
So far I cannot find too much to fault with this printer. In the testing I have done I have been very impressed with the speed, functionality and the ease of set-up and use. This kind of printer is a bit overkill for the average home user, but in a small office or even a classroom setting this is a phenomenal device that earns its keep. Time will tell if the ink usage is better than that of most other inkjet printers I have used but if Epson’s claims are true and it can average 1000+ pages color and 2000+ pages black-and-white, then this very well may be the printer to consider instead of a color laser printer. All indicators are solid – this is a good workhorse printer.
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