Epson - Epson EcoTank ET-4750

Epson

Epson EcoTank ET-4750: the cost-effective printer per page

Aprox. 363€

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Rather fast, very economical in its consumables, offering a more than honest general printing quality, the EcoTank ET-4750 is a 4-in-1 printer steeped in quality but which requires a large initial investment.

Positive points

Unbeatable cost per page.

Fast in office automation.

Full connectivity.

Good overall.

Much more compact reworked design.

Bad points

Touch screen a little too small.

Noisy in office automation.

Slightly noisy photos.

Our review

Presentation

Sold for € 499, the EcoTank ET-4750 is the replacement for the ET-4550, whose merits we praised at the start of last year, due in particular to its unbeatable cost per page. Epson's idea with this range is simple: sell its printer more expensive, but offer in exchange a very (very) economical use over time - the opposite of entry-level inkjet printers. Aimed at SMEs and the self-employed, and even individuals who print a lot, this model revises the somewhat "embarrassing" ergonomics of the ET-4550. If everything is not yet perfect, the progression is significant.


Presentation

Ergonomics

The EcoTank ET-4550 was, in terms of design, a WorkForce to which Epson had grafted ink tanks on the right. Serious in its manufacturing, the printer therefore suffered from an imposing and aging design which, as we will see, ultimately did not only have faults.

In this context, the EcoTank ET-4750 leaps into the present and turns out - in view of its mode of operation and its possibilities - rather compact. Where the ET-4550 measured 515 x 360 x 241 mm, the ET-4750 is now content with 375 x 347 x 231 mm for 6.8 kg. It's quite impressive, knowing that no functionality has disappeared in the process.

The ink tanks have been integrated into the width of the basic chassis and still offer a direct view of their filling level, while the document feeder is less bulky, while it still accepts a maximum of 30 pages. The paper tray now even accepts 250 ordinary sheets, a capacity more suited to the positioning of the printer, against 150 for the previous model.

No, really, the only regret compared to the ET-4550 concerns the control panel, which was more practical. To add insult to injury, while we deplored the lack of user-friendliness of the 5.6 cm diagonal monochrome screen in our test at the time. The display may be larger here (6.1 cm) and switching to color as well as touch, trying to make it replace all the buttons on the printer is an error.

Indeed, even if it is reactive, this screen is too small to be really pleasant to use. If it does not pose too many problems to navigate in the menus to make some basic settings, the use of the screen quickly becomes restrictive when you frequently use the fax or copy. Having real buttons for these two functions would have been a real plus.

In terms of connectivity, however, nothing is moving and a hatch at the rear still allows easy intervention in the event of a paper jam. Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi Direct connectivity are obviously there, and you can easily print remotely from your smartphone using the Epson Connect app.

As for filling the tanks, it is always as simple; you just have to be careful not to make a mistake. In fact, in the event of an error, the printer must be returned to Epson for a complete purge of the system in order to find a correct colorimetric rendering.


Ergonomics

Consumption

The power consumption of the Epson ET-4750 is close to that measured at the time on the ET-4550; the printer even does a little better: 1 W in standby and 13 W in peak when printing a photo in A4 format. A fairly standard consumption for an inkjet printer of this format.

Regarding noise pollution, the EcoTank ET-4750 has two faces. In photo printing, it is very silent; we noted 41 dB, which is really good. On the other hand, when printing a document of several pages, we reach 53 dB, even 58 dB in peak at certain times. As always, it is the paper drives that are the loudest. This makes the ET-4750 a noisy office printer, which is its primary use.


Consumption

Cost per page

The cost per page is obviously the point on which the new generation of EcoTank was expected and, not surprisingly, the ET-4750 is excellent - if not exceptional - in this area. All in all, it does better than the ET-4550, which by its average cost of € 0.007 / page was the most economical ink printer in our comparison.

By using ink cans of the 102 range, at more advantageous prices and yields, the ET-4750 falls at a cost price of € 0.006 per page. It's better than any inkjet printer, whose average cost per page is around 9 euro cents, and even better than the best laser printers in this field, like the Lexmark CS310n (1.3 euro cent per page). Here we are talking about a cost per page of only 0.6 euro cents. Unbeatable.


Cost per page

Scanner and copies

Equipped with a 1200 x 2400 dpi scanner, the EcoTank ET-4750 ensures standard scanning quality. The scanner, on the other hand, is a little slower than that of the ET-4550: it takes 11 seconds to scan an A4 document at 100 dpi, and 16 s to do the same with a photo in 10 x 15 cm format in 300 dpi.

In copy, the observation is the same, the ET-4750 is slightly slower than the ET-4550; it takes 12 s to photocopy a black and white document and 27 s to photocopy a color document. Not enough to lose a star in this area, however, since it remains in the average performance of inkjet multifunction printers, while providing a correct rendering in copy.


Scanner and copies

Photo

Micro Piezo technology and 3.3 picoliters drops oblige, the EcoTank ET-4750 does not excel in photos; this was already the case with previous models in this range. We know that her thing is first of all office automation. Nevertheless, it can completely troubleshoot to print photos from time to time, even if you have to accept a slightly noisy rendering, which you can see on a high resolution scan of the prints.

If the photos give us the impression of missing a little tone, the colorimetric drift remains contained for an inkjet multifunction printer. Delta E stands at 7.3, slightly down from the ET-4550 (average Delta E at 6.5). In photo, the flows are honest: it takes 1 min 35 s to take out a 10 x 15 cm photo, and 3 min 33 s to shoot an A4 photo.


Office

In office automation, the ET-4750 provides the same black and white speeds as the ET-4550, namely 17.6 pages per minute. It therefore approaches 20 p / min which are rare inkjet to exceed, while remaining quite far from the OfficeJet Pro 8720 which clearly dominates the debates on the subject (37.5 p / min). In color, the ET-4750 slightly exceeds the ET-4550, going from 11.5 to 13.6 p / min. The same goes for double-sided printing: it reaches 7.6 p / min, compared to 6 p / min for the ET-4550.

In terms of rendering, without achieving the precision of laser printing or matching the best inkjet in this area, it remains very good. To the naked eye, the pages are very clean, with perfectly readable characters, even with small font sizes. The gradations are well rendered and there is only a colored background that the ET-4750 could slightly refine its result.


Conclusion

Too bad that a few details deprive the EcoTank ET-4750 of the best ratings in our eyes, because its new more compact design and the resulting improvements are very significant overall. Due to its concept, it is still quite unique in its segment, offering an exceptional cost per page (€ 0.006 / page).


Specifications