Epson WorkForce 645

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Review:

The $150 Epson WorkForce 645 proves itself a capable performer for small offices that want a do-it-all device that can print, fax, copy, and scan without a clumsy touch-screen control panel. Epson also outguns the competition in print speed, leading the pack in all of our document tests, with the exception of snapshot photos. The 645 serves up plenty of features that maximize office workflow, including the Epson Connect portfolio of mobile printing features that work with Google and Apple's cloud printing. This printer also has the ability to e-mail print jobs to the 845 directly from any device ... Expand full review

The $150 Epson WorkForce 645 proves itself a capable performer for small offices that want a do-it-all device that can print, fax, copy, and scan without a clumsy touch-screen control panel. Epson also outguns the competition in print speed, leading the pack in all of our document tests, with the exception of snapshot photos. The 645 serves up plenty of features that maximize office workflow, including the Epson Connect portfolio of mobile printing features that work with Google and Apple's cloud printing. This printer also has the ability to e-mail print jobs to the 845 directly from any device connected to the Web. With all these convenient features in a device that costs less than $150, you shouldn't hesitate to pick up the Epson WorkForce 645 for all your office printing needs.

Design and features
The WorkForce 645 fits in tight spaces thanks to its compact design that measures just less than 18 inches wide, 14 inches deep, and 9 inches tall in storage mode with the moving control panel, auto-document feeder (ADF), and paper trays all folded flush into the rectangular unit. The standard colorway for Epson's WorkForce multifunction printer line is matte black with a dot pattern on the scanner lid and minimal use of glossy plastic to combat dust.

A robust control panel folds out of the middle section and rotates up and down for variable visibility on your desk space, and a 2.5-inch LCD in the center acts as the hub for controlling its functions. With many modern printers insisting that users interact through a touch-screen display or virtual buttons, I'm relieved that Epson doesn't succumb to the trend. If you're more comfortable using a touch panel, the WorkForce 840 does include a touch display, but the WorkForce 645's physical buttons make for more efficient navigation.

In this case, the control panel bundles several tactile shortcut buttons with specific action functions like toggling double sided prints with the rear-mounted auto-duplexer, a hard reset button, as well as individual buttons for fax and scanning features. Of course, you also get a four-way directional pad and an OK button for navigating through the menu settings.

The controls are comprehensive and easy to use in conjunction with the Epson driver that comes on the CD included in the box, and other physical features of note include a media card reader on the front panel that supports Compact Flash, MS (PRO), xD, and SD memory cards, and a PictBridge USB port for direct printing and saving images directly off a PictBridge-compatible thumbdrive.

Just above the control panel, you'll find two hinged bays that expose the 2,400-by-2,400-dpi scanner glass and four-ink repository for separate black, cyan, magenta, and yellow cartridges. Its scanning functions let you save an image in three ways: to a specific file folder, as a PDF document in a folder, or as an attachment in an outgoing e-mail message. The WorkForce 645 also benefits from a 30-sheet automatic document feeder on its top that automatically picks up individual sheets from a stack in the tray.

Any multifunction or all-in-one printer for business should include an auto-document feeder (ADF), but keep in mind that they always add bulk to the printer. When you're not copying or faxing stacks of paper, consider keeping the ADF folded up and store the extra sheets of paper in the ample input tray, which can hold up to a considerable 250 sheets of plain 20 pound white paper or 10 envelopes. Finally, an extendable lip on the bottom of the printer corrals all outbound prints.

The WorkForce 645 features a built-in 802.11 b/g wireless print server that only took 5 minutes for me to connect and start printing. Unlike other printers that require you to set up a proxy network, the WorkForce 645 prompts you to establish a direct wireless connection right out of the box without the extra, confusing step of first connecting via a USB or Ethernet cable. The printer also has an Ethernet port on the side for a wired connection to a network.

Connecting through Wi-Fi also means you can take advantage of Epson's host of free mobile printing apps that let you print directly from mobile devices. First, the Epson iPrint application for iOS and Android devices enables you to print Web pages, photos, documents, and anything else on a smartphone directly to the WorkForce 645, though I did notice some of our photos got inadvertently cropped from time to time. I wouldn't recommend printing important images like business presentations this way; it's more appropriate for quick outputs of spreadsheets and to-do lists.

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Epson Stylus NX430 Small-in-One All-in-One Printer

Review:

Released in time for the back-to-school season, Epson squeezes a printer, scanner, and copy machine into a small device it's calling the "small-in-one." The Stylus NX430 occupies roughly the same amount of desk space as your average Blu-ray player, and it performed twice as fast as the four other competitive models, with high-scoring quality results to boot. We recommend investing in Epson's extra-large-capacity ink refill tanks if you print a large volume of full-color documents and photos, but if price and space hold top priority on your printer shopping list, the $99 Epson Stylus NX430 is worth your ... Expand full review

Released in time for the back-to-school season, Epson squeezes a printer, scanner, and copy machine into a small device it's calling the "small-in-one." The Stylus NX430 occupies roughly the same amount of desk space as your average Blu-ray player, and it performed twice as fast as the four other competitive models, with high-scoring quality results to boot. We recommend investing in Epson's extra-large-capacity ink refill tanks if you print a large volume of full-color documents and photos, but if price and space hold top priority on your printer shopping list, the $99 Epson Stylus NX430 is worth your dollar.

Design and features
The Stylus NX430's space-saving design is the printer's main focus, measuring a little more than 15 inches wide, 20 inches deep, and 11 inches tall. Relative to other printers, its size falls somewhere between a single function inkjet and a color laser printer, but at 9 pounds it's only half the weight of the average color laser printer and ideal for offices that frequently move workstations.

The center control panel sits within a console that rotates up to a suitable viewing angle. Though I'm not usually a fan of virtual-only button layouts, I like that the only buttons that light up on the NX430 are the four-way directional pad and the power on and off controls--the rest of the functions illuminate depending on the particular function you're accessing.

I did notice that the screen on this machine feels distinctly less responsive than the capacitive touch dials on the higher-end WorkForce 845 All-in-One. By contrast, NX430's plastic surrounding the screen has a tendency to flex as you press down on it, lending a mushy feeling to menu navigation. The screen itself never gave me trouble in terms of virtual button actuation, however.

I can't fault a $99 device for not including an auto-document feeder or multiple paper input trays, so all paper handling is fed through the single tray on the back and exits through the "mouth" below the controls. You'll also notice a memory card reader up front that lets you walk up and print from an expansion card without actually touching a computer. You can preview your photos on the ample 2.5-inch LCD touch panel, and even make simple adjustments to crop dimensions, resize, or perform one-button touch-ups.

Epson gives you the option to connect the printer to your computer using direct USB or Wi-Fi. I assume most of you will prefer the latter, since Epson doesn't include a USB cable in the box. Smart setup on the touch panel is a two-part process: turn on the machine and click Network Setting, then designate your wireless network and enter its password, and that's it. The entire setup from start to finish, with a connection established on our lab network, took us less than 2 minutes. The installation process also includes a step that asks if you want the system to automatically hunt and install firmware updates, and we recommend you click "yes" when prompted; the appeal of Web-connected printers like the NX430 means you don't have to wait for Epson to ship you software updates, so take advantage of it.

Connecting through Wi-Fi also means you can take advantage of Epson's host of free mobile printing apps that let you print directly from mobile devices. First, the Epson iPrint application for iOS and Android devices enables you to print Web pages, photos, documents, and anything else on a smartphone directly to the WorkForce NX430, though I noticed the printer cropped photos when I flipped orientation from portrait to landscape and vice versa, so I wouldn't recommend using the app to print important images like business presentations this way; it's more appropriate for quick outputs of snapshot photos and to-do lists.

Performance
In our speed tests, the Stylus NX430 performed at an average rate printing photos, but it sprints ahead of the competition with presentation output speed, color graphics speed, and especially text speed. To widen the margin further, the NX515 printed a staggering 14.11 pages per minute of plain text on plain white paper.

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