Epson has been an industry leader when it comes to printers, whether it is a small one for home or professional printers for businesses. There is a wide range of printers available right from inkjet to ink tank and laser in the market. And since last year, the need for a good printer has become even more important with all the lockdowns and restrictions due to the pandemic. We have got our hands on the Epson EcoTank L8180 printer which is a multifunction ink tank printer with some great features.
Specifications of the Epson EcoTank L8180:
Printer Type: Print, Scan, Copy & Duplex
Maximum Print Resolution: 5760 X 1440 dpi (with Variable-Sized Droplet Technology)
Automatic Duplex Printing: Yes up to A4
Print Direction: Bi-directional printing, Uni-directional printing
Technology: Micro Piezo technology
Nozzle Configuration: Black-360 Nozzles; Colour-720 Nozzles
Maximum Copies from Standalone: 99 copies
Reduction / Enlargement: 25 – 400%, Auto Fit Function
Maximum Copy Resolution: 720×720[dpi]
Maximum Copy Size: Legal
Draft, A4 (Black / Colour): Approx. 37 cpm / 38 cpm
Scanner Type: Flatbed colour image scanner
Optical Resolution: 1200 X 2400 dpi
Maximum Scan Area: 216 x 355.6mm (8.5” X 14”)
Scanner Bit Depth (Colour): 48-bit internal, 24-bit external
Scanner Bit Depth (Grayscale): 16-bit internal, 8-bit external
Scanner Bit Depth (Black & White): 16-bit internal, 1-bit external
Scan Speed(Mono / Colour): Approx. 6 Sec at 200 dpi (Black) / Approx. 11 Sec at 200 dpi (Colour)
Connectivity:
USB Interface: USB Host
Interface: Hi-Speed USB, Ethernet (Ethernet 10Base-T, Ethernet 100Base-TX), Wireless, Wi-Fi Direct
SD Card Slot: Built-in slots (SD Memory Card)
Design
EcoTank L8180 measures 523mm X 379mm X 169mm and weighs 11.1kg which is quite big for a home printer. There are no physical buttons on the printer except for the Power button. There is a 4.3 inch color touchscreen that can be tilted up to 90 degrees. The touchscreen allows us to interact with the printer functions and manage settings. There is a USB port, an Ethernet port, support for Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi Direct and also a SD memory card slot.
As with other EcoTank printers, you can see the level of the inks through the small window below the touchscreen. There are separate tanks for 6-color Epson Claria ET Premium Ink that includes Black, Pigment Black, Grey, Cyan, Yellow and Magenta.
There are two paper trays and a feeder in the Epson EcoTank L8180. The Rear Paper feeder can hold 50 sheets, while the upper front tray accommodates 20 sheets and the lower front paper tray has space for 100 sheets. You also get the CD/DVD printing tray that lets you print DVD/CDs directly.
Setup
It is fairly easy to setup the Epson EcoTank L8180 printer after unboxing and removing all the safety tapes. The touchscreen provides all the settings to connect the printer to an existing wifi network or use wifi-direct for connecting with other devices. You also can adjust the paper type, the paper source tray, and size of the paper using the settings menu. Once you load the paper in any of the front trays or the rear feeder, the touch screen displays that paper has been loaded and gives options to select the type and size of the paper. The output tray stays tucked in and only extends out when there is a paper being printed. You can close the output tray after printing by tapping the “Output Tray” on touchscreen.
You can either control you printing using a computer or any smartphone using Epson Smart Panel app. The app gives options to select the type of printing/scanning to be done along with printer information like the ip address, level of inks and also option to turn off the printer remotely. Once the option to print is selected, you can select the picture or the document stored on your smartphone, select the paper size, type, source try, quality of print, color or B&W etc.
If you choose to print photos or documents using a computer, you can install the Epson collection of softwares that includes drivers and utilities for print, scan and printer setup. We used the Epson Photo+ application to print pictures.
Performance
Epson EcoTank L8180 is a mini professional printer unlike the regular inktank printers used at homes. It is comparable to a heavy-duty printer used for printing high quality pictures and documents. The initial investment is on a higher side for this printer, but the maintenance is low because of the inks that are affordable. The bottle of black ink is claimed to print 7,500 pages, while each bottle of color ink lasts for around 2,300 photos.
When it comes to printing speed, we can print around 16 pages per min if its Black & white A4 pages and 12 pages if colored for the same size. EcoTank L8180 can handle different types of papers – Plain, Glossy, Photo, Matte, Presentation, Brochure etc.. The Photo Paper Size includes – 3.5×5, 4×6, 5×7, 8×10 to print various memories. This printer can even print photos up to A3+ size which could be very useful for small businesses and creators. Borderless printing is an absolutely favorite feature that we found in this printer to help us get amazing pictures.
The copying capability on this printer is good as well. The printer can copy around 30 pages per minute for both B&W and Color pages at a maximum resolution of 720×720 but only a maximum of 99 pages can be copied in one go.
EcoTank L8180 can scan documents up to a maximum size of 8.5×14″ with its flatbed scanner. The maximum resolution is 1200X4800 DPI and the scanned documents can be viewed either on the touchscreen or the smartphone.
Verdict:
Epson EcoTank L8180 is a great printer with some amazing features making it very easy for small businesses and content creators to get their printing done. The initial investment is a little higher but that aside, the features and the maintenance of this printer makes it a value for money proposal for those who need lot of printings to be done, especially hight quality pictures.
