Epson Expression ET-3700 EcoTank All-in-One Supertank Printer Review - Review 2022

Epson has been touting its EcoTank applied science as a revolutionary new way to buy ink for your printer—in bottles that you empty into reservoirs inside of the auto itself, rather than standard ink cartridges. Like all EcoTank models I've seen, the Epson Expression ET-3700 EcoTank All-in-One Supertank Printer ($379.99) prints good-looking documents and photos at highly reasonable per-page ink costs. Even so, most of what you pay for this printer covers the 8 bottles of ink in the box, and the ET-3700 is nevertheless (like its predecessor, the ET-3600) short on speed and capacity—for a near-$400 all-in-one (AIO) printer, anyway. Simply, if you need to impress inexpensive documents and photographs, only another EcoTank (or Canon MegaTank) AIO can impress them as inexpensively as the ET-3700.

A Complete Redesign

It's of import to note that the ET-3700 ($399.88 at Amazon) has a sibling that is a chip more capable, the WorkForce ET-3750 EcoTank All-in-One Supertank Printer. It lists for about $20 more than than the ET-3700, and for that $twenty you go a 30-canvas automatic document feeder (ADF) and Epson'due south superior PrecisionCore printhead—either are well worth $twenty. The ADF, of grade, sends multipage documents to the scanner automatically, conspicuously making the ET-3750 superior for scanning and copying. PrecisionCore printheads evangelize somewhat improve-looking output, which was borne out in our testing.

I appreciate that in this update, Epson moved the redesigned ink reservoirs and corresponding ink-level-viewing windows from the right side of the chassis to the right-forepart (a proposition that PCMag and several other online technology publications fabricated when EcoTank first appeared in the U.Southward.), which makes checking ink levels easier.

In addition to the new design's efficiency and improved appearance, information technology besides streamlines the ET-3700'southward overall size and weight some, downwardly to vii.4 by xiv.8 past 19.eight inches (HWD) and shaving off about a pound and a half to 13.2 pounds. The closest competitor in price to the ET-3700 in Canon's relatively small lineup of Yard-series MegaTank bulk-ink printers is the Pixma G4200 Wireless MegaTank All-in-I Printer .

The G4200, also stunted in capacity and features (due primarily to Catechism trading them off for relatively large bottles of ink in the box), comes with a twenty-sheet automated document feeder (ADF) for passing multipage documents to the scanner. Otherwise, the ET-3700 and the Pixma G4200 are closely matched, down to the lack of a touch-screen control panel; although the panels on both are anchored by 2.4-inch color displays that yous navigate by much lower-tech directional keys positioned around an OK button.

Another competitor is Brother's MFC-J775DW ($129.99 at Staples) , that company'southward smallest and least-expensive AIO in the INKvestment line of pay-more than-at present-to-pay-less-for-ink-later products. The departure between INKvestment machines and their EcoTank and MegaTank counterparts is that the former use cheaper-past-the-folio cartridges, instead of refillable tanks inside the printer.

This latest round of EcoTank AIOs comes with slick keyed bottles and reservoirs that preclude dripping and won't let y'all put the wrong ink into the wrong receptacle on the printer. Overall, compared with the first round of EcoTank printers, this latest group is very well-implemented and ready for prime time.

Setting Up and Connecting to the ET-3700

Epson printers are typically frustration-free when unpacking, and this ane is no dissimilar. During my installation, the software institute the ET-3700 on my network right abroad and the showtime exam page slid in to the output tray about 20 minutes after I began opening the box—and that fourth dimension includes a 7-infinitesimal initialization routine while the machine primed the printhead.

To insure testing consistency, we connect printers to our testbed PC via Ethernet (or USB when wired networking is not available). In addition to Ethernet and USB, the Epson ET-3700 also supports Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi Direct. That final one is a peer-to-peer wireless networking protocol for connecting mobile devices to the printer. Also included are a slew of Epson's ain task-specific apps, too as support for several third-political party workflow profiles for printing from and scanning to your mobile devices. Chosen "Epson Connect," Epson's mobile apps are: Email Print, Epson iPrint App (iOS, Android), Epson Print and Browse App, Epson Remote Print, and Epson Browse to Cloud.

Those app names don't actually crave description, nor exercise the third-party support features, which include: Android printing app, Apple AirPrint, Burn OS printing, Google Cloud Print, and Mopria Print Service.

Hurry Up and Wait

Epson rates the ET-3700 at 15 pages per minute (ppm) for monochrome pages and 8ppm for color pages. (I tested information technology over Ethernet from our standard Intel Core i5 testbed PC running Windows 10 Professional.) When press our 12-page Microsoft Word monochrome text document, the ET-3700 churned at exactly 15ppm. That'due south half dozen.7ppm faster per monochrome folio and ii.v cents faster per colour folio than its ET-3600 predecessor.

By comparing, the Canon G4200 printed the same pages about 8ppm slower. The Brother MFC-J775DW ($129.99 at Staples) managed only 10ppm, or ii pages backside Blood brother's rating. It's also important to note that all Catechism MegaTank models were at to the lowest degree seven pages slower than the ET-3700. For the adjacent portion of our benchmarking regimen, I combined the scores from the previous 12-page text certificate with the results from printing a handful of colour graphics- and photo-laden exam documents designed to put the printers we examination through their paces.

On this portion of our tests, the ET-3700 eked out 7.4ppm, hands beating out the Brother MFC-J775DW (4.6ppm), and the Pixma G4200 (3ppm). Although the ET-3700 lacks the generally faster PrecisionCore technology of its sibling, the Epson ET-3750, the two all-in-ones accept the same rated speed. The ET-3750 did examination marginally faster (15.3ppm on the Word document and 7.4ppm overall), but the two printers' scores are shut plenty to be effectively tied.

Finally, the Epson ET-3600 printed our colorful and detailed four-past-half-dozen-inch snapshots in 36 seconds. While I've seen many other consumer-course photo printers churn out snapshot-size photos in 8-to-xxx seconds less, 36 seconds is more than reasonable for press practiced-looking photographs.

Great-Looking Documents

In that location are many printers and AIOs that are by and large ameliorate at specific types of documents than others. The ET-3700'southward output, on the other hand, is well-suited for well-nigh types of family and domicile-based part output. For example, the sample text documents that I printed came out highly legible downwards to nigh 6 or 7 points, which should work well for most demographics interested in this printer.

Our sample full-page Excel graphics and complex PowerPoint handouts came out, while non perfect, quite good. Close inspection revealed a few pocket-size flaws, such as some faint banding in a couple dark backgrounds and fills, but they probably wouldn't be noticeable to most people viewing the content to gain information or to help make a decision. While its slow speeds put some serious limitations on how many photos yous tin can print in the 60 minutes or two earlier your church building, committee, or community watch meeting, the color accuracy and detail won't detract from your message.

I also printed a grouping of circuitous, somewhat difficult-to reproduce iv-by-6-inch and viii-by-10-inch photos. As with the photo output from nearly Epson Inkjet printers, the ET-3700'southward photographs looked good, with accurate colors and respectable item. Five- and half dozen-ink photo printers from both Epson and Canon print some photos ameliorate than the ET-3700, but, once more, most viewers won't observe the difference.

Printing for Pennies

If you actually use the ET-3700 (or some other bulk-ink printer) to its potential—actually printing and copying hundreds of pages every calendar month—it will save you money compared with a traditional ink tank printer. Monochrome pages will run yous about 0.three cents per page and color pages will run y'all only more than 1 cent each, or but less than 1 cent if you buy three of the four ink bottles (cyan, magenta, and yellow) in Epson'southward combo package.

Co-ordinate to Epson, the initial allotment of ink in the box is enough to print 7,500 blackness pages or 6,000 colour pages, and that is what Epson thinks is two years' worth of ink for this printer. That comes out to almost 313 monochrome pages or 250 color pages per month. You lot should plan to print every bit close to these numbers or more per month to get the most out of this AIO. Too, continue in mind that the Canon MegaTank models deliver virtually identical running costs. Brother's MFC-J775DW delivers near ane cent each for blackness pages and just less than 5 cents each for color page.

The bottom fiscal line on this and most other bulk ink printer is, the more you use it, the less it will cost y'all to use (compared with cartridge-based competitors).

The WorkForce Model Makes More than Sense

There's zilch incorrect with the Epson Expression ET-3700 EcoTank All-in-One Supertank Printer, except that you can pick up the Epson WorkForce ET-3750 EcoTank All-in-One Supertank Printer for about $20 more. For that $twenty, you lot gain an automated document feeder and the superior PrecisionCore printhead engineering science. Bated from a slightly lower toll, I tin't discover an upside to choosing the Expression model over the WorkForce model. However, if you're sure that yous won't demand to make multipage copies down the road, the ET-3700 will provide you with excellent output at some of the lowest per-folio running costs in the midrange inkjet printer market. Information technology doesn't have the range of features of the Editors' Choice Brother MFC-J985DW, which sells at a considerably lower price, only it has much lower running costs and slightly better output quality.

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Source: https://sea.pcmag.com/multifunction-printer-reviews/18754/epson-expression-et-3700-ecotank-all-in-one-supertank-printer-review

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