As much as we’d like to move toward a completely digital lifestyle, physical paper still serves a very important role in our daily lives and this is particularly true when it comes to running a business. While the EPSON WorkForce Pro WP-4590 probably isn’t suitable for a high-volume office in a downtown high-rise, it does appear to be a suitable multi-function solution for much smaller offices or home offices. But how does it stand up against daily use and abuse? What can we expect in terms of usability and bonus features? And what about print speed and quality? Let’s dive straight into these questions and more with today’s review.
Feature Overview
Let’s get one thing clear. The WorkForce Pro WP-4590 multifunction printer is “engineered for business.” It can be perfectly useful to a typical multi-computer home, but it was designed for people who need business-level quality, reliability and speed. Not surprisingly, this EPSON takes on the rather typical “beige box” look, which unlike the dramatically different Lexmark Genesis S815 and others like it. After all, this isn’t about looks; it’s about functionality.
The WP-4590 is a multifunction colour printer with PCL. In addition to the printer, you’ll find both a feed and flatbed scanner, including support for full duplexing. Tack on the printing and you’ve got yourself a colour copier. Finally, there is a phone line connection in the back to provide you with fax functionality. The copy and fax can operate independently of a computer, but the printing will need either a USB connection or a network connection. You can scan to a USB device or to a connected computer.
Key features include ISO print speeds of up to 16ppm black and 11 ppm in colour, mobile printing capabilities via EPSON Connect, support for Apple AirPrint and Google Cloud Print, 30-page duplex ADF, and a maximum print resolution of 4800 x 1200 optimized dpi. The main paper tray has a capacity of 250 sheets, plus an additional 80 sheets through the rear feed tray.
Epson is quick to point out that this WorkForce Pro is Energy Star qualified and RoHS compliant. By going with the inkjet route, for instance, Epson says that this uses up to 70% less power than an equivalent laser printer. The automatic two-sided printing option can save you up to 50% on paper costs too. All of these features are available for an MSRP of around $499 USD at most major retailers.
Replacement cartridges are also a factor to consider. Black cartridges come in two sizes: XL ($38.49 US) and XXL ($52.99 US). The color cartridges also give you two sizes and range in price from $24.49 – $58.99 US.
Typically, users will run out of black before the color cartridges, so this does give some reprieve to the long term costs. In the past, you’d only have one size of cartridge as a choice to get your machine running again. With the option to buy less expensive, smaller versions of needed supplies, the different sizes can even be mixed so if you buy an XL, it can sit with the XXL cartridges, allowing you to better control supply costs.
What’s In the Box?
Much like the beige multifunction printer it contains, the brown cardboard box for the WP-4590 isn’t the most exciting thing in the world. The contents of said box are also right in line with what you’d expect. There are the four DuraBrite Ultra ink cartridges (black, cyan, magenta, and yellow), which should provide you with enough ink for about 1,000 black and 900 colour pages. Aside from that, you get the instruction booklets, driver CD-ROM and power cord. There is no USB or Ethernet cable included, so you will need to provide those on your own.
Getting It All Setup
After taking everything out of the box, it was time to get the WP-4590 up and running. I plugged in the power and followed the instructions. There are four inkjet cartridges, as mentioned earlier. The translucent white cartridges are almost a little deceiving, because they don’t look like they contain any ink. In any case, you give them a little shake and then they easily “click” into each of their corresponding spots behind the front cover.
Along with the setup process, I also had to set the language, the date and the time. In terms of getting it all set up with the computer, the process was similar to what I had with the Epson WorkForce 600 some time back, but the software appears to be much more streamlined this time around. I went with the “typical” installation settings and let the wizard work its magic. This installs not only the drivers, but also the Epson software for scanning and such.
While this MFP is network capable, I opted for a straight USB 2.0 connection. It is quite unfortunate that it does not have any built-in wireless capabilities, however, limiting your options in terms of where to put it. My router isn’t in the same room as my computer, so that just won’t do.
Menus and User Interface
There are several competing products on the market that have made the leap to touchscreens. We see a 7-inch touchscreen display on the Samsung SCX-5935FN, for example. The 2.5-inch display of the WP-4590 not only feel comparatively smaller, the lack of touchscreen capabilities makes it feel somewhat dated.
Even so, everything is laid out in a reasonably simple and understand manner. There are three grey buttons for three main functions–copy, scan and fax–and a standard five-way navigator to the right of the display. You also get a numeric keypad, dedicated buttons for your choice of color copy or black and white copy, as well as buttons for menu, setup, help, stop, redial, and so forth. It’s definitely button-heavy, but that’s in line with the business-minded focus.
There are some strange quirks in there, though. For instance, if you get into the setup menu, you can’t hit back, setup, or stop/reset to get back out of it. Coming from an increasingly smartphone and tablet-minded customer base, this just doesn’t make sense. You get out by pressing the copy, scan or fax buttons. It’s a minor quibble, but it can be an irritating one.
Scanner and Copier
A scanned image or document can either be saved to a USB device or it can be sent to a connected computer. Opting for the latter, you have the choice of an image, a PDF, or an email message. With the copier function, you get duplexing choices, quality settings, density settings, collating options, reduction and enlargement, and so on. This is all par for the course.
But how fast can it do this and how is the quality? When I used the automatic document feeder at the top for a single black and white copy of a single sheet of printed text, the total time from the moment I pressed the button to when I had the copy in my hand was 19 seconds. Much of this was the “startup” time that it took before the WP-4590 even started feeding the source document.
As far as copy quality, I used the flatbed scanner for an 8×10 photo that I took. The resulting color copy was usable, but it was far from ideal. Granted, I used plain paper, but the colors were dramatically muted, lacking in saturation. The contrast appeared to be dialed up too. As a result, a fair bit of detail was lost in the shadows. I also found that what appeared more as a greyish-purple (a t-shirt) in the original came out as flat grey in the copy.
Standard Print Speed
To test the regular printing speed of a black and white text document sent from the PC to the printer, I sent a job with 10 pages of regular text. I opted for the normal level of quality and requested two-sided printing (5 sheets of paper). Not all the pages were completely filled with text, representing what you might get from a business document or e-book.
Under these circumstances, the time it took from when I clicked print to when I had the completed project in hand was 73 seconds. This meant that each side of printing averaged about 7.3 seconds, working out to just a little over 8ppm. Epson officially rated the printer at 9.2 ISO ppm in black for two-sided printing, so that’s not that far off. Indeed, it took about 14 seconds before any actual printing began.
Not surprisingly, the perceived quality of a black and white document was above that of the color photo print described earlier. That said, the text still didn’t appear to have the same level of “crispness” that you’d get from an equivalent laser printer. It’s still perfectly adequate and will do the job, but it may not satisfy the perfectionist.
Closing Thoughts
No, the Epson WorkForce Pro WP-4590 certainly doesn’t have the flashy design that you get with something like the Samsung SCX-4500. It’s a rather generic beige box that simply gets the job done and I think that really was the only goal that Epson was trying to achieve with this product.
Even though it is “just” an inkjet multifunction printer, the WP-4590 is able to compete against entry-level multifunction lasers, especially since a color laser can cost you considerably more money with similar features. The print speed is perfectly adequate and the built-in networking is a plus. I would have liked better print quality for pictures and the lack of Wi-Fi is a real shame. I also found it be comparatively bulky and heavy next to smaller inkjet MFPs.
Unlike many other inkjets though, the ink doesn’t appear to smear nearly as easily, drying a fair bit more quickly. It’s also nice to see relatively low operating costs, somewhat assisted by the ability to purchase different sized cartridges to save money on seldom used colors. Based on Epson’s numbers, a single black and white page is only going to cost you about 1.6 cents, whereas a color page is a mere 6.8 cents. It also supports PCL and PostScript, as well as mobile printing, in case any of those interest you.
All said, you get a reasonably affordable MFP hardware that will be a good fit for many small offices for about $499 US MSRP. Supplies seem affordable as well with black cartridges ranging from $38.49 US (XL) to $52.99 US for the XXL. Color cartridges also come in two sizes from $24.49 – $58.99 US and allow you to replace seldom used ones at a lower cost.
Pros
- Full duplex scanning and printing support
- Low running costs
- Easy to setup and configure
- Relatively fast drying pages
Cons
- No Wi-Fi
- Disappointing color photo output
- Relatively large and bulky
- Not the cheapest inkjet MFP out there
Overall Rating: 7.0 / 10.0
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