PRINTERS
76 DECEMBER 2019|COMPUTER SHOPPER|ISSUE 382
EPSON’SECOTANKINKJETprinters ditch
cartridges infavour of refillable ink tanks,
reducing hassle and plastic wastewhile
dramatically cutting running costs. Until
recently the range included only home
devices, but the ET-M2140 is oneof three
models introduced earlier this year that
target small businesses and homeoffices.
Mono only,it’s readyto pick afight with
entry-level mono laser MFPs, while the
ET-M1100 (USB-only) and ET-M1120 (USB
and Wi-Fi) are gunningforsingle-function
mono laser printers.
At this price you might expectafew
bells and whistles, but the ET-M2140 is
surprisingly basic. There’sa250-sheet paper
input tray, and it can duplex-print on both
sides of apage,but there’s no automatic
documentfeeder,som ultipage copies can
be apain. There’s nofaxmodem or network
connection, just USB, and there’s no port
at the frontforwalk-up prints or scans.
The basic control panel comprisesacolour
screen and clickymembrane buttons. This is
smart and uncluttered, but at first the
menu functions take some
second guessing.
GOTTHE BOTTLE
Even allowingforthe initial
10-minutepriming, Epson
says the supplied ink will
last around 11,000 pages;
you’d be luckytog et 2,000
in the box with an equivalent
laser.Replacement ink
bottles are ratedfor6,000
pages and cost just £12,
so ongoing costs are a
paltry 0.2p per page,which
is roughlyaquarter of
what we’d expect from
the best mono lasers,
and more than 15 times
cheaper than the worst.
The ET-M2140 is an
adequatescanner,capturing
an A4 page in 11 seconds at
150dpi, or 26 seconds at
300dpi. It reached 20ppm
when printing our 25-page
text test, and 15.2ppm with
complex greyscale graphics
–more thanamatch for
cheap mono lasers. Its
duplex speedof 7.5ipm isn’t
EPSON EcoTank
ET-M2140
★★★★★
£310•From http://www.printerbase.co. uk
VERDICT
Epsonhasbuiltaninkjetto beatcheap
mono laserMFPs,butit’slackingsome
keyfeatures
stellar ,but it’s goodto have thefeature
regardless. Unfortunately,wef ound it tricky
to retrieve printed pages from this MFP’s
back-to-front output tray.
Other than blacktext, mono laser printers
don’t usually setahigh bar forprint quality.
The ET-M2140 arguably produced better
graphics and photos; certainly theywere
free of banding and other artefacts.
Black text is crisp right downto tiny
font sizes, but most laser printers would win
here.Scans and photocopies are more than
good enoughforoffice work.
FAMILYFEUD
All in all, the EcoTank ET-M2140 genuinely
competes with cheap mono laser printersfor
speed and quality,and it trounces any laser
when it comesto running
costs. Many might blanch at
its huge premiumover true
competitors such as HP’s
LaserJet Pro M28w,but if
you bought that particular
MFP and spent the change
from Epson’s asking price on
toner,you’d still run out at
around 10,000 pages. The
ET-M2140, remember,has
the capacityfor11,000
already in the box.
However,wes till think
the ET-M2140 istoobasic to
be atruly great professional
printer .For this, it really
needs anetwork interface,
an automatic document
feeder,and ideallyafax
modemtoo; all three can be
found in the EcoTank
ET-M3180, which also
launched earlier in 2019.
This is more expensive,by
£96, but is worth the
additional expense thanks
to its productivity-minded
features, and it’s still about
as fast and cheapto run as
the ET-M2140.
⬆Even withastraightforward interface,the EcoTank ET-M2140 would blast through copies
much quicker if it had an ADF
