Epson WorkForce 840 Color Ink Jet Wireless All-in-One with Fax (C11CA97201)

Epson has a real winner in this machine. If I listed every feature and praise I have for this machine you would completely miss the few minor issues I found, so I'm going to list them first in case they're important or deal breakers for you, although they're non-issues for me.

CONS:

- The biggest con is with the two paper trays, in that, only tray #1 can take mixed media sizes, while tray #2 is limited to 8.5x11/A4 paper. This in and of itself isn't a problem, but the machine and software really favors tray 1. Some examples: There's a gimmicky, but fun, feature to let you print edge to edge ruled or graph paper straight from the printer's interface... but it only prints from tray #1, so you best not have 4x6 photo paper in there, and you can't have small photo paper in tray #2. Also along the same vain, some reports like network status only print from tray #1. This could be fixed in a future firmware upgrade, especially since the Copy feature from the printer does let you select your paper tray. On the software side... from your computer you can select to either print from tray #1, tray #2, or tray #1 and the #2 if empty. This covers most bases and works for me (I can just print docs from tray #2 and photos from tray #1), but it would be nice if I could say print from tray #2 first and tray #1 if empty. This minor gripe could also be fixed with a future driver update.

- The second con is, that if you want to scan to your computer you have to either 1) Be connected via USB and you can use either the software or the printer interface OR 2) Be connected wirelessly, but you need to use the software interface since the printer can not automatically find your computer on its own. This again is a minor issue for me since the printer is close to the one PC I'd scan from regularly, but if it were far away it could be inconvenient to have to load the scanner at the printer and then trek back to start the scan from the PC and not be able to monitor it's progress.

- The only other con I could find is, the default touch screen beep confirmation is slightly loud, the quieter option is an annoying sound, leaving silent "beep" as my choice... although the default beep is pleasant enough if the noise wasn't an issue.

Okay enough complaining on with the pros...

PROS:

+ This thing is fast... full page photos at a reasonable speed and regular text at near reckless speed.

+ The ink supplies are easy to install and relatively huge so less frequent refills.

+ Each ink color is separate, I always hated having to replace a tri-color cartridge after a big print project with one predominate color.

+ Wireless network setup is a breeze.

+ All the main scan/copy/fax/print features are available wirelessly... older all in ones only supported wireless printing.

+ The touch screen is responsive and only the relevant options appear or light up, making usage a breeze.

+ Huge paper capacity for an inkjet... 250 sheets in each tray, 500 sheets total.

+ Two sided printing and scanning.

+ 30 page auto document feeder that takes legal size sheets.

+ The automatic document feed folds away which keeps dust out of it.

+ No more straight through paper feed like older Epsons.

+ The ink is dry as soon as it comes out. Even when I printed a really color saturated photo where it was dark it felt slightly damp, but didn't smudge or transfer to my fingers.

+ Direct wireless printing from an iPhone (or similar) device using the Epson iPrint App. The WorkForce 840 wasn't listed in the App description in the app store, but it showed up instantly as such when I launched the app. Oh but this is another time when the paper trays could be an issue... it only prints from tray 1.

+ Almost every utility has easy or advanced modes so if you just want to scan or print you don't need to know all the technical aspects of it, but if you do know exactly what you want you can get to it fairly easily.

+ Need ruled or graph paper... no problem, just select from the printer's menu and viola, instant paper.

+ All varieties of memory card and direct print options.

I really could go on, it's a beautiful machine and would work well in an office or a busy home. One other thing to note is that the Epson WorkForce line of printers unlike the Epson Artisan line (like the Artisan 835 for example) doesn't have CD/DVD printing and it uses 4 colors of ink rather than 6 (this means less consumables to buy and keep track of in exchange for wider color range, but it really isn't noticeable for most business use). And on the other hand, the Artisan 835 doesn't have as much speed or capacity (in terms of paper storage, trays, ink, and more). So if you need the direct disk printing then you pretty much have to go with the Artisan, but for everything else I'd stick with this model.

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