Epson WorkForce WF-7010

If you're hunting for a single-function printer that can handle tabloid-size paper (11 by 17 inches) and larger and is also affordable enough for a micro, small, or even home office, put the Epson WorkForce WF-7010 ($199.99 direct) on your must-see list. It's faster than its closest competition, offers better paper handling, and delivers output quality that's more than good enough for most business needs. The combination not only makes the printer worth considering, it earns it Editors' Choice.

The WF-7010 is one of just a few inexpensive single-function printers today that can handle paper larger than letter and legal size. Its direct competition at this writing is pretty much limited to the Canon Pixma iX6520 Inkjet Business Printer ($199.99 direct, 3.5 stars) and the HP Officejet 7000 Wide Format Printer ($229.99 direct, 4 stars), but neither of those printers offers anything close to the WF-7010's paper handling or speed.

Paper handling in particular is a strong point. The WF-7010 is the only one of these printers that offers two paper trays. That lets you keep letter-size paper in one tray, up to 13-by-19-inch paper in the other, and use the printer for all of your printing, easily switching back and forth between paper sizes without having to swap out paper in the tray.

Beyond that, the WF-7010 holds 250 sheets in each tray, for a total of 500 sheets, and includes a duplexer (for two-sided printing). This is easily enough paper handling capability for most micro and small offices, but as a bonus, Epson says the printer can also handle paper as large as 13 by 44 inches. According to Epson, you can load large paper using the 13-by-19-inch drawer, although most of the sheet will be hanging out from the front of the tray.

Setup and Speed
As with any large printer, the biggest issue for setup is finding a spot for the printer, which is 10.4 by 22.0 by 16.3 inches (HWD) with the trays closed, and 27 inches deep with the output tray fully open. Once in place, however, setup is standard. For my tests, I connected it to a network, and installed the drivers on a system running Windows Vista.

The printer's speed counts as another plus. I timed it on our business applications suite (using QualityLogic's hardware and software for timing) at an effective 4.0 pages per minute (ppm). That makes it significantly faster than both the Canon iX6520, at 2.9 ppm, and the HP Officejet 7000 at 3.1 ppm. It also did reasonably well on photo speed, averaging 1 minute 13 seconds for a 4 by 6, compared with 55 seconds for the Canon printer and 1:31 for the HP model.

Output Quality
Output quality for the WF-7010 is essentially par across the board. That makes the text more than good enough for almost any business use, although well short of what you'd want for serious desktop publishing. Graphics output was similarly good enough for any business use, including PowerPoint handouts, for example. Depending on your level of perfectionism, you may consider it good enough for output going to an important clients or customer when you want to convey a sense of professionalism.

For photos, Epson recommended using a matte presentation paper, which it lists on its Web site as a photo paper, and which Epson says is typical of the kind of paper most businesses use for printing photos on the WF-7010. Almost all of the photos qualified as true photo quality, and all were suitable for printing photos as part of a business presentation or the like.

In any case, the output quality overall is easily good enough for most purposes, while the combination of output quality, fast speed, paper capacity, a duplexer, and two trays add up to a compelling argument for the printer. The two trays in particular make the Epson WorkForce WF-7010 the only printer among its direct competitors that's suitable for use as your only printer, letting you switch easily between paper sizes as needed. All these strengths taken together put it way out in front of the field as the clear pick for Editors' Choice.

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