Color printing, particularly on A4 paper, has traditionally been a quick way to deplete your ink budget. However, the Epson EcoTank L3210, free of cartridges, offers full-color prints with an impressive 90% cost reduction.
This compact inkjet printer, designed for scanning and printing, is perfect for small offices due to its low-profile design.
Despite its minimalist design, which lacks a paper drawer, Wi-Fi support, a touchscreen display, and an auto-duplex mode, it’s a must-consider for any office or home worker in need of high-quality color printouts.
Design and Build
For an A4 office/home printer, the Epson EcoTank L3210 looks quite stylish in its black and grey livery. Unlike most traditional printers that came with cartridges, the Epson EcoTank L3210 features four ultra-high-capacity ink tanks instead of cartridges. This allows for mess-free refills and extremely low printing costs.
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And to keep things sleek and minimal, there’s no paper drawer at the front, just the rear paper in-tray, no USB host port, no Ethernet port, and no LCD dispay.
This is a simple print-and-scan device, so there’s no real need for a touchscreen interface. Instead, there are just four buttons on the front panel, which include the power button and light, the B&W copy button, the color copy button, and the stop button.
There’s also one port at the rear for a USB data cable (the USB data cable is not included in the box). By stripping back to the bare essentials, you’re left with a low and lightweight printer with a flat top that’s ideal for inspecting your printed documents.
Epson EcoTank L3210: Features and Specifications
The main attraction of the Epson EcoTank L3210 is its use of ultra-high-capacity ink tanks instead of cartridges. Swapping cartridges for bottled ink makes a saving of 90% and ensures this Epson will trounce any inkjet or laser when it comes to cost per color page.
You also get plenty of inbox ink, with Epson quoting up to 3 years of ink in the box. There are two bottles of BK and one each of CMY, yielding a total of 4,500 pages for black-and-white prints and 7,500 pages for color prints.
That’s significantly higher than the yield of traditional cartridge printers, making it a budget-friendly option for frequent printing.
Here’s a breakdown of the ink bottle yield for the Epson EcoTank L3210:
- Black ink bottle: Up to 4,500 pages
- Cyan ink bottle: Up to 7,500 pages
- Magenta ink bottle: Up to 7,500 pages
- Yellow ink bottle: Up to 7,500 pages
This being the first installation, some of that ink is needed to prime the pipes between the tanks and the printheads, so those numbers may increase, but that’s still a lot of printing before you have to refill. It’s this high capacity for ink that makes this one of the best printers for a small office setup.
The Epson L3210 also has a rear tray that can hold 100 sheets of paper. However, there’s no LCD, Wi-Fi connectivity, NFC, front USB or Ethernet ports, or front paper tray.
The L3210 also doesn’t support auto duplex, meaning you have to turn the paper over yourself to print the other side.
However, I do appreciate this printer’s focus on quality, high-volume printing. With 180 black nozzles and 59 colors, tiny dye ink droplets are used to make up images with a resolution of 5760 x 1440. That’s sharp enough for a good photo.
Epson EcoTank L3210: Setup and Operation
Setting up the Epson L3210 is fairly straightforward. You’ll need to connect the printer to your laptop using a USB cable (you’ll have to buy one since one is not included in the box). After connecting, you have two options to install the required software.
You can go to Epson’s support page for the L3210, select your operating system, and download the Drivers and Utilities Combo Package installer file.
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Or you can use the Driver and Utilities CD included in the box. Just pop in the CD and follow the prompts to install all the necessary drivers and software.
I used the CD with my Windows laptop for initial setup, but either the CD or downloading the combo package will work.
The process should be similar for Mac setup as well. The lack of a touchscreen display, which has become a common feature among office printers, didn’t make the L3210 any harder to operate.
However, the lack of a front paper tray proved more inconvenient because it meant I couldn’t load up a stack of fresh paper and forget about it. The exposed rear tray isn’t a great place to store paper, and it can only hold up to 100 sheets.
Epson EcoTank L3210: Performance
The Epson L3210 boasts a print speed of 10 pages per minute (ppm) for black-and-white and 5 ppm for color, according to the official specifications. The site also cites a single-sided scan speed of 11 seconds for black and 32 seconds for color.
However, my speed tests suggest a slightly slower speed, closer to 8 ppm for black and white. While this printer may not be the fastest, its photo printing capability on coated paper, albeit time-consuming, delivers high-quality images that are worth the wait.
Regrettably, Epson’s official specifications for the EcoTank L3210 do not include the printing speed in draft mode. Typically, draft mode prioritizes speed over print quality, suggesting it could be faster than the standard printing speed of 10.0 ipm for black and white and 5.0 ipm for color.
Draft mode, also known as “Eco-mode” in some printers, reduces the quality and saturation of a print job. It’s ideal for creating test versions of documents before printing the final copy, and it can also reduce the amount of toner or ink used.
Some printers even produce satisfactory results in draft mode for regular use.
The Epson EcoTank L3210 produces acceptable black text on plain white paper. The black dye-based ink tends to soak into the paper, resulting in softer edges compared to pigment-based black. While the printer is adequate for producing monochrome documents in simplex mode, this isn’t its forte.
The Epson EcoTank L3210 truly shines when printing color documents and photographs. Thanks to its use of Micro Piezo technology, known for producing high-quality prints with sharp and vibrant colors, and a maximum print resolution of 5760 x 1440 dpi, it can produce detailed and crisp photos.
The EcoTank L3210’s individual ink tanks allow for more precise control of the ink used, leading to more accurate color reproduction.
Epson EcoTank L3210: Final Verdict
For around Ksh 27,000, the Epson EcoTank L3210 has several appealing features. First, its compact footprint allows it to fit into small spaces, yet it can still handle large-format paper. Additionally, the EcoTank design means ink costs are quite low.
The printer also produces excellent-quality color photos. However, one downside is that the dye-based black ink does not create the crisp, sharp text that you get from pigment black inks.
While lacking certain convenience features, the L3210 offers tremendous value. A display screen, front USB port, and Ethernet port would be nice to have, but are not essential.
The lack of a front-loading paper tray and Wi-Fi connectivity creates more inconvenience when refilling paper or switching media. The single 100-sheet rear tray requires frequent refills.
Also, the absence of auto duplex printing is likely a cost-saving measure by Epson, but it is a desirable feature to have.
For those wanting Wi-Fi and similar capabilities as the L3210, I would recommend looking at the EcoTank L3250. It includes wireless connectivity and otherwise offers the same excellent performance and affordability of the L3210.
The L3250 provides an excellent alternative in this price range for those needing Wi-Fi support.
The Review
Epson EcoTank L3210
For around Ksh 27,000, the Epson EcoTank L3210 has several appealing features. First, its compact footprint allows it to fit into small spaces, yet it can still handle large-format paper. Additionally, the EcoTank design means ink costs are quite low.
PROS
- Cartridges free design
- Small footprint
- Image quality is quite good for the price
CONS
- Lack of an included USB cable
- No Wi-Fi support
- Absence of auto duplex
- One paper tray
