New Color Inkjet Printers from Epson

Epson America Inc. has shipped a new family of color inkjet printers for small workgroups with features previously found only in higher-end products for larger organizations.

Available starting tomorrow, all four SKUs in the new portfolio are powered by Epson’s PrecisionCore print chip, which can generate up to 40 million dots per second, and feature the vendor’s Replaceable Ink Pack System, a technology previously available only in top-of-the-line WorkForce Pro devices that enables users to produce up to 5,000 ISO pages between reloads. Unlike their bigger, more expensive peers, however, the WF-C5000 series features internal versus external ink packs.

“You save a good amount of space,” says Alan Chen, product manager for commercial business inkjet printers at Epson, which is based in Long Beach, Calif. In fact, despite the replacement of ink cartridges with ink packs, WF-C5000 printers are 1.4 inches narrower than the models they replace.

Ink packs for the new series come in 3,000-, 5,000-, and 10,000-page capacities. Users can mix and match across quantities too, combining a 10,000-page black ink pack with 3,000-page color packs, for example, if they don’t print heavily in color.

“It gives you a lot of flexibility and ways that you can manage your consumables, dependent on your print behavior,” Chen says.

The optional second paper tray for the new printers provides up to 830 pages of capacity.

“If you’re going to be able to print longer and not have to replace your ink longer, you should probably not have to replace your paper as long either,” Chen says.

WF-C5000 printers utilize the same Nozzle Verification Technology introduced on Epson’s WorkForce Enterprise Series MFPs to keep print quality consistent between maintenance cycles. They also feature the same user interface as those earlier devices.

“In many environments you’re not going to be using the same printer throughout the office,” Chen notes. “It’s not really a great experience if you have to learn how to use a different printer in a different way.”

The WF-C5000 series includes two multifunction devices, the C5710 and C5790, which replace the earlier C5620 and C5690. The chief difference between the two is that C5790 supports the PCL and PostScript 3 languages, enabling it to integrate with enterprise applications like PaperCut MF.

Both units support copy speeds up to 22 pages per minute, a dramatic improvement over their precursors’ 6 ppm speeds, and feature a 50-page auto document feeder and 4.3-inch touchscreen interface.

The other two devices in the WF-C5000 family, the C5210 and C5290, are both single-function printers with a smaller 2.4-inch LCD interface. They replace Epson’s C5110 and C5190. The new C5290 supports PCL and PostScript 3, while the C5210 doesn’t.

All four models can generate up to 24 black ISO pages per minute, versus 22 in their forerunners, and up to 15 ISO color pages. They also support Ethernet, Wi-Fi, and USB connections.

Common security features across the portfolio include PIN code-based job release and support for both SSL/TLS and IPsec.

Despite the faster speeds and extra features, WF-C5000 series printers come at the same price as the models they supplant. The C5210 and C5290 list at $169 and $249, respectively. The C710 and C5790 list at $249 and $299.

“[We’re] really excited about being able to provide all those upgrades and increased functionality from the previous model at the same price,” Chen says.

According to IDC, inkjet printers account for nearly half of office shipments today, and are rapidly gaining market share. Epson’s business print strategy focuses exclusively on inkjet technology, rather than laser, with a particular focus on color models.

“We’re very much focused on providing customers with affordable color solutions,” Chen says. Epson claims that the WF-C5000 series can save businesses up to 45 percent on total print costs versus comparable laser printers.

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