Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I've been an Epson user since the 90s, and still use an ancient Epson CD/DVD printer from time to time. My main printing switched to laser printers long ago. My color laser died several years back, and I've been living with black and white laser printing or the occasional color inkjet print on my old Epson. I was intrigued by this printers claim to be "laser-sharp" and cheaper than a color laser printer. Inkjet printer ink is one of the most expensive substances on the planet, after all! At least, it used to be. Sub-$100 printers usually cost you much more than that just to replace the ink! (The old razor plan - give away the handle, sell the blades.) This is my first experience with a WorkForce Pro printer. Out of the box, it was clear this wasn't like my old Epson consumer photo printers. It has a large, square form factor like most office printers. There's a flatbed scanner, or a paper feed scanner that can do two-sided scanning. There are TWO paper trays (more on this in a moment) plus a manual paper feed (convenient for passing through envelopes). The small color LDC display is also a touch screen, so all operations beyond the physical power button require the screen. (I just had a problem with a previous printer where the screen was dead, rendering it useless.) I use Macs and iOS devices, and these days I do about 95% of everything on an iPad. This review will be from that perspective. Normally I'd say that unpacking takes longer than setup, due to all the tape. In this case, that's not true. After I opened the box, and spent many minutes removing pieces of tape that held things together during shipping, I plugged it up and powered it on. From power on to first print (including time to connect to network and do a firmware update) was about HALF AN HOUR. If I skipped the firmware update, I could have cut that in half. Setup time is length, but simple. Power up, set the date and time on the touch screen, and get to a screen where it prompts you to insert the four included "starter" ink cartridges. I don't know why printer companies do that. It always makes me think the printer is crap because of how little ink they give. At least it was enough to handle two weeks of test prints on half a ream of paper. Next I connected it to my WiFi network. Oddly, instead of just showing one access point like my phones and computers do, it showed three (I have three WiFi repeaters). I wasn't sure which one would be best to use, so I just picked one. After connected to WiFi, it alerted me about registering with Epson (you can delay), setting up FAX capability (this is a feature I would never use since I haven't had a home phone line in a decade), and updating firmware. The menu navigation is pretty simple, and the printer makes feedback noises when you press buttons. It's much slicker than any of my ancient Epsons. Once configured and updated, I was able to load my resume in Apple Pages on my iPad and Print. The Epson WD-3730 showed up automatically. It printed BLAZING fast. I've never had an ink jet this fast. It does two-sided printing two, but due to the compact size, it shoots paper out, then pulls it back in to get to the other side. The much larger business printers in offices I have worked at do this all internally. I wonder if this might also be less prone to paper jams -- seems the big office printers used to do that weekly. Speed and print quality was good, but since I no longer have a color laser to compare with, I can't say if it is "Beyond Laser." I tested the COPY mode, and fed a sample sheet that came with the printer (with a color photo of the printer on it) through the machine. The copy was very fast, and while not 100% accurate, still looked good. The printer also has the option to scan to e-mail, or a USB device. It can also print files from a USB stick (there's a port on the front, under a flap). There are many features here I will never use, though the scan to e-mail may come in handy since I have had enough bad experiences with Epson Mac software that I do not plan to install it. I like that this printer is compact, and that is has simple scan and copy functions. I could do that with my old Epson, but it only had a flatbed scanner, and required a computer connected and ON to do the scanning via the Epson software. This printer is far more autonomous, and mine will NEVER be connected to a printer (which is good; it does not even come with a USB printer cable). The specs claim 4800x2400 dpi, and I remember days when 300 dpi was considered "laser quality." I would be surprised if consumer inkjet printer paper could really do that resolution. One drawback with inkjet for me has always been water. I would print mailing labels or UPS labels, and if they got wet, the barcodes and writing would smear. I was curious if this had improved. I took a test page and dropped water on it. It bled a bit, but did not do the horrible smearing that older inkjet used to. I'll still use my laser printer for anything that might come in contact with water, but I was happy with the ink's robustness against water. Other than the long setup time (fine, you only do it once), the only complaint I have was with paper tray handling. When I first installed paper, I put it in Tray 2 (bottom tray). You can configure what kind of paper is in each tray (I am using HP Color Ink Jet Paper, so I set "color" paper for Tray 2). When I first went to print, it tried to print to Tray 1 and gave me an error. I couldn't figure out how to select the paper tray from my iPad, so I moved paper from Tray 2 to Tray 1 and printer again. Then it gave me an error saying there was no paper in Tray 2! After trying to figure out how to say "no paper installed" (why does the printer even try to print? it knows what is there, and even what type of paper, through settings!), I switched paper AGAIN and then was able to print find. No clue. That part was frustrating. Maybe a firmware update can address this, since clearly unless you specify a tray, it should be able to print to whatever tray has paper (especially if both say the same paper type). There is a laundry list of other features this printer has, but I won't be using them so I am not testing them for this review. I am more than impressed with this printer, but the real test will be longevity and ink cost. I used my color laser for years and maybe replaced toner once or twice. These tiny ink cartridges will probably need to be replaced much more often, and while they may be cheaper, many folks may still prefer getting many more pages out of a huge laser toner. We shall see. If I run into big issues down the road, I'll revise this review.