Many people, myself included, have a small office in their homes. Within these cramped quarters, we must find enough room to stuff everything that we need. It’s just not viable to have a separate printer, fax machine, and flatbed scanner. That’s why small multifunction printers like the Epson WorkForce 600 are so important.
While some other multifunction printers cater to the regular consumer market, the WorkForce 600 (as its name implies) caters more to the small business owner or the person who runs a home-based business. In this way, the feature set is much more robust than a conventional multifunction printer. Thankfully, the price places the Epson WorkForce 600 well into the realm of affordability for most professionals, but do you sacrifice anything in quality to get this better price? Let’s find out.
Overview of Features
The Epson WorkForce 600 is an all-in-one printer that is designed to “show the world what your business is made of.” As a result, it comes with quite the healthy compliment of features.
- 5 in 1 with WiFi: Print / Copy / Scan / Photo / Fax
- Draft speeds up to 38 ppm (black and color)
- Laser quality documents about 2x faster
- Wi-Fi and Ethernet networking built in
- Extra High-capacity Black ink
- 2-year limited warranty with registration
- Smudge, fade, water resistant, highlighter friendly
- Uses up to 3x less power than a laser printer
- Fax and 30-page ADF
- Built-in memory card slots and 2.5-inch LCD
Although hardcore business professionals will likely settle for nothing less than a true color laser printer, the WorkForce 600 is an inkjet printer that offers nearly the same speed and quality at a fraction of the price. For the average small business user, it is more than sufficient.
What’s Inside The Box?
Looking inside the box, you’ll find just about everything that you’ll need to get started with the noted exception of the USB cable. Most printers these days don’t come with USB cables. This is much less of an issue here, because the WorkForce 600 has integrated Wi-Fi. There’s no need for a USB connection at all.
Inside the box, there is the WorkForce 600 itself, four ink cartridges (black, cyan, magenta, yellow), installation CD, documentation, a telephone cord (for fax), CAT-5 Ethernet cable, power cable, and some sample paper. Yes, it even comes with a little bit of paper to get you started.
Getting Ink Done
The installation and setup process was a reasonably straightforward affair. The first part of the equation involved setting up the printer itself. After plugging in the power cable and turning it on, the small 2.5-inch LCD lit up to walk me through the setup process. I set the time and date, and installed the ink cartridges. To access this area, you simply open up the flap below the flatbed scanner. The placement of the ink is very clearly marked.
After this, it was off to the computer to handle that part of the process. I set it up so that the printer is connected to my wireless router via the provided Ethernet cable, but getting the printer to be connected to my network via Wi-Fi is very similar.