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.
Doing The Software Dance
After inserting the installation CD into my computer, the configuration wizard immediately popped up to walk me through the process. If you can handle just about any other kind of standard setup wizard, you’ll have no problem with the WorkForce 600. Along with the drivers, the CD also included some extra software: ArcSoft Print Creations and ABBYY FineReader Sprint Plus.
Although the installation process was very easy to understand, I found that it took a little longer than expected. Not including the unboxing process, it took about 30 minutes to get everything up and running on the network. This isn’t an exorbitant length of time, but it is a bit of a process. Getting other computers to access the printer wirelessly takes 10-15 minutes.
Flips, Flaps, and Panels
Perhaps the thing that impressed me the most about the Epson WorkForce 600 was the fact that it came with so many features and the overall design was so professional. Seeing how you can find this printer on sale for about $150 online, you really are getting a lot of bang for your buck.
You’ll notice that it has a lot of flaps and panels. For example, the main control panel can actually tilt outwards, as pictured above, making it a lot easier for you to access the controls from above. This is remarkably useful, as you can imagine, because you don’t have to be at eye level with the printer to access its functions. In like manner, you’ll notice the main exit tray below. This actually consists of three separate sections that slide out from one another. It’s a space saver when you need it to be. The same can be said about the paper tray on the back.
The integrated 2.5-inch color display isn’t huge, but it doesn’t need to be. Navigating through the menu is a piece of cake, thanks to the five-way navigator located just to its right. Next to this is the dial pad for all your faxing needs, entering number of copies, and all that jazz. The user interface is an absolute joy.
All of those flaps may take a little getting used to. For example, the flatbed scanner flips open on top, but there is another layer that flips up to reveal the innards where you install the print cartridges. Furthermore, the top-most cover converts into a document feeder with the flip of another flap. I say this speaks to its versatility, but some may find the design to be a little cumbersome.
More Than Multifunctional
I was very impressed with the huge array of features and functions on the WorkForce 600, and that’s hold sold me on it. In addition to the regular printing, scanning, copying, and faxing, this thing also comes with Wi-Fi connectivity, Ethernet, a 2.5-inch color LCD, a document feeder and a flatbed scanner, a memory card reader, and so much more.
There are even several “secondary” functions that set this unit apart from the competition. For example, while most photo printers allow you to print directly from memory cards (so does this), you can actually back up your SD card data onto a USB drive using the WorkForce 600 too.
Need to scan something, but don’t want to turn on the computer? No problem. The WorkForce 600 can save the scanned image onto a memory card instead. It’s also great that despite its relatively smaller size, this all-in-one is able to offer both a flatbed scanner and a document feeder that will handle up to 30 pages at a time.
Bonus features like these really work in Epson’s favor, especially if someone is deciding between it and a comparable unit from a competitor. This is above and beyond the great price point.
Print Quality and Speed
Should you expect the Epson WorkForce 600 to fire off copies as fast as the $5,000 Xerox copier at your downtown office? No, obviously not. Should you expect the photo printer function to be as crisp and clear as printers that are dedicated to this function? No, probably not.
That’s not to say that this printer disappoints. Dialing it down into draft mode, I was able to print off standard black-and-white documents as fast as I needed them. Even using the default settings, each page of text only took about three seconds. There is naturally a bit of a delay over the Wi-Fi connection, sometimes as long as a minute, but that’s more the fault of the network than anything else.
When I switched over to printing a colorful picture, the Street Fighter IV image depicted above, I was very impressed with the quality. Printing of that full-color full-page image took about 13 seconds. I’d say that’s still pretty quick. This was on plain paper too. The performance on “real” photo paper was even better. The average home office or small business user will be perfectly satisfied with both the quality and speed of this printer.
Final Thoughts and Conclusion
If you are looking for industry-leading print quality or the ability to handle 5000-page documents with the greatest of ease, you’ll need to look elsewhere. The Epson WorkForce 600 was never meant to handle the enterprise or corporate environment, but for the small business owner or the person with a home office, it offers so much for so little money.
The list of features is literally a treasure trove that will keep you smiling for a very long time. It’s unfortunate that the fax feature does not come with a handset, but there is a telephone pass-through if you’d like to attach a phone. The copier feature works fantastically, as does the scanner and the color printer. Given that this costs a mere $150 or so, the Epson WorkForce 600 is easily one of the best values in the all-in-one market.
Pros
- Exceptional value for the price
- Feed and flatbed scanners
- Wi-Fi connectivity is a major plus
- Lots of bonus features and functions
- Very easy to use and setup
Cons
- No support for duplex printing
- Feed scanner can result in bunched paper on exit tray
- Good, but not great print quality
- Plastic materials feel kind of cheap
Overall Rating: 9.0 / 10.0
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