Verdict: The Epson WorkForce WF 2760 might be an excellent printer, but many buyers complain about ink cartridge issues. In particular, the printer ‘decides’ when the printer is out of ink, whether it is actually depleted or not. Furthermore, many say that the ink runs out way too soon and there is no way to override the ‘out of ink’ error. Go with another printer- this one is the worst! Since there are so many negative reviews for this relatively outdated printer, we’d recommend checking out the Wirecutter’s top home office printer pick, the HP OfficeJet Pro 9015e.
Pros
- Price
- Great color and photo printing
- ADF and Duplex (double sided) printing
- Easy-to-use touchscreen controls
Cons
- Cartridges don’t offer a huge yield
- Lots of complaints that it runs out of ink way too fast and the ink is prohibitively expensive to replace
- Quite noisy
- This printer is designed for use with Epson cartridges only, not third party cartridges or ink. Cartridges described as Compatible, Remanufactured, refilled or refillable may not work properly or at all. See product description for more details
- Get laser-quality performance - The workforce WF-2760, powered by Precision Core.
- Ultimate wireless solution Plus Ethernet - easy iPad, iPhone, Android tablet and smartphone printing; Includes Wi-Fi Direct for network-free printing and NFC touch-to-print capability.
- Easy setup and navigation - 2. 7" Color touchscreen to easily print, copy, scan and fax
- Reload paper less often - 150-sheet paper capacity
Video Overview
Overview
Aimed primarily at personal and micro office users, the Epson WorkForce WF 2760 is an all-in-one printer with a wide range of connectivity options. The WF 2760 offers a respectable speed and great quality, making it a great option for a modest price. However, the underwhelming paper capacity and cartridge yield make it a little on the pricey side in terms of running costs.
If you are looking for a simple to use, inexpensive all-in-one printer for light use, the WF 2760 is a great option. If your needs are a bit more demanding, however, you might want to consider an alternative.
The Good
The Epson WorkForce WF 2760 measures in at 9.1″ x 16.7″ x 14.2″, making it small enough to fit on a typical desk without dominating workspace, which is in keeping with the micro office/personal use target audience of this printer.
Print Speed
For a printer in this price range, the print speed and quality of the WF 2760 is impressive, and certainly high enough to make it a compelling option despite the areas it falls a little shorter. This speed equates to around eleven pages per minute for text documents, though that drops to five pages per minute for duplex and around three pages per minute for mixed text and images. If you want to print a full A4-page photo, you’ll be looking at a few minutes per page.
While these speeds may seem a little underwhelming at first glance, the WF 2760 is more than twice as fast as many printers in this price bracket. It’s always important to compare a printer to similarly priced printers, as it will never perform well next to a printer that costs twice as much!
Print Quality
Print quality is all too often the area where budget printers like this one fall short, but the WF 2760 happily beats our expectations in that area. In particular, the color and image printing-which is usually the main area where budget printers fall a little flat-is crisp and rich in color, and performs far better than many printers in a comparable price range.
Connectivity
When it comes to connectivity, the Epson WorkForce WF 2760 can rival even many higher-end printers. It can handle both wired and wireless connections, but also many versions of each. For wired, the printer can be connected via USB 2.0 or an Ethernet cable. Wirelessly, it supports 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi standards, as well as Wi-Fi Direct and NFC.
In the case of NFC, the printer allows you to make a direct peer-to-peer connection to a compatible phone simply by touching your phone to the relevant spot on the printer. Printing from a range of mobile applications is supported, including Google Cloud Print, but mostly Epson’s own suite of applications, such as Epson Scan to Cloud, Epson Creative Print, and more.
Individual Cartridges
Rather than a “color” cartridge and a black cartridge-as many printers have-the WF 2760 features four separate cartridges. This reduces waste since you can replace only the cartridge that has run out, rather than having to replace the entire color cartridge because you’re out of one color.
The Bad Section
As you might expect with any budget printer, it is not all good news. Though the printer is small enough to slide nicely into any small or home office arrangement, it is not the most compact all-in-one A4 printer, which may be a reason to think twice if you are working with very limited space.
Running Costs
Perhaps the biggest concern to raise with the Epson WorkForce WF 2760 is the running costs. While the printer is relatively cheap to buy and boasts impressive printing speed, it is not the most cost-effective printer over the longer term.
The running costs per page for the WF 2760 are over twice the running costs of a more expensive printer like the Canon MB2720. This makes the printer considerably less appealing if you are going to be printing a lot and regularly since the money saved on that initial purchase will very soon be eaten up by the costs of replacing ink cartridges.
The higher running costs come from a combination of ink cartridges that don’t offer a particularly high yield before needing replacing, and less efficient use of that ink, which is fairly typical in lower-cost printers.
Duplex Printing
Though the print quality is generally very high, there is a noticeable drop-off in the richness of the print-in particular, the blacks-when printing in duplex mode. This is almost certainly due to the drying times of the ink when printed and giving the ink enough time before pulling the paper back in to print the other side. Epson clearly wanted to focus on the printing times with the WF 2760 and was willing to sacrifice a little quality in duplex mode to keep those times down.
No Thumb Drive Support
Oddly, considering the vast array of connectivity options, there is no support for simply plugging a thumb drive or slotting in a memory card directly into the printer to print from or scan to. Whether this feature is important to you is a decision you will have to make, but it seems an odd oversight for a printer with so many connectivity options.
The Verdict
The Epson WorkForce WF 2760 is an excellent printer for its price bracket. It will never compare favorably to more expensive printers, but that’s okay because there is a market for budget printers like this, and in that market, the WF 2760 performs remarkably well.
This printer is ideal for someone who needs an all-in-one printer but not often, whether it be a small business setting, a home-office setting, or just for personal use. If you are going to be printing a lot, you will probably want to consider a printer with lower running costs.
This printer also suits someone who needs versatility when it comes to connectivity. Often this is the case when you regularly need to print or scan from different devices.
