Epson EcoTank Photo ET-8550

The Epson EcoTank Photo ET-8550 is a printer that produces high-quality prints with vibrant colors and smooth tonal transitions. It has a maximum print resolution of 5,760 x 1,400 dpi with 180 nozzles per color and 360 black nozzles, resulting in finely detailed pictures.

The printer is particularly good at producing sharp and detailed pictures on glossy photo paper. While it tends to oversaturate colors, the photos are still visually pleasing. The improved greyscale can make arty prints look professional, especially when blown up onto A3 paper. The printer fared a bit less well with extreme colors like bright green or dark purple, but real-world images still looked great.

While it doesn't quite match the print quality of some high-end printers, the difference is minimal and most people would struggle to pick prints from each printer apart from a normal viewing distance. Overall, the Epson EcoTank Photo ET-8550 is an excellent choice for photo printing and produces very detailed pictures with reasonably accurate colors.

It is ideal for photographers, artists, and anyone who wants to produce high-quality prints at home.

The Epson EcoTank Photo ET-8550 has a maximum printing speed of 16 pages per minute (ppm) for black and white documents and 12 pages per minute (ppm) for color documents. However, the actual printing speed may vary depending on the complexity of the document being printed and the quality settings chosen.

When printing high-quality images or photos, the printer may take around 36 seconds to print a 4" x 6" photo on glossy paper from the moment you initiate the print job. The printer is optimized for photo printing, making it a good choice for photographers or individuals who frequently print high-quality images.

The Epson EcoTank Photo ET-8550 printer offers a variety of connectivity options, including Wi-Fi, USB, Ethernet, and Wi-Fi Direct. It also supports printing directly from an SD card or USB thumb drive, as well as Epson Connect, which allows you to print from your smartphone or tablet. The printer is compatible with Epson's Smart Panel mobile app, which lets you use your smartphone to perform maintenance tasks, print, scan, copy, access how-to videos and the user guide, as well as create a QR code to let guests connect to the printer.

The ET-8550 is ideal for users who need a versatile printer that can connect to multiple devices and networks, and who want the convenience of mobile printing and maintenance.

The Epson EcoTank Photo ET-8550 is a versatile printer that can handle a wide variety of paper sizes and types. It can print up to 13" x 19" paper size, which is also known as A3+ size, as well as 11" x 14", A3, and A4 paper sizes. The input paper capacity varies depending on the type of paper and the tray being used, with front tray 1 holding up to 20 sheets of photo paper, front tray 2 holding up to 100 sheets of plain Letter/A4 paper, and the rear tray holding up to 50 sheets of plain paper or 5 sheets of photo paper A3+.

The rear straight pass can hold one sheet of paper at a time. The printer also has automatic duplex printing capabilities and can handle a wide variety of media, including cardstock and glossy paper. While it can handle 1.3mm thick card via the rear tray, it may get stuck.

The Epson EcoTank Photo ET-8550 printer is highly efficient in terms of ink usage, with a large ink tank system that can hold enough ink to print up to 4,000 photos without needing a refill. The printer uses six ink tanks, including a pigment-based black ink for crisp text and five dye-based inks for photo output.

The ink included with the printer can last for about 2,300 4x6 prints, and Epson claims it should last for about two years. The printer's running costs are low, with both monochrome and color pages printing for under 1 cent each, and photo printing costing around 4 cents per 6x4-inch print. The ink tanks can be refilled with bottled ink, which is cheaper than cartridges and reduces maintenance.

The Epson EcoTank Photo ET-8550 is a versatile 3-in-1 device that can print, copy, and scan up to legal size paper. It has a flatbed scanner with extendable hinges to accommodate thick items like textbooks, but it lacks an automatic document feeder (ADF) and fax functionality. This makes it ideal for home or small office use where scanning and copying needs are limited to shorter documents or single pages.

The device can enlarge photocopies from A4 to A3 and can auto duplex with A4 paper, making it suitable for printing and copying documents with multiple pages. However, for users who require faxing capabilities or need to scan longer, multi-page documents, this device may not be the best fit. Overall, the Epson EcoTank Photo ET-8550 is a reliable and efficient all-in-one printer that offers high-quality photo printing and versatile scanning and copying capabilities.