Over the past few weeks, we had the chance to use the Epson EcoTank L6460 as our office-slash-home printer, which replaced our basic laser Black and White printer. While the laser printer does get the job done, the amount of times I rushed out to get colour prints done is still higher – and colour laser printer is expensive – by a lot – so, how does this Epson EcoTank L6460 fare – which is what we are going to talk about in this experiential review.

Epson EcoTank L6460 Review

Fundamentally, a printer does what it says—to print, and in a multifunctional printer like this one from Epson, you can print, scan, and copy. That aside, there are some nifty features that I liked about the Epson EcoTank L6460—and let us address all of that.

For Starters, Cable Free Connectivity

Wireless printers are the best. The clutter-free setup—there is no reason to use a cable to connect to a primary PC, and anyone can use it, as long as they are on the same network as the printer—makes life easier. Despite the “bloatware” Epson tends to load up along with the Printer driver, which can be uninstalled, of course, the entire setup process is a breeze.

Download the driver, it shows how you’d like to set up the printer (Wired, Wireless) and just choose the latter and it gets all up and running.

The reason why you’d need a cable-free connectivity is – in Small offices, and that’s the business this printer is aimed towards, there may be multiple devices due to multiple employees. And at some point everyone has to use the printer, so, rather than hogging the cable, sending the print wirelessly, makes life easier and clutter-free. But if your WiFi is down for some reason, well, the cable connectivity is still available, which you can use as a backup.

The EcoTank System is Interesting

While this is not the first EcoTank printer Epson has made, it certainly isn’t the last – but generation after generation, Epson sure has improved the formulation of the ink, and the entire system in making sure that the printing experience isn’t affected in any way possible. Cartridges increase the cost by a lot, whereas Epson’s EcoTank Ink bottle costs the same, but you get more prints per page, that is, of course, depending on what you print as well.

The ink Epson uses here is the DURABrite ET Ink, which claims to deliver a durable, water-resistant and extra-sharp print. And guess what, it does work. As someone who plays Magic: the Gathering, and yes, the Trading Card Game, it can get very expensive very fast to purchase those cards. So, instead of purchasing, we proxied some of the cards made by different artists and printed them (Disclaimer: we only proxied cards we own).

We purchased 230 gsm paper for this, as we needed a slightly thicker card stock to make it feel close to the real deal, but enough to differentiate that it’s not the real one. After printing it and cutting it down to the right dimensions, I must say – these are some really good prints.

Now, you are not going to get the type of print quality you get from Epson’s photo printers, which is a dedicated photo printer, with more colour inks to get accurate colours on paper. But for what it’s worth, the CYMK colour choice with this EcoTank L6460 still covers a decent ground for you to get close to accurate colours. This office printer even supports 4800 dpi high-resolution output.

After printing, we purposely poured water all over the paper to see if the ink separated from the paper, and I am happy to tell you – it didn’t, and that water-resistant claim is the real deal.

While this test is a little too extreme, if you do print colour or black-and-white documents on 70-80 gsm paper, which is your everyday paper – as long as you dry the paper that got wet by accident, you will notice the ink retained in the paper very well and this is a huge win in my books.

Speaking of Papers and Printing

The Epson EcoTank L6460 takes up so little space to do everything – on the front, it has a paper tray to load up, and the print comes up. Secondly, for those who need auto-duplex printing, this printer gets that done too. If you do use thicker card stocks or photo paper, glossy or matte, the printer will suggest you use the other feeder to make sure it can print efficiently.

One of the things you have experienced with traditional printers is that you feel the warmth on the paper, but Epson has equipped this printer with Heat-Free Technology. So, the first time I printed something, I was caught off guard, like why the paper wasn’t a little warm. Now we know why, but it’s not done for the reasons we think.

Now, if you think heat affects the printing quality, it kind of does because a traditional printer uses heat to warm up the ink, form bubbles and eject. Heat-free printers like this one use Piezo technology, which uses voltage to change the piezoelectric elements, which then eject the ink. Now, heat can cause wear and tear over time, but the Piezo technology in this printer brings longer life as it’s not affected by heat deterioration.

On top of that, the less heat it produces, the better performance and lower power consumption too.

As for the rest of the Epson EcoTank L6460

You are getting a pretty smart printer in more ways than one – because not only can you use it with your PC, Laptops and Tablets – but also, you can print via the Cloud, Remotely or even by sending an email to the printer.

For those who want more mobile control, Apple AirPrint and Mopria are available as well.

The display on the printer is decent enough to know the necessary details and even control it without the need for a PC, keeping it a PC-less setup. I do wish that the 2.4” LCD display was an IPS one and maybe a little bigger, which would be convenient for older users to be able to interact easily. Otherwise, you can perform Copy, Scan and other functions directly from the printer – the small touch display is very responsive.

At the End of the Day

You are getting a pretty reliable printer for scanning and copying. But since it’s an inkjet, when you do leave it unused for months, it does affect the outcome of the print, which is very normal. So, if the nature of your work or your office has the constant need to print something every week for work, and such, then this all-in-one, clutter-free experience that this Epson EcoTank L6460 printer provides will keep any heavy home or SME users satisfied.

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