The Epson Eco Tank system
The Epson system is “a lot more fiddly to set up” while “higher specced” models offer high-quality prints, and the HP offering is best for “ease of use, low entry cost, and the freedom to print photos” more readily.
The review by PC Advisor looked at the cheapest variants available, “each of which came with ink”: the HP Envy 5530, priced at £59 ($91/ €80), and the Epson L355, priced at £219.99 ($340.30/€300.92), and assessed how they compare for set up, print quality and running costs.
Setting up the HP device involved plugging in the cartridges and connecting the printer to the internet, to sign up to the Instant Ink service, a “relatively pain-free” process with the reviewers “happy to find” the 5530 had its own email address, allowing direct printing from phone, tablet or Chromebook. The L355 was “a little more involved”, requiring four bottles of ink to be poured into their respective reservoirs.
Despite taking care when pouring it in, the team still got ink on their fingers “which took several washes to remove”, after which the device took 20 minutes to move the ink into the pipes that supply the print heads. They described the process as “confusing”, as there was no display to show what was happening, but it was soon finished.
Turning to print quality, both printers showed “respectable results” and were “perfectly good home devices”. The Instant Ink device had “sharp, clear text” on its prints, and after spilling water on it to test the waterproofing feature, after 20 minutes drying it was almost pristine, but for the crinkling of the paper, while the same test for the Epson ink showed “more traditional swelling and darkening of the text”, although it was still readable.
For photos, the Epson printer “favoured a darker treatment of colours”, with the contrast seemingly higher than the HP offerings. Images had a “more grainy, at times pale, tone but felt sharp in detail”, while the HP variant’s prints were similar to the “heavily saturated approach that Apple and Samsung use on their smartphone cameras”.
Its images “popped with vibrant hues” which were attractive but not wholly accurate, and the researchers described them as “just a little too enthusiastic” in some instances. Pale bands sometimes appeared for both platforms, when perhaps a nozzle head “isn’t delivering ink correctly”. The Epson also occasionally deposited slight ink marks at the bottom of text documents.
In conclusion, the reviewers said of the HP system that “we like the idea of knowing what we can print, and not having to rush out when the printer starts to run dry. In some ways it’s a little more expensive, especially if you mostly print plain text documents, but the costs are manageable and you can of course always cancel the subscription at any time and put non-HP cartridges in the printer instead”.