MEGATech Reviews: Epson Expression ET-2750 EcoTank All-in-One Wireless Printer

We’ve been saying for years that we are moving toward a completely paperless society, but the truth of the matter is that we still want and need to print a lot of things. There’s still something to be said about having a physical paper copy in your hands as opposed to some PDF saved in the cloud. If you’re tired of dealing with ink cartridges and are looking for a simpler, more cost-effective way, the Epson Expression ET-2750 EcoTank all-in-one wireless printer does everything you need it to do, all while saving you boatloads of cash on ink refills.

The Economical Supertank Printer

If this idea of an EcoTank or a “supertank” sounds familiar, it probably should. You might recall that I reviewed the Epson Expression ET-3600 earlier this year. Selling online for $299.99 US (MSRP of $399.99 US and $529.99 Canadian), it is both larger and more expensive than the ET-2750 we are looking at today. While there are certainly differences in design, the core appeal and functionality is virtually identical between the two. They’re both “Supertank” all-in-one wireless printers that leverage Epson’s EcoTank technology.

Instead of using traditional inkjet cartridges, these printers have “tanks” built into them where you literally pour ink from the low-cost replacement bottles. Not only will you have to refill these tanks less often, but you should save a lot of money in the long run too. In the case of the ET-2750, you get up to two years of ink in the box. Your mileage will vary, of course. Epson says this is equivalent to about 30 ink cartridge sets, good enough to print up to 5,200 pages.

The actual printer design itself isn’t exactly the most exciting thing in the world. This is “just” a multifunction printer after all. It takes on the standard matte black plastic finish throughout with the “supertank” portion featuring prominently on the right side of the front. As expected, there’s a larger tank for black, followed by tanks for yellow, magenta and cyan.

There’s a flatbed scanner on top (no paper feed scanner, unfortunately), a control panel on the front that can be tilted upwards, and built-in Wi-Fi for wireless connectivity. Indeed, there is no Ethernet portion and no USB cable is included in the box (but there is a USB-B port) for a wired connection. They’re assuming you’ll go wireless here. Other highlights include automatic two-sided printing, mobile and remote printing, and an SD card slot for PC-free, borderless photo printing.

The Dated (But Straightforward) Setup

As with the ET-3600, the provided software for setting up the ET-2750 is functional and easy to follow. It also looks like it belongs some time in the last century. The good news is that, by and large, you won’t really need to see this software ever again after you’ve gone through the initial configuration wizard.

The second part of the setup, where you handle such tasks as establishing the wireless connection, looks even more dated than the first part. You may have to deal with this interface and other similarly-dated interfaces periodically as the printer gets firmware updates and the like.

I know this doesn’t really take away from what this all-in-one printer is able to do for you. I just think that it’s about time Epson provide a few aesthetic changes to make for a more pleasant first impression.

What I did find was that loading up the supertanks in the ET-2750 was a much more pleasant (and cleaner) experience than I had with the ET-3600. Whereas the latter just has these open ports covered by rubbery caps, this printer has little guiding tabs that hold the refill bottle in place. The ink bottle itself is also leak resistant, from what I can gather, not dispersing its contents until it is completely inverted and put into place. This is a huge improvement in my books.

During setup, you don’t actually empty the provided ink bottles right away. It will automatically stop with some amount left in each bottle. That’s because the ink needs to be “initialized” or “charged” in the printer, a process that takes about ten minutes. After that, you can pour in the remainder from each ink bottle.

Excuse Me as I Squint a Little

There’s an old saying. Two steps forward, one step back. That’s partly the case with this EcoTank printer. The cheaper price, smaller size, and improved refill mechanism are definitely appreciated. The extra tiny display… not so much.

When I first unboxed this printer, I made the incorrect assumption that the entire glossy black portion on the control panel was all screen. Instead, it’s this tiny 1.44″ portion in the center. In hindsight, it’s pretty obvious from the box art and from looking at the product itself.

You don’t need a massive display on your printer. You won’t be looking at the control panel all that often, especially if you’ll be printing mostly from your computer (or tablet or smartphone). Even so, this color LCD is really small and low resolution to boot. Navigating through the menus is functional but hardly ideal.

Speed, Accuracy and Convenience

As a wireless all-in-one printer, the Epson Expression ET-2750 ticks all the boxes that you’d expect from a product like this. It’ll scan, copy and print documents to your heart’s delight, including in full color. It tapes into the same remote printing as the ET-3600, meaning you can email it something to print from anywhere you have Internet access. It’ll even do the two-sided printing thing for you automatically.

Going above and beyond, you find some additional bonuses and extras. There’s a “personal stationery” function wherein you can print lined paper and monthly calendars, for instance, without the aid of a computer. Basically, the printer has these settings saved itself. I would have liked if the “personal stationery” options were more extensive, but this is still more than I would have expected otherwise. There’s also a “quiet mode” available.

The actual print jobs come out clean and well within the realm of acceptability. Just make sure you go through the test alignments and make any necessary adjustments. In my highly unscientific test, I sent a 10-page document from my computer (via Wi-Fi) to the Epson for printing. It was mostly text with small amounts of color here and there.

Curiously, it took a full 39 seconds from the moment I clicked the “print” button on my computer for the printer to actually start printing anything during this test. Other times, it took less than 5 seconds. If you want the fastest startup times, I imagine a USB connection would be preferable but not nearly as flexible.

It took 99 seconds of actual print time to produce the 10 pages, working to about 10 seconds each. Epson claims that this printer will do 10.5 pages per minute in black (about 5.7 seconds each) and 5.0 pages per minute in color (about 12 seconds each). My real world test falls right within this expected range.

MEGATechie ET-2750 Excellence or MEGATechie ET-2750 Excessive?

The world of multifunction printers isn’t anywhere near as sexy as slick smartphones and fancy electric cars. No one is going to walk into your home office and exclaim, “Wow! That’s one sick-looking printer!” This doesn’t mean they are any less valuable or any less useful. You just want them to get the job done and done well… and hopefully in a cost-conscious way too.

In that regard, this all-in-one is well worthy of your consideration. Although the software could use some updating and the screen needs to be bigger, the wireless functionality is really handy, the ease of use is surprisingly approachable, and the inclusion of 5,000+ pages worth of ink in the box will keep your budget happy too.

The Epson Expression ET-2750 is available now for as low as $229.99 (MSRP of $299.99 US and $379.99 Canadian). The ink refill bottles are about $20 to $30 each or you can pick up the full combo pack (black and 3-pack color) for about $60.