Epson EcoTank ET-8500: a picture-perfect all-in-one printer

Epson EcoTank 8500

MSRP $700.00

“The Epson EcoTank ET-8500 effortlessly delivers lab-quality prints at home.”

Pros

• Excellent photo quality
• Printing documents and photos quickly
• Easy installation and use
• Fast and quiet scanner
• Three paper trays with wide support for media
• Support for SD cards and USB drives
• Automatic output tray in a small footprint

You can also find out more about Cons

• No automatic document feeder
• Initial cost

Inkjet printers can handle photos very well. But a printer that is designed for photo quality prints goes to the next step. Epson’s EcoTank ET-8500 is a photo printer with a built-in scanner and large ink tanks, making it a unique all-in-one solution.

We put Epson’s EcoTank ET-8500 to the test to find out how easy it is to set up and use, the performance on various paper types, and how quickly it prints documents and pictures. This is a specialized and more expensive printer, so we also check whether it’s worth the price, taking into consideration the long-term costs.

You can also Design Your Own

EcoTank’s ET-8500 printer measures only 15.9 inches in width, 13.7 inch tall and 14.5 inches in depth with the automatic output tray fully retracted. The tray expands when printing and adds six inches to its depth. The depth is 24 inches when both the front and rear output trays are open.

Epson provided the EcoTank ET-8500 with a variety of media options. This included printing directly on DVDs and CDs. Three paper trays are available to hold card stock, photo prints of different sizes and up to fifty sheets of letter size paper.

The off-white color and rounded corners look great in any office or home. The front-right corner has a large, 4.3-inch adjustable color touchscreen which simplifies the use of the printer while standing.

EcoTank ET-8500’s design is well-thought out. The EcoTank ET-8500 is intuitive in its operation, despite having three trays. It meets my expectations of a high-end home office printer. The envelope orientation icon was confusing until I realized the flap had a dashed-line, which meant the envelope should be facing the front with the seal on the back.

Printing performance

Epson claims the EcoTank ET-8500 delivers “lab-quality color photos and graphics at an incredible value.” In every print test I did on matte or glossy photo paper, pictures came out beautifully, with perfect color and crisp detail — and at a surprisingly fast pace.

On plain paper, the contrast and saturation of colors will drop, as is expected. Documents in black-and white and color are both good. A high-quality laser printer is a good choice if you want the best plain-paper photos. The EcoTank ET-8500 produces vibrant photo prints that are worthy of framing.

EcoTank ET-8500 was able to produce a copy of the screen that looked as good on paper as it did on the big, bright display. It is important to have the correct color and algorithm to reproduce images accurately.

Epson’s Claria ET Premium is a six-color ink system made up of the traditional cyan, magenta, yellow, and black, along with gray and “photo black” to extend the dynamic range without losing color fidelity. Claria ET premium inks, except for black (which uses pigment), are all dye-based.

The photos are vivid, crisp and accurate. I agree with Epson’s claim that the EcoTank ET-8500 delivers lab-quality photo prints.

The printer can print 16 documents in black and white or 12 documents in color per minute. Photo prints are quick as well: under a minute for best quality 4×6 prints, about 30 seconds for standard quality, and just 15 seconds for a draft mode. It took me nearly a full minute of staring at the draft to see where there was a lack of fine detail. There is a negligible difference between standard and high-quality.

Special Features

Epson’s EcoTank ET-8500 isn’t just a premium ink tank photo printer. It has a USB-A connector for thumb drives, a card reader and a scanner. The large touchscreen is perfect for copying and scanning. It also makes it easy to access drives and cards.

Epson limits the scan quality to 600dpi if you use the mobile app, or if you scan to an external memory. If I connected the scanner to a Windows PC, or Mac, then I could double my resolution and get sharp 1,200 dpi images. Honestly, I don’t have any documents or photos that are sharp enough to benefit from such high resolution, but it’s nice to have the option.

The SD Card Reader and USB-A Port, located on the left side of the lower cover, allows for easy access to walk-up scanning and printing without using a smartphone.

EcoTank ET-8500 comes with three media trays. Two are located at the front and one is in the rear. The other two trays can be used for direct printing, photo prints, or thick paper.

A CD/DVD guide is stored in the lower tray. This unique feature is explained by the touchscreen and mobile application. Although optical discs have been used less and less, photographers and videographers will still appreciate the convenience of printing their discs before giving them to clients.

Software and compatibility

It was simple to install the Epson EcoTank E-8500 using my Pixel 6a with the Epson Smart Panel application. The printer’s large touchscreen guided me along the way as well, so I could switch to whichever was more convenient at each step.

It’s worth noting that filling six ink tanks, charging the lines, and doing head alignment takes several minutes. This is an uncommon occurrence, as the ink supplied should last for well over a full year. Epson thoughtfully gave each ink bottle a slightly different top, so you can’t fill the wrong tank.

Epson printers have become commonplace, so connecting to the EcoTank ET-8500 is easy.

To get the best quality scanning and to use all of its features, I had to install Epson’s software. You can print, copy, and scan right away.

Price vs. Value

The Epson EcoTank ET-8500 retails for $700, so it’s worth taking a moment to consider the long-term value before making a purchase. It is common to see sale prices around $550.

Epson provides six ink bottles that can provide up to two full years of printing depending on the usage. It doesn’t sound like an exaggeration since the estimated yield is 6,200 pages for the most frequently used color inks: cyan, magenta, and yellow.

Black ink is $20 and lasts for 6,700 pages. Black costs $20 and prints 6,700 pages. Photo black is $17.50 per bottle and provides 7,300 pages. Gray, the shade used the least, is a very important one. Each bottle costs $17.50 and delivers 46,600 sheets.

This means that a color page should cost approximately 1 cent on average.

Epson claims that ink savings can reach $2,000 over two years. That’s compared to cartridge-based printers. EcoTank ET-8500 inkjet printers are cheaper, but they don’t offer the same photo quality.

This printer is for you.

Many inkjet printers have a good but not excellent picture quality. This frustrates photographers, historians and technology enthusiasts. A nice photo printer can be a delight to look at if you are able to notice small errors in print, color casts and lost details.

The Epson EcoTank ET-8500 is one of the best photo printers I’ve ever used. There’s no need to tweak pictures in a photo editor to adjust for print errors. On the first print, everything looks perfect. Even photos of draft quality have excellent color accuracy and sharpness. Prints are reliable, fast and exactly match the original image.

Scanning is fast and quiet, with high resolution. Copying is easy with the large color touchscreen. I tried hard to find something I didn’t like, but the price is the only barrier to buying this printer.

Even the $700 retail price becomes reasonable if you print in volume, thanks to the large ink supply that’s included and low running costs. The EcoTank ET-8500 is an excellent printer if you are a photo enthusiast and have the budget to purchase it.

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