Epson WorkForce Pro WF-5110DW review

Epson’s WorkForce Pro WF-5110DW is a single-function inkjet printer in a colour laser’s clothes. Optimised for plain paper printing, it makes no concessions to more traditional inkjet roles: there are no memory card slots for photo printing, and borderless printing isn’t even supported.

The printer is more than suited to churning out page after page in a busy home or small office, though. The printer supports wired and wireless networking, various mobile and Cloud print options, and can automatically print on each side of a sheet of paper (duplex printing). Standard paper handling comprises a 250-sheet cassette with an 80-sheet multipurpose tray, while a second 250-sheet cassette is available.

Although some colour lasers might require up to 10 or 11 consumables, the WF-5110DW takes just five: four ink cartridges and one so-called maintenance box – essentially just a drip tray to catch any waste ink. At under £20 and rated for 50,000 pages, this box adds less than a tenth of a penny to print costs.

Ink cartridges are available in three sizes, but unusually the most generous – rated for 4,000 pages each – work out slightly more expensive per page than the XL range (rated for 2,600 black and 2,000 colour pages). Using XL cartridges, costs are about 4.2p for a page of mixed text and colour graphics – far less than an equivalent colour laser.

With no fuser unit to heat, electricity costs should be lower, too: we measured a peak of just 20 watts. After running our entire suite of tests, the printer’s energy use was below 10 watt-hours. For comparison, the same tests on HP’s LaserJet Pro M451dn colour laser consumed 40 watt-hours.