Epson WorkForce Pro WF-5110DW review

It’s clear that the WF-5110DW has advantages over competing lasers, but our test unit reminded us that inkjets have their disadvantages, too; when the printer first arrived we had to run three head-cleaning cycles to remove gaps in the black printout.

After this, however, print quality was simply excellent. Black text was bold, sharp and, to the naked eye, a match for laser output. Colour prints were a real surprise even on standard office paper, with fantastic strong colours and little evidence of grain. Like most inkjets, the WF-5110DW prints with less ink during duplexing to avoid smudging, but the results were only slightly fainter.

In terms of print speeds, the WF-5110DW isn’t far off the pace of an equivalent laser – and it’s faster than some. It delivered our 25-page text test at 18.8 pages per minute (ppm), and even managed 7.5ppm on our colour graphics test.

Its quick 11-second time-to-first-page will be a further advantage on shorter jobs. Cheap, with rapid, excellent prints, very low running costs and a three-year warranty, the only reason not to choose the WorkForce Pro WF-5110DW is if you need a USB host port, or if you insist on prints that have the sheen of a laser’s toner. For the rest of us, it’s a clear Best Buy.