Epson ET-16500, A3, MFP, WorkForce, EcoTank, printer

The new Epson ET-16500, A3, WorkForce, EcoTank, printer brings full multi-function, full-duplex copying and printing and amazing economy to a Small Office, Home Office printer.

Yes, it is A3 – at 420 x 297, same size as two A4 sheets side-by-side. It is great for spreadsheets, plans, posters, creative, designers, and even small run A4 folded, saddle-stapled books. It also handles A3+ oversized to allow for borderless printing.

A3, A4 paper now comes in many varieties

The common 80gsm bond (cheap but a bit of an ink sponge)
100-150gsm matt coated for higher quality presentations
150-200gsm Inkjet matt, satin or gloss paper. Perfect for photographic prints and high-quality brochure or presentation covers
200+gsm speciality papers. This can handle up to 300gsm glossy photo paper

Back to the Epson ET-16500

It is a four-function MFP

Scanner – A3 flatbed. A4 single or RADF double sided, 2400 x 1200 dpi, 24bit (8bit colour)
Copy – A3 flatbed. A4, single or double sided, up to 95gsm. A4 mono 16 ipm, A4 colour 8 ipm, A3 half that
Fax – A4 colour or mono, 3 seconds per page, 550-page memory
Print – A4 mono 18 ppm, A colour 10 ppm, Duplex print and A3 half that (Speeds depend on resolution)

Paper types and feeds

Two x 250 sheet cassettes handling 80gsm plain paper
10-sheet ‘envelope’ feeder (150 gsm)
20-sheet bypass (200gsm)
Handled from 9mm width

Comms/other

USB, Wi-Fi, Ethernet
4.3″ LCD screen
iPrint and Google Cloud
SD and USB slots
Windows or macOS

Ink

Standard EcoTank Ink bottles for refillable reservoirs – Cyan. Magenta, Yellow and Black. Approx cost of a full set is $75.96 for about 10,500 A4 pages (under a cent per page).

Price – Epson ET-16500, A3, MFP, WorkForce, EcoTank, printer

A$1,599 from major retailers and office suppliers

GadgetGuy’s take

We have reviewed the A4 sibling ET-4750

A3/duplex is a bonus. Once you have it, you won’t want to settle for just an A4 printer.

The EcoTank concept works – cheap printers eating expensive ink are so yesterday. OK, this is an expensive printer that uses cheap ink. In the end, it is about two things. The total cost of ownership and quality.