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.
Epson ET-16500 is for small office, home office use. Its print speeds are a little slow for workgroup use.
We have asked for a review unit.