Review: Epson WorkForce WF-3540 All-in-One Printer

February 01, 2013

If you're looking for a small office inkjet MFP with a comprehensive feature set that will handle more than minimal volume printing, the $200 (as of 2/1/2013) Epson WorkForce WF-3540 is a good place to begin. It's quick, and the output looks nice. Equipped with automatic duplex printing and scanning, 500 sheets of capacity, relatively affordable ink, and easy controls, it's quite the bargain. It also connects via USB, Ethernet, or Wi-Fi so you can use it in virtually any computing environment. Installing the WorkForce WF-3540 is a mere matter of a few dialogs and about 5 minutes. As mentioned, you can connect to it wirelessly, via Ethernet, or directly using USB. The software bundle includes the trusty Epson Scan and Abbyy Finereader Sprint 9.5 for OCR. The control panel features a 3.5-inch LCD with contextually lit touch buttons on the panel surrounding it. The menu structure is quite easy to navigate--far easier to use than its WorkForce WF-2540 cousin we recently reviewed. Paper handling on the WorkForce WF-3540 is top-notch. In addition to two bottom-mounted, 250-sheet paper cassettes, there's a single-sheet rear feed for photo paper, envelopes and the like. Tip: Push the paper down into the rear feeder until you feel it grab; the paper sits farther down than with most printers. The scanner features an automatic document feeder (ADF) which scans both sides automatically (by re-feed). The lid to the letter/A4-sized platen doesn't telescope to accommodate thicker materials, but that's the only issue, and a minor one for an office-oriented MFP. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Link: http://www.pcworld.com/article/2026819/review-epson-workforce-wf-3540-all-in-one-printer.html