Product Listing

Epson WorkForce Pro WF-5621 review: The balance between quality and price

By Ng Chong Seng - 20 Mar 2016
Launch SRP: S$399

Epson WorkForce Pro WF-5621 review: The balance between quality and price

This article first appeared in the February 2016 issue of HWM.

Epson’s WorkForce series color inkjet printers are primarily designed for businesses, touting features like fast print speeds and reliability, workgroup connectivity, and easy mobile device printing. The WorkForce Pro WF-5621 tested here is one of three new models launched recently, and stands out for being a multi-function device with additional copy, scan, and fax functions.

A marquee feature on the WF-5621 is PrecisionCore, Epson's latest printhead technology. PrecisionCore first appeared in Epson's commercial systems, but is now being brought to desktop inkjet printers. This is the chief reason for the WF-5621's impressive specs, at least on paper: a print speed of 20ipm for both black and color, and a top resolution of 4,800 x 1,200 dpi. Other impressive numbers include a first-page-out time of about 7 seconds, and a 45,000-page monthly duty cycle.

Versus the single-function WF-5111 that uses the same print engine and costs just S$249, the S$399 WF-5621 is considerably more expensive. That said, it does get you a lot more features. Copy, scan, and fax functions aside, the WF-5621 also comes with a 35-page automatic document feeder, and a USB port for direct printing, scanning and saving of faxes with USB memory devices. While both have wired and wireless networking support (including Wi-Fi Direct and mobile printing, of course), only the WF-5621 lets you share your scans via email. Support for LDAP address books and IP address filtering, and the ability to limit user access to certain printer functions are also useful security features to have for an office machine.

Usage-wise, I've hardly any complains. A solidly put together device, the WF-5621's 3.5-inch color LCD control panel is big and nice, the rear tray handles photo papers well, and the front cassette holds a decent 250 sheets of paper. You can even expand the capacity by adding another 250-sheet paper cassette.

The rear tray accepts up to 80 sheets of plain paper; the front cassette 250 sheets. If that isn't enough, you can add an optional 250-sheet cassette.

Versus its closest rival the Canon Maxify MB5370, the WF-5621 was slightly ahead in color print speeds but slightly behind for mono. If you scan multi-page documents a lot, the duplex-capable ADF is a real time saver; unfortunately, it can't do single-pass scanning. Overall, text looked sharp and colored graphics smooth and clean. And true to claims, the DuraBrite Ultra pigment inks made the printouts impervious to the water and highlighter I threw at them. The ink cartridges that Epson is selling have a high page yield of 4,000 pages in black or color, comparable to toner yields from similarly priced laser printers.

The PrecisionCore printhead has resulted in better inkjet print quality from the WF-5621 than past years' models.

If you print a lot, Epson WorkForce Pro WF-5621 with its high duty cycle and high capacity ink cartridges makes a lot of sense. And Epson's new printhead tech has raised the print speed and quality to a level on a par with Canon's best.

Join HWZ's Telegram channel here and catch all the latest tech news!
Our articles may contain affiliate links. If you buy through these links, we may earn a small commission.