Customer Ratings & Reviews

Prints better and faster than my old HP printer. I like the low cost of the ink. The only negative so far is the size of the screen. It is only 1 inch by 1 inch making it difficult to read.

Working great love it had a earlier model lasted 10 years prints great pictures and easy to use best thing cheap ink pays for it self in no time

Works well and prints double sided!! Very simple to use and fun it figure out. Ink is easy to refill too!

We ordered Epson ET 2980, the product quality is super diooper 100 percent good quality , we try it already because and we love it and I recommend this product

Excellent printer, no issues, likes the ink bottles, and highly recommend buying.

It has a simple set up, its a nice size for a small room, works great.

It is true that there is a very wide variety of options when it comes to printers, but the reality is that few products strike a balance in terms of technology, price, and ease of use. This Epson EcoTank ET-2980 printer is at a good balance point, it is easy to use, has an affordable price, has features that enhance the experience, and is a product that saves money because of the tank system and the type of ink it uses. In the box comes the printer, ink bottles, a power cord, and the manual. The printer is not that big but it does need enough space to be able to perform its functions. It is recommended to download the Epson app to perform the installation and configuration of the printer. In reality, the process does not take more than 15 minutes through the app; however, on pc the process can take more time. In the case of connecting to a pc you can use the USB connection if you do not want to use or do not have a wireless network available. Once the printer is connected to the home network, the mobile devices also connected to that network can print wirelessly without any inconvenience. The printer is capable of printing, scanning, and copying, and each of these tasks is performed outstandingly. The color copies have a nice tone, they are of good quality as well as the monochrome prints or copies. The print speed is ok, it is not too fast but it does quite well. The scanner gives a pretty good image quality, with the help of the app you can take advantage of this function. The design of this printer pleases me, it has a front panel with a small screen, menu navigation buttons, on/off button, underneath the paper compartment, on the right side are the ink tanks and the easy access cover. At the top is the area where copying and scanning are performed, also protected by a cover. In conclusion, this Epson EcoTank ET-2980 printer is a good alternative for those who do not want to be dealing with the problem of cartridge or toner printers, for those who want a printer easy to install, easy to use with different mobile devices, and computers, for those who do not want to pay almost half the price or sometimes almost the price of the printer in pure cartridges or toners (and I'm not exaggerating). This is a printer for the family, for students, for those who work from home. It has an affordable price, a nice design, and saves you money, I can definitely recommend it.

The instructions will get you to load the 4 ink bottles (keep in mind once the ink is loaded the printer should not be tipped (keep it level)); all are keyed so they can only be put into the correct tanks, note there will be a little ink left in each bottle, re-cap set them aside, we'll get back to them later. It takes a couple of minutes per bottle. The app will ask you to confirm you've loaded the ink, then the LCD screen and app will let you know it's started the initialization process, this takes about 10-12 minutes. During this time the printer sucks some ink from the large tanks into its internal reservoirs, and does a lot of repositioning. You should now load some paper. At the end of the process it will ask you to print a series of alignment pages. On each of these pages you will be asked which of several images is better (closest to perfect alignment). Choose the appropriate image number and move through each of the alignment tests (these can be re-done from the maintenance menu). Once aligned you will be asked how you want to connect your printer to your PC/network. For most you will use WiFi to connect to your internal network (you can also connect to a PC via USB or use WiFi direct to the printer). I used WiFi to my home network; the printer can connect to all common WiFi networks (2.4 & 5gHz). It will show you the networks you can connect to and if your phone has saved a password for that network it will be used otherwise it will allow you to specify the network's password from the app. I believe it also supports WPS (where you push a button on your router to add a product), but I did not try this. Now the printer is ready to use, you just need to install software on the device(s) you want to use it from. I started with a Windows 11 install based on a link the app provided. The download was very straightforward. Before running the software install make sure that your computer is on the same WiFi network you selected for the printer. Now proceed with the install, which will install drivers and Epson application software, the software should automatically find your printer (it did for me). At the end it will ask you to print a test page, if all went well it will emerge from the printer a few seconds later (it did for me). Setup also lets you set up the printer as a cloud device (giving it an email address you can send to it to print) and for MS "One Drive" printing as well as setup for iOS/Android devices. The Smart Panel installed software to set up my iPhone to be able to print to the printer. A very easy operation. So, so far, so good. My test pages all came out properly from my various devices. At this point I recommend adding the leftover ink from each of the ink bottles to the printer, there is not much, but the will nearly fill the reservoirs, the bottles can then be discarded (note the ink refill size is 502 (you're likely to need more in a couple of years). I did a number of tests with color copies, I found that the default density setting of 0 for copies was a little light, changing the default to +1 improved the results. All the text that I printed was extremely sharp, most excellent. I then loaded some 4x6 HQ Canon photo paper and sent the printer my first photo. It was very good, but not perfectly true colors, the darkest areas were an inky black. The yellow and blues were pretty true, but the deep dark reds, here just a tad light, more dark pink than dark red. Flesh colors were very good, quite acceptable. I guess it will probably be fine for 95% of the print's I make (no worse than what I expect from Walgreens/CVS digital prints). Maybe with more use the quality will improve/change (I only tested 3 prints I sent directly) one that I scanned had the same not quite deep red issue, and you could see it did not have the full resolution of the original. I've attached a series of color copies showing density-1,0,+1 & the original, here again you can see the red heart is a bit pink, but all else (especially the last +1) looks great. I compared the printer's output to my Laser printer (1200dpi) . The mono output from this printer was just as crisp, and the gray scale output just as good as what the laser produced. This EcoTank 2980 prints 15 ppm in black and 8 ppm with color (single sided; half this for double sided). Finally in summary, this printer is a great buy, especially if you consider the total cost to output the first 8,500 pages/prints. On my previous ink jet printer I could not get 200 pages out of one set of cartridges. I've previously bought new printers to avoid replacing cartridges (and with each generation there are different cartridge #s). I'm pleased to see that Epson has not changed ink bottle types (502) since they introduced Eco Tanks. Yet they have improved the software and speed of their printers. I'm accustomed to duplex printing, and would not buy another printer without it. The printer can handle 2 paper sizes via the rear paper feeder (yea). I highly recommend this printer, unless you're expecting truly HQ photos, in which case I don't think you'll be satisfied. But for any plain paper printing and most 'family' photos this is a great buy.

The Epson ET2980 printer is very well made and what I like the most is its simplicity. Its size will be more like a mid range, not too big but neither too small. The shape, like most printers, is a boxy square but this one has round edges in some areas giving a modern touch. The bright white color I like it a lot, and the ink tank is easily identifiable by it’s gray color and LED light on the cover. Setting it up is very simple and it can be done in multiple ways. You can set it up directly by following the instructions on the small screen on the control panel, or download and use the Epson Smart Panel app and complete the installation on your mobile device. Either way they are both simple. It will take a bit more than 10 minutes because you need to fill each ink tank separately and there are a total of 4. After filling the ink tank DO NOT discard the bottles with the little leftover ink. You will need that to top off the ink tank after the printer does the calibration. For some reason it uses almost a quarter of the ink of each tank for that. I was really impressed with the attention to detail in the engineering. There's no need to worry about accidentally placing the wrong color in the wrong tank, it’s practically impossible. Each bottle is designed to fit only in its corresponding color tank, thanks to a unique locking pattern. If you try to insert the wrong one, it simply won’t fit even when the right color is inserted backwards. When it comes to printing it does it very fast. It prints 15 pages a minute in black and 8 pages in color. The color accuracy is also very good too, I was impressed by the detail and I didn’t even use a photo paper. Printing pages with letters and photos like web pages were also done in a speedy way. This printer also supports two side printing and the ADF paper tray is located in the back. The tray can hold up to 100 pages and can be adjusted to support sizes up to 8.5x14. Something else that impressed me about this printer and wasn't expecting was the paper output tray, it is mechanical. When the printer is turned off, the tray automatically retracts into the printer, resulting in a flush front look. This printer also offers copy and scan functions. Scanning can be done in black and white or color, with resolutions ranging from 200 to 600 DPI. Even at the lowest resolution, the scan quality remains extremely good and detailed. While the scanning process is somewhat slow, it does operate very quietly. One downside is the lack of an Automatic Document Feeder (ADF), it uses a flatbed scanner, requiring you to scan each page individually, which can be tedious for large documents. The maximum supported scan size is 8.5 x 11 inches The control panel was very responsive and the small color screen was easy to read. The panel has the ability to be tilted outward for better visibility and usage. This printer works mostly on wireless technology (Wi-Fi), but if you wish to attach a cable, it also supports USB type B. It actually baffled me to find a type B connection when Type C is the go to nowadays. However, they don’t expect you to use it because the cable was not included. If you happened to have one laying around, now you have a printer to use it. Overall the Epson ET-2980 is a sleek, easy to use EcoTank printer ideal for home or small office use. It offers fast, high quality printing, smooth wireless setup, and quiet operation. While scanning lacks an automatic feeder, the design, performance, and app integration make it a strong all-in-one option for everyday tasks. In the box, you get the printer, 4 ink bottles, power cable and quickstart guide.

I bought this printer because I wanted to print double sided, borderless 8.5" x 11" full color prints. It will not print borderless 8.5" x 11" and it jams every 2-3 pages when I try to print double sided. It has never printed double sided without the jamming issue. I still have to print one side, reload the pages and print the other.

First Epson EcoTank printer, although I have owned several Epson in the past. So far, this one has been the best one I’ve owned. I’ve had it for several weeks now, and it gets used a lot. I have two kids in school and a wife that is a school teacher, and they do a lot of printing. A standard printer with separate ink cartridges can get costly to maintain, so when I got the opportunity to try out the eco-tank concept, I jumped on it. Instead of ink cartridges, you get ink bottles, and you fill tanks on the printer. This gives you a lot more copies per bottle versus cartridge, and generally leads to cheaper long-run replacement of ink. And, although Epson notes that for best performance, official Epson ink should be used, the EcoTank does allow for aftermarket inks to be used. Set up was super easy. Remove from the box, remove all the tape that holds things in place, download the Epson Smart Panel app (if you don’t have it already), and work through the set up. After connecting to the network, instructions to pour the ink into the tanks are provided and it is simple to undo the protective wrap, remove the lid, and place the bottles upside down on their matching spots and wait for them to drain. I’ll give a bit of advice here- you’ll find that there is a little ink left in each of the bottles after the initial fill. Hold on the bottle until you’ve done the ink calibration, which drains a small amount of ink out of the tanks. Then drain whatever ink you might have remaining in the bottles into the tanks again. Copies look perfectly fine and the printer is relatively snappy. No complaints. During use I haven’t had it drop network connection or hang up. It’s worked perfectly fine for the last three weeks.

The ET-2980 is a great general purpose all-in-one printer. For my uses I just need a printer/scanner that I can use occasionally that will do its job well and this seems to fit the bill perfectly. It doesn’t have any unnecessary extra things, it prints and scans well, and the ink bottle system is excellent. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who just needs a sometimes printer that isn’t going to let them down. The box includes the printer, power cord, and a set of ink bottles. The printer primarily connects over Wi-Fi, but there is a USB connection as well, though the cable would need to be bought separately. I set up the printer through the Epson Smart Panel app on my phone. The setup process was interesting and laid out in the form of a chatbot. It provided a step-by-step guide for initializing the printer, connecting to Wi-Fi, and filling the ink reservoirs, asking for confirmation at the completion of each step. It’s not something I’ve experienced with any other product and though it felt strange at first, I really liked the process and I think it will be especially nice for the less tech-savvy who purchase this. The ET-2980 uses an ink bottle system similar to a Canon printer that I’ve owned. The bottles each have their own keyed tops that line it up with the appropriate reservoir on the printer and slot in and fill in a way that doesn’t create any messes. The bottles filled all 4 tanks (black, cyan, magenta, yellow) and while the printer initialization did drain them a bit, there was just enough left in each of the bottles to get everything back to full again. The included bottles and subsequent replacements are supposed to provide ‘up to’ 3 years of printing, though obviously this will depend on your own usage. Once the printer was initialized and connected to my Wi-Fi I could immediately see it from my phone and my PC’s. The scan and the print quality are both excellent and I was able to print a photo on an 8.5x11 sheet of paper with no borders, which was awesome. The photo I printed had great resolution as well and it printed in less than 15 seconds. The front panel screen and buttons are easy to use and navigate and in general for basic tasks the app is not really needed once the initial setup is completed, though it is certainly not bad. Overall I’m very happy with the ET-2980 as an everyday printer. It’s hard to find a fault in it and I can really only think of somebody whose uses are a little more professional that it might not work out as well for. It’s only got the one paper tray for example. For me it’s perfect though.

The printer is just what I need for my home. The kids use it to print their school assignments. I use it to print documents and photos. The scan and copy features are useful as well since every once in a while, we have something to scan or to copy. The printer is well made, and it looks durable enough. It is quite big, so it needs proper space. You can place it anywhere in the house because it is a network connected printer that does not need to have direct physical connection whenever you want to print. The biggest selling point of this printer is the Eco Tank inks. They’re just incredible and I like them a lot. I have been printing nearly a full pack of 5x7 photo papers without concern about ink depletion. Using a cartridge-based printer would typically require a cartridge replacement by now. Installation is easy and intuitive. When connected to a network, the printer is recognized by practically any device: Chromebook, iPhones, Android Phones, Macs, PCs, etc. There’s an Epson app for both iOS and Android devices and the app is both intuitive and useful. Printing results are excellent for both documents using normal paper and pictures using photo paper. There is literally no need for me to go elsewhere to print pictures anymore. Black and white and color documents are printed with satisfying results. Letters are very clear, and pictures are colorful and vibrant enough even when using normal A4 paper. It also supports duplex prints, which is an awesome feature because it really helps save papers. Printing speed is on par with what I would expect on a Deskjet printer. When printing high quality pictures on photo paper, it will take a longer time for it to finish but that’s absolutely normal for a Deskjet printer. Epson rates printing speed at 15 pages of black prints and 8 color prints per minute according to ISO print standard. Printing pictures directly from an iPhone occasionally causes errors, possibly due to iOS or Epson. The printer works well with non-iOS devices so I would say that the error is likely attributable to iOS. While Ecotank printers are a substantial investment compared to cartridge-based inkjet printers, I am a fan of it. This printer is great for home use, has a large ink reserve and produces high-quality printing. Pros: Eco Tank gives you lots of ink Wireless print Excellent printing results Duplex printing Versatility to connect to different devices App is easy to use and useful Cons: Quite big, needs proper space

BACKGROUND: For the past 3 years I have been using an Epson XP-5200 Inkjet AIO printer that has served its purpose of occasional printing, copying, and scanning. The only issues I have with the XP-5200 are the very expensive 222 ink cartridges that seem to just evaporate ink away with minimal use. Therefore, I was absolutely enthusiastic for the opportunity to receive and evaluate Epson’s EcoTank ET-2980 ink jet printer. I had been researching these types of “SuperTank” printers for quite a while and planned to purchase one the next time I needed to replace ink. UNBOXING & SETUP: Very simple and no issues following the “Start Here - Installation Guide”. About a dozen small stripes of blue shipping tape to remove preparing the printer for the next step of ink installation. Following the well written and pictured guide, filling the four large ink reservoirs also went without encountering any issues. No spills, drips, or splatters of ink; nice! (Must mention that Epson’s pictures of their filled tank’s colorful black, cyan, magenta, and yellow ink levels, in reality, all appear a dark gray color.) EPSON SOFTWARE: You have the option of downloading the required drivers and software by way of mobile phone (iOS or Android) or by way of a PC. Since I have no current need to use my phone for printing, I downloaded (ET2980_Lite_NA) by way of my laptop from Epson’s Support website. Again, zero issues encountered. And once the ET-2980 had internet connectivity, it proceeded to update its firmware. APPLICATIONS: Referencing Window’s System Installed apps, 10 default Epson apps were installed. ET-2980 Series Guide, ET-2980 Series Printer Uninstall, Event Manager, Photo+, Printer Connection Checker, Scan 2, Scan PDF Extensions, SmartStart, Software Updater, and EpsonNet Print. In addition, six Epson ICONS were placed on the PC desktop. SPEED: This is one of the fastest home printers at this price level. Monochrome at 15-PPM (Pagers Per Minute) and Color at 8-PPM. According to Epson, the ET-2980 is using heat-free MEMS (Micro Electro Mechanical Systems) chips that are super-efficient and are designed to save energy while increasing speed. Got to love new technology! B/W & COLOR PRINTING: Both Monochrome and Color plain paper print jobs are detailed and excellent looking using the default “Standard” print mode. With our XP-5200, I had to turn off color and set B&W to “draft” just to save ink. But I intend to use this ET-2980 in “Standard” print mode while monitoring ink usage. Only time will tell if I am able to attain a few years of occasional use before being required to purchase another set of four 502 ink bottles. Per Epson “Up to 3 years of ink included in the box.” We’ll see… HIGH-QUALITY PHOTO PRINTING: I was able to print high-quality photos on select media that looked great. Initially, I did encounter multiple lines through my 4x6 photos. Evidently, my 4x6 Glossy 68# photo stock was not playing nice with this printer. But trying my last two sheets of 50# Glossy 8.5x11 worked beautifully without the lines I had been experiencing. Color prints were impressive and appeared fairly accurate to the original JPG. EPSON SCAN 2: I thought I was thoroughly familiar with this application from my prior scanning pictures to JPEG’s for archival with my XP-5200. But something had changed with this app or printer because the JPEG scans of photos looked washed out and lifeless. A few additional tweaks were required in the default “Photo Mode” by way of the app’s “Advanced Settings”. I had to set “Unsharp Mask” to “Middle”, and turn on “Color Restoration”. Picture scans now appear great and similar to those from the XP-5200. REAR LOADING PAPER: Although I recognized the ET-2980 was a “rear paper loading” only printer, lacking an internal paper feed tray/cassette, I did not anticipate how much additional space would be required to find a suitable printer placement location. The cabinet area where our XP-5200 printer was located would not accommodate this new ET-2980 and now it had to be relocated to another room. That is due to the paper media being raised up and rearward tilting requiring a lot of additional placement space (see pics). Recognize that using an internal paper tray not only provides a scaled back overall footprint, it will keep your paper media flat avoiding curled paper edges. And I will also mention having a rear loading option does greatly assists with proper paper flow when using heavier stock, example photo-paper. I just wish this new printer had both options (tray & rear loading). STAR RATING: After a week of putting the Epson ET-2980 Supertank Inkjet printer through its paces, it earned itself a solid 4-Star Rating. Now if you can live with the additional space requirements, due to not having a paper feed tray/cassette, then this ET-2980 printer should be an excellent option for your home printing and scanning requirements. EPSON SUPPORT: A cannot complete this review without personally thanking Epson Support personnel who assisted with providing resolutions for my Color Photo lines and poor Scan issues. Communicating by phone with a representative, who was able to provide working solutions, was an easy and ultimately beneficial experience. A big “Job Well Done” goes out to Matt for his knowledge, willingness to listen, and finally for his overall professionalism. .

EcoTank is the way to go - period. This is my second EcoTank printer and I'm not sure I'd buy anything else at this point. I should specify that there was nothing wrong with my first EcoTank, my daughter declared it her own and this ET-2980 was a nice upgrade. INK: The feature we appreciate most is not only the seemingly lower cost of the ink but also how long it lasts. We print several times a week and there's no doubt we'll get 3 years out of the included cartridges because that's about how long the ink lasted in our first EcoTank. PRINT SPEED / QUALITY: The Epson EcoTank ET-2980 Is plenty fast for a home office printer. It boasts 15 PPM for black and white while being able to also pump out 8 PPM in color. This is more than enough for a light workload printer and the quality is also great for photos in a pinch. We use the printer for anything from return shipping labels to birthday invites. USE: Unfortunately, this style of printer needs more attention than one that feeds paper from a bottom tray. Being a top loader is probably the biggest downside. Top load printers notoriously have less capacity for paper and require the front tray to be extended in order to print. This style defiantly saves on space but I wouldn't recommend leaving paper in the top feeder for extended periods due to the amount of dust that can collect - this can cause issues with the print head down the road. If you're someone who doesn't print often and you don't mind getting the printer ready for the occasional print job - this printer is for you. If you want a printer that is ready to go any time of the day - you should look at printer with bottom feed capabilities. DISPLAY: It's not a deal breaker because most of the time you will use the Epson Smart Panel App but I wish Epson would have included a larger display. If you ever need to troubleshoot from the printer itself, you may find the display as frustrating as I did. SUMMARY: If you are a casual printer that needs a scanner on occasion, the ET-2980 is a great option. It excels at the basics and the included app makes setup and setting management a breeze. The top load feeder is also great for heavier paper stock like photo paper and card stock.

I absolutely love my new Epson EcoTank ET-2980! As someone who prints frequently for work and personal projects, this printer has been a total lifesaver. The setup was incredibly easy, and I had it connected to Wi-Fi and printing from my phone in minutes. The ink system is what truly sets it apart—no more constant cartridge replacements! The refill bottles are simple to use, mess-free, and last such a long time. The print quality is crisp and vibrant whether I’m printing documents, photos, or student materials. It’s also impressively quiet and fast. I really appreciate the all-in-one convenience of scanning and copying, too. It’s sleek enough to fit neatly on my desk without taking up too much space. Overall, this printer has exceeded my expectations. It’s efficient, eco-friendly, and cost-effective—perfect for anyone balancing work, school, or family life. Highly recommend to anyone looking for a reliable, long-term printer solution!

After years of frustration with another brand of printer, I was excited to try out this new EcoTank printer by Epson, and so far, I have not been disappointed. Setting up the printer is fairly easy and straightforward. There is, of course, an app from Epson you can use that will walk you through the process step-by-step, but it's not required. You can just easily set it up using the included printed guide. That said, I do recommend using the app as it makes communicating with the printer easier and allows the firmware to be updated. This is also my first printer that uses refillable ink instead of cartridges, so one of my initial concerns was how difficult that part of the process would be, and if I'd have to worry about getting ink on me or just spilling it out in general. I'm happy to say the way it works with this Epson printer, it couldn't be any easier and mess-free. You don't even have to worry about over-filling the tanks, just put the ink bottle down into the port and it'll stop filling automatically as soon as it reaches the full level. There's also enough ink included to completely fill the tanks, and then enough still to top them off after the printer does its initial setup where it'll use some of the ink to get things ready to print. Once everything is all setup, it's just as easy, if not easier to use. I setup this printer for my daughter, who is almost in middle school, and is starting to actually need to be able to print things. I didn't even download the Epson software or drivers on her PC, I just went to 'add printer' and the PC found it and was able to print to it right away. My daughter now prints whatever she needs on her own easily, and hasn't had to come to me for help with it at all. What's really nice though, is that since it's on my home wi-fi network, I've been able to print from my macbook as well without even having to download anything. Same goes for mobile, my wife needed to print something out from her phone the other day and it just worked, again without her having to even download the Epson app. I can't tell you how happy I am with this printer just because of that alone. The other brand I currently have that I mentioned earlier, doesn't work that easy. Half the time we can't connect to it all and honestly just gave up on it. With the Epson though, we no longer have that issue. You could even hear the excitement in my wife's voice the first time it just worked. As far as how long the ink lasts, I haven't had this printer anywhere near long enough to know that yet, but so far, the ink levels have barely moved at all after a couple weeks of printing. Overall I'm really happy with this Epson and would definitely recommend it.

This is a great overall printer for any home office. I am impressed by the ease of ink replacement. Print quality is good overall, and the form factor blends into any office decor. There are a few convenience annoyances I have which is the reason I took away a star, but it is minor overall. Pros: - Good design - Easy and cheap ink refills - Long lasting ink - Good app support - Decent print quality Cons: - Output tray needs to be opened to use - No large input tray Setup: The printer has a QR code which takes you to a prompt guided chat window to set up the printer. It has you fill the ink (easy and not messy), connect it to Wi-Fi or Ethernet, then do a test page followed by a scan to see the output quality. Use: I downloaded the Epson Smart Panel phone app and the Epson Print & Scan PC app for testing with the printer. The phone app is useful for all the features and monitoring of printer status. I feel the app puts a little too much emphasis on big graphics and is more form over function, but it does the job with lots of options and control. The Windows desktop app, not so much. It works for printing and scanning but is more function over form. It has a Windows 8 design language and only allows control of printing and scanning. Keep in mind, you can use other scanning or printing tools such as the OS built in print spooler or various 3rd party scanner apps. I never had any print issues in my review testing with solid connections each time and no errors on the printer which is all I ask for in a modern-day printer, reliability. Ink quality: The Eco Tank system is outstanding for convenience. The included Black, Cyan, Magenta, Yellow inks are rated to last for three years by Epson’s testing estimate compared to a cartridge system. Ink is relatively cheap and has no DRM like cartridges can have. The quality is fine for regular office work, but I would not depend on it for photos. Anyone who needs high quality photos as a photo printer might work better for this purpose. Photo quality is not bad for a simple 4x6 or 5x7 photo on photo paper, but it has enough dithering that I wouldn’t display them around the house. For a simple 8.5x11 print for work purposes I feel this printer is just fine for text and color graphics or charts with decent quality and great print speed. Issues: - This printer feels like it is not meant for frequent use. It has a great design that is clean and minimal, but to print you need to load paper in the rear feeder with the paper sticking out and open the output tray which is kind of ugly. - The only paper tray is on the back rear input. There is no paper cartridge on the bottom so the paper is limited to how much you can load by quite a bit. Again, it feels like it is not meant for frequent printing.

The Epson ET-2980 is a big improvement in print quality over the 2850, but they added some unnecessary features. The EcoTank 2980 has many useful features that make it a great all-in-one printer. The massive ink tanks means that you don’t need to purchase ink every month, which ends up costing more than the printer. The ink bottles can last up to 6500 pages (roughly about 2 years on moderate printing use). Even the cost of the ink bottle refills are significantly cheaper than normal ink cartridges, which makes you think why doesn’t everyone just start buying these EcoTank printers? Setting up the printer is straightforward and easy, you can either use the Epson app, or you can set it up right from the printer itself with the 1.5” color LCD display. The printer can print double-sided, as well as photos and envelopes. The image quality this time around is much better than that of the older model. The colors are much more vibrant and sharper, giving it better image details. The printer does have a built-in scanner, which is also a big improvement. I was really impressed with how accurate the copy was to the original, not to mention it scans pretty fast. Epson also added some new features to the EcoTank 2980 as well as changing the design a little. Right above the ink tank there is a blue LED that glows when the printer is printing, which looks cool but to me I don’t think it’s necessary. The other feature is the auto opening paper tray, which I am not a big fan of at all. For one, these gear controlled trays are prone to breaking, and 2 it doesn’t retract when finished printing, you have to manually select close paper tray on the printer. Overall, I like the Epson EcoTank 2980. The long lasting ink tanks, saves so much money and time. The print quality is a huge improvement this time around, especially when printing color photos. The scanner/copier is incredibly accurate and fast. The only issue I have with the printer is the automatic paper tray, to me this is just a broken gear waiting to happen, leaving a jammed paper tray unmovable. Aside from that, I would recommend this to anyone looking to upgrade/purchase a new printer.

Absolutely amazing! The colors are perfect! It was so easy to set up the machine. I had to navigate the website to set up my computer with the printer, but once that was done (pretty quick overall), printing was a breeze. As a primary grade elementary school teacher, I print a LOT of colored items. I have already printed over 300 sheets (full sheet of colored designs and lettering) and I still have more than half of my ink! (First 1/8-1/4 they say fills the pathway to the printer heads. They say subsequent ink refills will print more than the first set of bottles.) So, I am elated with the amount of money I am saving on colored ink already. And the balance of colors is still perfect. The printer accepted my 110 lb. cardstock paper, too. Usually, I use 60-85 lbs. I had around 50 sheets of the 110 lb. and it was no problem. I am super happy with this printer so far. Looking forward to printing everything in color now without hurting my wallet.