Epson WorkForce WF-7720 Review (Pros + Cons)

In addition to printing oversized pages up to super-tabloid size (13 by 19 inches), the Epson WorkForce WF-7720 Wide-Format All-in-One Printer also scans copies and faxes documents up to tabloid size (11 by 17 inches).

It prints nicely and reasonably quickly and is stocked with top-notch productivity and convenience features, such as a single-pass auto-duplexing automated document feeder, like its direct rival, the Editors’ Choice Brother MFC-J6935DW (ADF).

The Epson WorkForce WF-7720 has many features that make it a good low-volume wide-format AIO for small offices and workgroups. Still, the Brother’s reduced running costs and superior business graphics prevent this model from unseating the Editors’ Choice.

Epson WorkForce WF-7720

Performance

The WF-7720 can handle up to 501 sheets of paper, divided across three input sources, two 250-sheet drawers in the front, and a single-sheet override tray in the back. Similar to its predecessor, the two cassettes can be set up to accommodate media up to 13 by 19 inches, 20 sheets of quality picture paper, and 10 No. 10 envelopes.

Using two main drawers and a 100-sheet multipurpose tray, the Brother MFC-J6935DW can hold up to 600 pages, while the HP OfficeJet 7740 can accommodate up to 500 sheets using two 250-sheet cassettes.

The WF-7720 has a suggested monthly print volume of 1,300 pages and a maximum monthly duty cycle of 20,000. The Brother MFC-J6935DW and the HP 7740 have a 10,000-page greater duty cycle.

The 35-sheet capacity auto-duplexing ADF on the WF-7720 is available. The Brother MFC-J6935DW, whose ADF carries up to 50 pages of tabloid-size documents, and the HP 7740 have ADFs that accommodate 35 sheets of paper up to legal size and offer single-pass two-sided scanning.

Its redesigned control panel is arguably the WF-7720’s most impressive update. The buttons and number pad are more roomy and beautiful, and the touch screen’s surface area is roughly an inch larger, making it easier for those with clumsy or large fingers to touch icons. It is easier to operate than the ones the corporation offered in 2014, the year the WF-7620 was used.

Connectivity Options Abound

The enterprise-focused WF-7720 offers many connections to your PC, network, mobile device, and the cloud, including Ethernet, Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi Direct, and USB connections to specific PCs. The port under the control panel on the left-front of the chassis allows you to print from and scan to USB flash drives.

Additionally, the AIO features near-field communication (NFC). This peer-to-peer network enables you to start a print or scan by touching a compatible smartphone or tablet to a designated hotspot on the AIO next to the control panel.

Epson also offers its Epson Connect family of mobile apps for both Apple iOS and Android, including Epson Email Print, Epson Remote Print, and Epson iPrint. Apple AirPrint, Google Cloud Print, and Fire OS printing for connecting to Amazon Fire tablets are supported third-party mobile connectivity options.

Passable Print Speed

The WF-7720 performed slightly less on our speed test than many of its competitors. For monochrome pages, Epson rates the WF-7720 at 18 pages per minute (ppm) and for color pages at 10 ppm. I recorded our 12-page monochrome Microsoft Word text document at 14.4ppm, which is 3.6ppm slower than its stated speed.

This is uncommon because most printers achieve their ratings on this part of our test or surpass them, and those who seldom do so by this much. (I put our Intel Core i5 testbed PC running Windows 10 Professional through the WF-7720 via Ethernet test.)

Both the HP 7740 and the Brother MFC-J6935DW performed about 4ppm faster. One of Epson’s EcoTank discount-ink printers, the WorkForce Pro ET-16500 EcoTank All-in-One Supertank Printer (Which opens in a new window), only received a 4.7ppm rating on this aspect of our tests.

I then merged the results of printing numerous separate Excel, PowerPoint, and Acrobat pages that contained color graphics and images with the score from the simple document test mentioned earlier. The WF-7720 churned at a rate of 7.3ppm in this situation. That compares to the HP 7740 at about 2.4ppm, the MFC-J6935DW at about 5ppm, and the Epson XP-16500 at about 2.5ppm.

Excellent Text Quality

Epson printers generally produce quality prints, and the WF-7720 is no exception. From the smallest font size, we print (4 points) up to 70 points and beyond, the text quality appeared nearly laser-grade, making it more than suitable for most business applications, even those requiring small text.

Except for a few instances of light banding and some colors and grays that appeared darker than they should have, the business charts and graphs I produced looked good. However, depending on how particular you are, most of our business-related charts, documents, and handouts looked excellent enough to be used in most business situations.

Although it doesn’t take many 13 by 19-inch borderless images to deplete an ink cartridge, our test photos also came out excellent. I noticed a general appearance that was washed out when compared to printers made expressly for printing images. This printer should work well for printing embedded images in bigger documents, but I wouldn’t try to print my treasured shots on it.

High Running Costs

You need a machine with affordable running expenses if you intend to print many wide-format papers, which can cost double letter-size (8.5 by 11-inch) sheets. Historically, printer makers have added a small fee to the per-page cost of ink for larger printers. Various businesses, including Epson, have recently addressed the high cost per page (CPP) for several of their goods. However, the WF-7720 is not one among them.

The black CPP was determined to be 3.2 cents and the color CPP to be 11.4 cents using Epson’s advertised page yields and costs for the highest-yield ink cartridges for this printer. (Remember that all figures pertain to standard-size pages, not wide-format.)

These CPPs are too high, even for a typical wide-format printer without a specific ink-buying scheme, like Brother’s INKvestment or Epson’s EcoTank. For instance, the HP 7740’s monochrome and color printing expenses per page are each 2.1 and 8.1 cents, respectively.

However, even it is a touch excessive nowadays. Monochrome pages cost somewhat less than one cent, and color pages cost slightly less than five cents when using Brother’s INKvestment brand AIOs, such as the MFC-J6935DW. However, that is not your greatest option. The wide-format ET-16500 EcoTank AIO from Epson offers CPPs of less than one cent for monochrome and coloring pages.

Editors Rating

4.3 out of 5 Stars

Testing

I like the printer. It has many features that businesses require and is my first trustworthy inkjet printer. Suppose you wish to scan to your email address. In that case, you can either manually enter the email server information using scan to email or use the scan to cloud to scan to any email address you choose.

Only borderless prints and up to 13×19 can be printed in the first and rear trays. Make sure there is only one piece of paper in the rear tray at a time because you can only print one 13×19 print at a time.

It consumes a lot of ink; with XL ink cartridges, you can only print fewer than ten 11×17 prints in full color on both sides and more irregular than five 13×19 prints. It comes with regular ink cartridges, so if you anticipate needing more, you will need to purchase more ink. The feeder and the flatbed scanner can scan documents up to 11×17 at a resolution of 600 dpi.

A flatbed scanner is preferable for scanning images, while a feeder is preferable for scanning single- or double-sided documents. A document can be automatically scanned on both sides using the document feeder.

This printer also functions as a FAX, and the setup is simple. You could become overwhelmed when accessing the settings on the touch screen display because the printer has so many settings. Accessing the printer’s settings using your web browser and making changes there might be more straightforward.

My network and printer are connected via a wired connection, but it also has wireless capability, which might not be as reliable as a wired connection. I have never had a disconnect when the printer uses a wired connection.

Comparison

The Epson WorkForce WF-7720 Epson strongly recommends the use of Genuine Epson inks for a quality printing experience. Non-Epson inks and inks not formulated for your specific printer may cause damage that is not covered by the Epson warranty.

The Brother MFC-J6935DW Scan to popular cloud services directly from the 3.7″ color touchscreen display including Google Drive, Dropbox, Evernote, and more. Capture and digitize paper documents with Brother Cloud Apps for electronic storage or sharing. Epson WorkForce WF-7720 is recommended upon activation, amazon dash replenishment measures the toner level and orders more when it’s low.

Conclusion

The WorkForce WF-7720 wide-format all-in-one printer swiftly generates borderless prints up to 13″ x 19″ and scans documents up to 11″ x 17″ in print shop quality. With its 500-sheet capacity, multiple trays, and rear feed for a technical paper, this multipurpose inkjet ensures strong productivity for any business. A 35-page Auto Document Feeder is another feature with automatic 2-sided print, copy, scan, and fax. The 4.3″ color touchscreen makes navigation and controlling devices simple.

Frequently Asked Questions