爱普生(Epson)是打印机的知名品牌，尤其是多功能打印机，如EcoTank L5190。该打印机还可以用作扫描仪、复印机和传真机(fax machine)。它的主要特点之一是EcoTank 无(EcoTank)墨盒打印系统(printing system)。爱普生(Epson)已经在他们的许多打印机中实施了它，它涉及使用可重新填充的墨水盒，可以用廉价的墨水瓶重新填充，而不是昂贵的墨盒。如果您想知道从Epson EcoTank L5190得到什么，以及它是否适合您，请阅读此评论：
Epson EcoTank L5190：它对谁有好处？
Epson EcoTank L5190一体机打印机适合以下用途：
- 需要大量打印并希望节省墨水成本的家庭用户
- 在打印机或传真机(fax machine)旁边需要基本扫描仪的用户
- 不需要高质量照片打印的小型企业(photo printing)
- 需要也可以连接到移动设备的WiFi 打印机的用户(WiFi printer)
优点和缺点
Epson EcoTank L5190具有以下优势：
- 与传统墨盒打印机相比，低成本墨水瓶可帮助您节省高达 90% 的笔芯费用
- 重新填充墨水盒很简单，几乎不会溢出和弄脏
- 草稿(Draft) 打印质量(print quality)设置使用很少的墨水
- 使用标准(Standard)或更高质量设置时的高质量打印
- 您可以使用它从 PC、智能手机和平板电脑（iOS 和Android）进行打印
- 图片无边距打印(Borderless printing)，相纸
- 用于与打印机交互的有用LCD 屏幕(LCD screen)
还有一些缺点需要考虑：
- 草稿(Draft) 质量设置(quality setting)对于带有彩色文本和图像(text and images)的文档来说是一个糟糕的选择
- 打印图片的色彩还原(color reproduction)值得改进
- 难以安装和设置
- 爱普生软件(Epson software)需要改进才能与竞争对手相提并论
- 盒子里没有USB线
判决
Epson EcoTank L5190是一款从长远来看可以帮助您省钱的打印机：您先支付更高的价格(price upfront)，但墨水的使用时间更长，并且重新填充的成本微薄。如果您使用标准(Standard)质量设置，您几乎可以获得高质量的打印件。扫描仪和复印机功能(scanner and copier functions)对家庭和小型办公室用户都很有用。但是，该产品也有缺点。在决定是否购买之前，请阅读本评论中的其他部分，并熟悉Epson EcoTank L5190的优缺点。
硬件规格和设计
Epson EcoTank L5190具有无墨盒打印功能，它提供了一个大墨水盒(ink tank)，您可以从随附的瓶子中填充墨水：黑色、青色、黄色和洋红色。当您在草稿(Draft)质量设置下打印时，随附的墨水应该最多可以打印 8100 页黑色和 6500 页彩色。另一个好处是，可以通过购买价格实惠的 103 EcoTank 墨水瓶(EcoTank ink)来重新填充墨水，与传统打印机相比，降低了总拥有成本。
最大打印分辨率(print resolution)为 5760 x 1440 dpi（每英寸点数）。您从Epson EcoTank L5190获得的打印速度(print speed)在黑白打印时高达 10 页/分钟，在彩色打印时高达 5 页/分钟。进纸盘(paper tray)最多可容纳 100 张纸或 20 张照片，而出纸盘(output paper tray)最多可容纳 30 张纸。Epson EcoTank L5190还有一个自动进纸器(document feeder)，最多可容纳 30 页。这对于大多数家庭用户和小型企业办公室来说已经足够了。
这款多功能一体机还可用作扫描仪、复印机或传真机。您可以使用它来扫描文档和图片，其分辨率可以设置为 75 DPI到 1200 DPI之间的任何位置。您的扫描可以保存为具有以下任何扩展名的文件：PDF、BMP、JPEG和TIFF。
Epson EcoTank L5190是一款无线打印机，可以使用 802.11 b/g/n WiFi标准。幸运的是，它还支持 WPS(WPS support)，可以更快地连接到您的家庭网络(home network)。
关于操作系统支持(system support)，它适用于Windows（从Windows XP到Windows 10）、Mac OS X 10.6.8或更新版本、Android 和 iOS(Android and iOS)（通过Epson Connect移动应用程序）。打印机的宽x 深(x depth)x 高(x height)为 14.7" x 13.6 " x 9.33 " 或 375 x 347 x 237 mm 。它也很重，重 11 lb 或 5 kg。
如果您想查看所有官方规格，包括可以打印的纸张类型，请访问此页面：Epson EcoTank L5190。
安装和设置Epson EcoTank L5190 打印机(Epson EcoTank L5190 printer)
拆开打印机包装并移除所有保护机制(protection mechanisms)后，您需要将墨水填充到墨槽中。这个过程并不复杂，任何人都可以做到。积极的一面是，这个过程得到了改进，几乎没有产生混乱，这与第一代EcoTank打印机（如Epson Expression ET-2600 ）不同。
填充完水箱后，打开打印机并开始初始化过程(initialization process)。大约需要 10 分钟，然后您就可以设置打印机并将其安装到您的网络中。使用小型LCD 屏幕(LCD screen)和附近的键盘与打印机进行交互，使设置过程(setup process)更容易一些。
但是，从我们的 Windows 10 计算机或Android(Android)智能手机安装打印机被证明具有挑战性。首先(First)，每次我们尝试使用 Wi-Fi Direct 功能从智能手机连接到打印机时，打印机都会返回错误消息(error message)：“打印机正忙，稍后再试。” ("The printer is busy, try again later.")在几次尝试失败后，我们切换到使用WPS 功能(WPS function)将其连接到网络。那个一开始也失败了，但后来效果很好。我们还尝试使用Epson 驱动程序(Epson driver)从Windows 10安装打印机，并且在正确检测到打印机及其IP 地址后(IP address)，它卡在下面的屏幕上，我们的点击被忽略了。我们所能做的就是强制关闭驱动程序设置(driver setup)。
没有捆绑USB 电缆(USB cable)的事实更加令人恼火。如果有，您可以使用它来安装打印机，然后可以将其配置为在您的网络上工作。
幸运的是，安装打印机的Windows 10向导运行良好，它能够在连接到网络后检测并正确安装Epson EcoTank L5190 。
如果将Epson EcoTank L5190连接到您的网络很麻烦，您也可以使用以太网电缆(Ethernet cable)，将其直接连接到路由器或网络交换机(network switch)。然后，您可以远程连接到它，并配置它连接到WiFi的方式。
安装打印机后，您还应该从Epson 网站(Epson website)安装其软件，并使用Epson Firmware Updater获取最新固件。这样，您可以确保从Epson EcoTank L5190获得最佳的(Epson EcoTank L5190)用户体验(user experience)。
与传统的基于墨盒的打印机相比，安装和设置 Epson EcoTank L5190 的过程更长。此外，它比应有的更复杂，因为它的 Windows 驱动程序存在需要修复的错误。此外，Wi-Fi Direct 连接似乎效果不佳。(Installing and setting up Epson EcoTank L5190 is a lengthier process than on traditional cartridge-based printers. Also, it is more complicated than it should be, because its Windows drivers have bugs that need to be fixed. Also, Wi-Fi Direct connectivity does not seem to work well.)
使用Epson EcoTank L5190 打印机(Epson EcoTank L5190 printer)
我们在普通纸和相纸上打印了数十页带有文本、图片和混合内容的页面。Epson EcoTank L5190有四个打印预设：草稿(Draft)（低质量但墨水消耗最少）、标准(Standard)、标准鲜艳(Standard-Vivid)和高(High)。
对于打印混合了图片和文本并具有多种颜色的图像或内容，草稿(Draft) 质量预设(quality preset)的效果很差，如下所示。如果您想要高质量的打印，您应该使用Standard quality preset 或Standard-Vivid，这很有用，尤其是在处理图片时。为了获得最佳质量，高(High)预设是最好的，但打印页面所需的时间会成倍增加，墨水消耗(ink consumption)也会增加。我们注意到的一个缺点是高质量(High)预设会使您的页面变湿(page wet)，并且您必须等待它变干才能使用它。
仅打印黑色文本时，可以使用草稿(Draft) 质量预设(quality preset)，但大多数用户会更喜欢标准(Standard)预设。对于文本，Standard-Vivid和High质量预设之间的差异不容易区分，我们认为使用High预设并没有真正的好处。
打印图片时，应仅使用标准鲜艳(Standard-Vivid)或高质量(High)预设。其他预设提供不令人满意的结果。但是，即使使用这些更高质量的预设，最终结果也可能不是最好的。看看下面我们用Epson EcoTank L5190打印的海报，然后看看eBay上的原件。你看到神奇女侠(Wonder Woman)的皮肤看起来并不自然，而且从最终结果来看似乎缺乏洋红色。(magenta color)
当您阅读此打印机的规格时，您会看到Epson提到了无边距照片打印(photo printing)。不幸的是，这仅在使用小尺寸相纸时可用。当您想使用A4 或美国信纸尺寸(A4 or US letter paper size)打印时，无边距打印(borderless printing)不可用。这对某些用户来说可能是不利的。另一个烦恼是双面打印只能手动进行，而不是自动进行，因此在使用Epson EcoTank L5190(Epson EcoTank L5190)时，双面打印可能会让您感到烦恼。
当您扫描文档和图片时，您可以访问不同的分辨率，从 75 DPI到 1200 DPI不等。显然，DPI越高，扫描质量越好，捕捉到的细节越多。但是，这也会增加扫描一张纸所需的时间。
只要不低于 200 DPI ，扫描质量就很好。但是，如果您选择更高的分辨率，例如 600 或 1200 DPI，扫描时间会急剧增加，您需要耐心等待。我们不太喜欢的一个方面是Epson Scan 2应用程序有点原始，不像其他制造商提供的类似应用程序那样用户友好。
另一个令人失望的方面是自动文档进纸器(Automatic Document Feeder)( ADF ) 可以容纳多页，但您不能使用它一次扫描多个页面。当您使用它来扫描或复印多页文档(page document)时，在扫描完第一页后，第二页被阻塞，并且扫描结束并出现错误：“ADF 中卡纸”。("Paper jam in the ADF.")要使用ADF完成此任务，您必须在扫描完每张纸后迅速取出，为下一张纸腾出空间，这是不切实际的。这种设计限制(design limitation)使ADF看起来更像是一个噱头，而不是真正的功能。
Epson EcoTank L5190的一个积极设计特点(design feature)是墨盒从外部可见。很容易看出您最倾向于使用哪种墨水以及墨水用完的速度。此外，访问补充水箱(refill tank)既快捷又轻松。它具有增强的墨水填充系统，旨在最大限度地减少溢出和混乱的风险。此外，墨水瓶包含一种机制，可确保只有正确的墨水盒填充相应的颜色。
使用 Epson EcoTank L5190 进行打印非常简单。但是，草稿质量设置会产生较差的结果，尤其是在打印图像或混合内容时。如果您切换到标准，您的打印页面看起来会好很多。然而，这是以消耗更多墨水为代价的，它比爱普生在估计使用满墨水盒可以打印多少页时使用的墨水更多。(Printing with the Epson EcoTank L5190 is as easy as it should be. However, the Draft quality setting delivers inferior results, especially when printing images or mixed content. If you switch to Standard, your printed pages look a lot better. However, this comes at the cost of consuming more ink than Epson used in its estimations for how many pages you can print with a full ink tank.)
您对Epson EcoTank L5190 有何看法(Epson EcoTank L5190)？
现在您了解了我们使用Epson EcoTank L5190 打印机(Epson EcoTank L5190 printer)的体验。在结束此评论之前，请与我们分享您对该模型的看法。如果您已经购买了它，您对它的体验如何？在下面发表评论(Comment)，让我们讨论该模型的优缺点。
Reviewing the Epson EcoTank L5190 all-in-one ink tank printer with ADF
Epson is a famous brand when it comes to printerѕ, and especіally to multifunctional ones, like the EcoTank L5190. This printer can also work as a scanner, copier, and fax machine. One of its key featυrеs is the EcoTank cartridge-frеe printing system. Εpson has been implementing it in many of theіr рrinters, and it involves using refillable ink tanks that can be refilled with cheap іnk bottles, instead of expensive cartridges. If you want to know what you get from Epson EcoTank L5190, and whether it is a good fit for you, read this rеview:
Epson EcoTank L5190: Who is it good for?
The Epson EcoTank L5190 all-in-one printer is a suitable choice for:
- Home users who print a lot, and want to save on ink costs
- Users who need a basic scanner alongside their printer, or a fax machine
- Small businesses that do not need high-quality photo printing
- Users that need a WiFi printer that can also be connected to mobile devices
Pros and cons
Epson EcoTank L5190 has the following strengths:
- Low-cost ink bottles that should help you save up to 90% on refills, compared with traditional cartridge-based printers
- Refilling the ink tanks is straightforward, with little in terms of spills and mess
- The Draft print quality setting uses very little ink
- Good quality prints when using Standard or higher quality settings
- You can use it to print both from your PC, your smartphone and your tablet (iOS and Android)
- Borderless printing for pictures, on photo paper
- Useful LCD screen for interacting with the printer
There are also downsides to consider:
- The Draft quality setting is a poor choice for documents with colored text and images
- The color reproduction for printing pictures deserves a bit of improvement
- Difficult to install and set up
- The Epson software needs improvement to be on par with the competition
- There is no USB cable in the box
Verdict
Epson EcoTank L5190 is a printer that helps you save money in the long run: you pay a higher price upfront, but the ink lasts for a longer time, and the refilling costs are meager. If you use the Standard quality settings, you get good quality prints for just about anything. The scanner and copier functions are both useful for home and small office users. However, there are also downsides to this product. Before deciding whether to purchase it or not, read the other sections in this review, and familiarize yourself with the strengths and weaknesses of Epson EcoTank L5190.
Hardware specifications and design
Epson EcoTank L5190 features cartridge-free printing, and it offers a large ink tank that you fill with ink from the included bottles: black, cyan, yellow, and magenta. The included ink is supposed to last up to 8100 pages in black and 6500 pages in color, when you print on Draft quality settings. Another upside is that the ink can be refilled by purchasing affordable 103 EcoTank ink bottles, lowering the total cost of ownership when compared to traditional printers.
The maximum print resolution is 5760 x 1440 dpi (dots per inch). The print speed you get from Epson EcoTank L5190 is of up to 10 pages/minute when printing in black and 5 pages/minute when printing in color. The input paper tray can take up to 100 sheets of paper or 20 photo sheets, while the output paper tray can hold up to 30 sheets of paper. Epson EcoTank L5190 also has an automatic document feeder that can take up to 30 pages. This is enough for most home users and small business offices.
This all-in-one printer can also be used as a scanner, a copier, or a fax machine. You can use it to scan documents, and pictures with a resolution that can be set anywhere from 75 DPI to 1200 DPI. Your scans can be saved as files with any of the following extensions: PDF, BMP, JPEG, and TIFF.
Epson EcoTank L5190 is a wireless printer and can work with the 802.11 b/g/n WiFi standards. Luckily, it also has WPS support, for faster connections to your home network.
Regarding operating system support, it works with Windows (from Windows XP to Windows 10), Mac OS X 10.6.8 or newer, Android and iOS (through the Epson Connect mobile app). The printer is 14.7" x 13.6" x 9.33" or 375 x 347 x 237 mm in width x depth x height. It is also heavy, at 11 lb or 5 kg.
If you want to see all the official specifications, including the types of paper it can print on, go to this page: Epson EcoTank L5190.
Installing and setting up the Epson EcoTank L5190 printer
After you unbox the printer and remove all the protection mechanisms, you need to fill the tanks with ink. This process is not complicated, and anyone can do it. A positive is that this process has been improved, and little to no mess is generated, unlike with the first generation of EcoTank printers, like the Epson Expression ET-2600.
When you are done filling the tanks, turn the printer on, and start the initialization process. It takes about 10 minutes, and then you can set up the printer, and install it in your network. Interacting with the printer is done using the small LCD screen and the keyboard near it, making the setup process a bit easier.
However, installing the printer from our Windows 10 computers or Android smartphones proved to be challenging. First, each time we tried to use the Wi-Fi Direct feature to connect to the printer from our smartphones, the printer returned the error message: "The printer is busy, try again later." After a couple of failed tries, we switched to use the WPS function to connect it to the network. That one failed too at first, but later on it worked well. We also tried to use the Epson driver to install the printer from Windows 10, and, after it correctly detected the printer and its IP address, it got stuck at the screen below, where our clicks were ignored. All we could do was to force-close the driver setup.
The fact that there is no USB cable bundled was even more aggravating. If there were, you could use it to install the printer, which could then be configured to work on your network.
Luckily, the Windows 10 wizard for installing printers works well, and it was able to detect and correctly install the Epson EcoTank L5190 after it was connected to the network.
If connecting the Epson EcoTank L5190 to your network proves troublesome, you can also use an Ethernet cable, and connect it straight to the router, or a network switch. Then, you can connect to it remotely, and configure the way it connects itself to WiFi.
After you install the printer, you should also install its software from the Epson website, and use the Epson Firmware Updater to get the latest firmware. This way, you ensure that you are going to get the best possible user experience from Epson EcoTank L5190.
Installing and setting up Epson EcoTank L5190 is a lengthier process than on traditional cartridge-based printers. Also, it is more complicated than it should be, because its Windows drivers have bugs that need to be fixed. Also, Wi-Fi Direct connectivity does not seem to work well.
Using the Epson EcoTank L5190 printer
We printed dozens of pages with text, pictures, and mixed content, both on regular paper and on photo paper. The Epson EcoTank L5190 has four presets for printing: Draft (low quality but with the least ink consumption), Standard, Standard-Vivid, and High.
For printing images or content that mixes pictures with text, and has several colors, the Draft quality preset delivers poor results, as you can see below. If you want good quality prints, you should use the Standard quality preset or the Standard-Vivid, which is useful, especially when dealing with pictures. For the best quality, the High preset is the best, but the time it takes to print a page increases exponentially, and so does the ink consumption. One downside that we noticed is that the High quality preset leaves your page wet, and you have to wait for it to dry before using it.
When printing only black text, the Draft quality preset is usable, but most users are going to prefer the Standard preset. For text, the differences between the Standard-Vivid and High quality presets were not easily distinguishable, and we do not think that there is a real benefit from using the High preset.
When you print pictures, you should use only the Standard-Vivid or High quality presets. Other presets deliver unsatisfactory results. However, even with these higher quality presets, the end-results may not be the greatest. Look at the poster below that we printed with Epson EcoTank L5190 and then look at the original on eBay. You see that the skin of Wonder Woman does not look natural, and the magenta color seems to be lacking from the end-result.
When you read the specifications of this printer, you see that Epson mentions borderless photo printing. Unfortunately, that is available only when using small-sized photo paper. When you want to print using the A4 or US letter paper size, borderless printing is not available. That may be a downside to some users. Another annoyance is that duplex printing works only manually, and not automatically, so two-sided printing may be annoying to you when using Epson EcoTank L5190.
When you scan documents and pictures, you get access to different resolutions, varying from 75 DPI to 1200 DPI. Obviously, the higher the DPI, the better the scan quality, and the more detail is captured. However, this also increases the time it takes to scan a piece of paper.
The scan quality is good, as long as you do not go below 200 DPI. However, if you go for higher resolutions, like 600 or 1200 DPI, the scanning time increased dramatically, and you need to be patient. One aspect that we did not like so much is that the Epson Scan 2 app is a bit primitive and not as user-friendly as similar apps offered by other manufacturers.
Another disappointing aspect is that Automatic Document Feeder (ADF) can hold many pages, but you cannot use it to scan more than one page at a time. When you use it for scanning or copying a multiple page document, after the first page is scanned, the second gets blocked, and the scan ends with the error: "Paper jam in the ADF." To use the ADF for this task, you must quickly remove each paper after it is scanned, to make room for the next, which is impractical. This design limitation makes the ADF seem more like a gimmick than a real feature.
One positive design feature of Epson EcoTank L5190 is the fact that the ink tanks are visible from the outside. It is easy to see which ink you tend to consume most and how fast you run out of ink. Also, accessing the refill tank is quick and painless. It features an enhanced ink filling system, engineered to minimize the risk of spills and mess. Also, the ink bottles incorporate a mechanism that ensures only the right tanks are filled with the corresponding color.
Printing with the Epson EcoTank L5190 is as easy as it should be. However, the Draft quality setting delivers inferior results, especially when printing images or mixed content. If you switch to Standard, your printed pages look a lot better. However, this comes at the cost of consuming more ink than Epson used in its estimations for how many pages you can print with a full ink tank.
What is your opinion about the Epson EcoTank L5190?
Now you know about the experience we had with the Epson EcoTank L5190 printer. Before closing this review, share with us what you think about this model. If you have purchased it already, what is your experience with it? Comment below and let's discuss the pros and cons of this model.
