Epson WorkForce Pro WP-4515DN – Print Speeds

The WorkForce Pro WP-4515DN is rated at 16ppm for black and 11ppm for colour, using ISO tests, though we saw a maximum of 12.8ppm on the 20-page black print, with a more modest 11.1ppm on the shorter, five-page document. A five-page colour print gave 5.9ppm.

A 10-page, 20-side duplex print took 2:22, giving a speed of 8.5 sides per minute, a very respectable duplex speed for a machine in this price range. A single-page colour copy took 28s and a 15 x 10cm photo finished in 36s. Although the manual wrote of a borderless option when printing photos, we couldn’t find one in the driver.

Epson WorkForce Pro WP-4515DN – Print Quality and Costs

The print quality is better than from cheaper Epson printers and is certainly acceptable for day-to-day use in a small office. Black text is clean, though not up to laser standards and draft mode is also readable, though quite faint.

Colour print on plain paper is marked by smooth, dense colours and good registration of text over colour. Photo prints are as good as from other four-colour inkjets and are one of the places the machine scores over an equivalent laser.

The other place is in running costs. Using the high yield cartridges – oddly we saw lower costs per page from these than from the very high yield versions – gave a black page cost of 1.8p and a colour cost of 5.1p.

Both these costs are very good, much lower than most lasers and many inkjets at around this price. With the disappearance of Kodak from the inkjet printing market, these have to be some of the lowest printing costs available to small business.

Should I buy an Epson WorkForce Pro WP-4515DN?

Epson would like you to consider this machine instead of a colour laser printer. And there’s every reason you should. A colour laser offering this print quality and speed will cost you a lot more than the £166 of this inkjet.

Add in the duplex print available here, the dual paper paths, the ability to print on glossy photo paper and the easy-to-use colour LCD screen and you’d be lucky to get a laser-based all-in-one for less than 50 percent more than the asking price here.

For example, take the https://www.trustedreviews.com/search/reviews?q=Dell C1765nfw Dell C1765nfw which, at £242 has very similar speeds, no duplex and lower print resolution. It also costs three and a half times as much to print a colour page.

Verdict

Epson’s WorkForce Pro WP-4515DN is a sound member of the WorkForce Pro range, suited to those who don’t need wireless connection or fax facilities. It has the same engine and performance as the top-of-the-range model, though also the same flimsy output tray and lack of front panel USB print.