Epson WorkForce Pro EC-4030 Color Multifunction Printer Review
The Epson WorkForce Pro EC-4030 Color Multifunction Printer ($199) is an entry-level to midrange inkjet all-in-one (AIO) aimed at micro, small, and home-based offices with mid-volume print and copy requirements.
This all-in-one printer produces quality output, it has a relatively high paper input capacity and monthly volume rating, and its running costs are reasonable.
But it's up against some solid competition, including the faster and more feature-packed Editors' Choice HP OfficeJet Pro 9015.
Even so, the EC-4030 delivers excellent value for its midlevel price, making it a respectable choice as a midrange office AIO printer.
Another WorkForce Pro Workhorse
The EC-4030 is the middle sibling in a group of three WorkForce Pro EC-series AIOs, which includes the EC-4040 and the EC-4020.
For the $100-list-price difference between it and the EC-4040, you give up some print speed, a higher-capacity auto-duplexing ADF, and a larger color touch-screen display.
The EC-4030 comes with a 35-page manual-duplexing ADF.
The OfficeJet Pro 9015 and the Epson WF-C5790 (also an Editors' Choice) come with 35-page and 50-page ADFs, respectively, and both are auto-duplexing.
The EC-4030's 2.7-inch graphical touch display comprises most of the control panel, as shown here.
Although, in this case, (in addition to the power button) the near-field communication (NFC) hotspot marker and phone line status LED reside to the left of the display.
In addition to controlling the EC-4030 from its control panel, you can also log in to its built-in website, where you can not only operate most functions on the machine itself, but also monitor consumables, set security options, and generate usage and other reports from your browser—locally or from most internet connections.
Also, you can initiate several functions, such as making copies, printing specific documents, and more, from voice-activated Amazon Alexa, Google Voice, Apple's Siri, and other smart home services that use IFTTT (if this then that) scripting.
Siri support is somewhat new for Epson printers, and you can add other services, such as Microsoft's Cortana or Samsung's Bixby, via IFTTT scripts available online, including at IFTTT.com.
Paper handling on the EC-4030 consists of two 250-sheet drawers, for a total of 500 sheets, which is the same as the EC-4040.
The HP 9015 comes with only one 250-sheet cassette, and the WF-C5790 holds up to 330 sheets, and that's expandable to 830 sheets.
Meanwhile, the EC-4030's maximum monthly duty cycle is 30,000 pages, and its recommended monthly print volume is 1,500 prints, which is also the same as the EC-4040, but behind the WF-C5790 by 15,000 and 1,000 pages, respectively.
The OfficeJet Pro 9015's maximum monthly print volume is, on the other hand, 5,000 prints behind the EC-4030's, and its recommended monthly print volume is the same.
Copious Connectivity
Print volume and input capacity aren't the EC-4030's only strong suits.
Its standard connectivity options, for example, include, Ethernet 10/100, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, connecting to a single PC via USB 2.0, Wi-Fi Direct, and NFC.
Those last two, Wi-Fi Direct and NFC, are wireless peer-to-peer networking protocols for connecting your mobile devices to the printer without either them or it being part of an intermediary network.
NFC is a touch-to-print service that allows you to connect your Android smartphone or tablet to the printer by simply tapping the mobile device on to the hotspot to the left of the control panel, as shown here.
Other mobile features are Apple AirPrint, Google Cloud Print, Fire OS printing, and Mopria Print Service.
You also get Epson Email Print, Epson Remote Print, Epson Scan to Cloud, Epson iPrint App (iOS Android), and Creative Print App (iOS, Android), which are all part of the Epson Connect suite of mobile utilities.
iPrint allows you to, among other things, connect your mobile devices to various other cloud sites, such as Microsoft's OneDrive, Dropbox, and Box, and so on.
You can also print to, and scan from, USB thumb drives via the USB port located beneath the small plastic cover next to the control panel and output tray, shown in the image below highlighted in red.
Respectable Print Speeds
Epson rates the EC-4030 at 20ppm, or 4ppm slower than the EC-4040 and the Epson WF-C5790, and 2ppm behind the HP 9015.
To test it, I clocked the EC-4030 over an Ethernet connection from our standard Intel Core i5 testbed PC running Windows 10 Professional.
It churned out our 12-page Microsoft Word text document at an average rate of 21.3ppm, or 1.3ppm faster than Epson's rating.
That's 4.1ppm behind the EC-4040, 3.1ppm slower than the WF-C5790, and a mere 0.7ppm short of the HP 9015.
See How We Test Printers
Next, I continued the benchmarking regimen by timing the EC-4030 as it printed our suite of Adobe Acrobat documents, Excel spreadsheets and charts and graphs, and PowerPoint handouts containing various business graphics and different size and colored typefaces, including a few decorative fonts.
Then, I combined these results with those from printing the 12-page text document in the previous test and came up with a score of 16.2ppm.
Here, the EC-4040 beat the EC-4030 by a meager 0.8ppm, the WF-C5790 pulled ahead by 1.5ppm, and the HP 9015 was slightly slower by, again, 0.7ppm.
Finally, I finished the testing by printing our brilliantly colored and detailed 4-by-6-inch test snapshots several times and came up with an average of 14 seconds.
That's a little faster than the other AIOs mentioned here.
PrecisionCore 4S Output
Epson's PrecisionCore 4S printhead, which is comprised of ink chips populated with significantly more and smaller, tightly condensed ink nozzles than many other inkjet models, provide WorkForce Pro printers an advantage over other printers, both laser, and most other inkjets.
PrecisionCore ink chips apply ink to paper with greater accuracy than traditional printheads.
After several years of reviewing printers, I've yet to see a PrecisionCore machine that failed to produce impressive detail and exact, vibrant colors.
The EC-4030 delivers highly legible, well-shaped, near-laser quality text more than suitable for both internal and external business documents.
The full-page PowerPoint handouts and Excel graphs I printed during testing were nearly flawless, too, with only minor, mostly imperceptible banding here and there.
My test photos also came out highly detailed and accurately and brilliantly colored, and an advantage of the EC-4030 is that it prints borderless photos at 4 by 6, 5 by 7, 8 by 10, and 8.5 by 11 inches, as well as A4, 16:9 wide (4 by 7.11 inches).
Borderless finishing is an advantage that most inkjet printers have over all laser printers, in that the latter must leave a small one-quarter-inch or so border around all documents and photos.
Affordable Cost Per Page
An advantage of most midrange, relatively high-volume AIOs like this one is that, compared with their entry-level and laser counterparts, they cost significantly less to use.
When you buy the EC-4030's highest-yield (up to 2,600 black pages and 1,900 color pages) ink cartridges, monochrome pages should run you about 1.9 cents each and color prints about 8.2 cents each.
That's just less than the Epson WF-C5790's running costs.
The HP 9015, on the other hand, when you subscribe to that company's 700-page-per-month $19.99 Instant Ink for Business plan, delivers all pages—black, color, document pages, photos—for 2.9 cents per page, which is an excellent value if you print a lot of pages with a high percentage of ink coverage.
That said, the EC-4030's running costs are significantly lower than most equally endowed laser AIOs.
Little Fish, Big Pond
Without question, the Epson WorkForce Pro EC-4030 is a good machine with many admirable qualities, including excellent print quality and decent running costs.
But competitors, including the slightly more expensive Editors' Choice HP OfficeJet Pro 9015, are faster and offer more office-friendly features.
Or, for $100 more, the WorkForce Pro EC-4040 gives you faster speeds, a larger auto-duplexing ADF, and a roomier touch screen.
That said, if you're looking to save a few buck and don't need an auto-duplexing document feeder and lightning-fast print speeds, the WorkForce Pro EC-4030 is a solid small-office AIO.
Epson WorkForce Pro EC-4030 Color Multifunction Printer
Pros
Excellent print quality.
Decent running costs.
Supports Wi-Fi Direct and NFC peer-to-peer network protocols.
Deep 500-sheet paper input capacity.
Borderless output up to letter-size.
View More
The Bottom Line
The Epson WorkForce Pro EC-4030 color inkjet all-in-one prints well and offers reasonable running costs, but it's overshadowed by faster, more feature-packed competition.
The Epson WorkForce Pro EC-4030 Color Multifunction Printer ($199) is an entry-level to midrange inkjet all-in-one (AIO) aimed at micro, small, and home-based offices with mid-volume print and copy requirements.
This all-in-one printer produces quality output, it has a relatively high paper input capacity and monthly volume rating, and its running costs are reasonable.
But it's up against some solid competition, including the faster and more feature-packed Editors' Choice HP OfficeJet Pro 9015.
Even so, the EC-4030 delivers excellent value for its midlevel price, making it a respectable choice as a midrange office AIO printer.
Another WorkForce Pro Workhorse
The EC-4030 is the middle sibling in a group of three WorkForce Pro EC-series AIOs, which includes the EC-4040 and the EC-4020.
For the $100-list-price difference between it and the EC-4040, you give up some print speed, a higher-capacity auto-duplexing ADF, and a larger color touch-screen display.
The EC-4030 comes with a 35-page manual-duplexing ADF.
The OfficeJet Pro 9015 and the Epson WF-C5790 (also an Editors' Choice) come with 35-page and 50-page ADFs, respectively, and both are auto-duplexing.
The EC-4030's 2.7-inch graphical touch display comprises most of the control panel, as shown here.
Although, in this case, (in addition to the power button) the near-field communication (NFC) hotspot marker and phone line status LED reside to the left of the display.
In addition to controlling the EC-4030 from its control panel, you can also log in to its built-in website, where you can not only operate most functions on the machine itself, but also monitor consumables, set security options, and generate usage and other reports from your browser—locally or from most internet connections.
Also, you can initiate several functions, such as making copies, printing specific documents, and more, from voice-activated Amazon Alexa, Google Voice, Apple's Siri, and other smart home services that use IFTTT (if this then that) scripting.
Siri support is somewhat new for Epson printers, and you can add other services, such as Microsoft's Cortana or Samsung's Bixby, via IFTTT scripts available online, including at IFTTT.com.
Paper handling on the EC-4030 consists of two 250-sheet drawers, for a total of 500 sheets, which is the same as the EC-4040.
The HP 9015 comes with only one 250-sheet cassette, and the WF-C5790 holds up to 330 sheets, and that's expandable to 830 sheets.
Meanwhile, the EC-4030's maximum monthly duty cycle is 30,000 pages, and its recommended monthly print volume is 1,500 prints, which is also the same as the EC-4040, but behind the WF-C5790 by 15,000 and 1,000 pages, respectively.
The OfficeJet Pro 9015's maximum monthly print volume is, on the other hand, 5,000 prints behind the EC-4030's, and its recommended monthly print volume is the same.
Copious Connectivity
Print volume and input capacity aren't the EC-4030's only strong suits.
Its standard connectivity options, for example, include, Ethernet 10/100, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, connecting to a single PC via USB 2.0, Wi-Fi Direct, and NFC.
Those last two, Wi-Fi Direct and NFC, are wireless peer-to-peer networking protocols for connecting your mobile devices to the printer without either them or it being part of an intermediary network.
NFC is a touch-to-print service that allows you to connect your Android smartphone or tablet to the printer by simply tapping the mobile device on to the hotspot to the left of the control panel, as shown here.
Other mobile features are Apple AirPrint, Google Cloud Print, Fire OS printing, and Mopria Print Service.
You also get Epson Email Print, Epson Remote Print, Epson Scan to Cloud, Epson iPrint App (iOS Android), and Creative Print App (iOS, Android), which are all part of the Epson Connect suite of mobile utilities.
iPrint allows you to, among other things, connect your mobile devices to various other cloud sites, such as Microsoft's OneDrive, Dropbox, and Box, and so on.
You can also print to, and scan from, USB thumb drives via the USB port located beneath the small plastic cover next to the control panel and output tray, shown in the image below highlighted in red.
Respectable Print Speeds
Epson rates the EC-4030 at 20ppm, or 4ppm slower than the EC-4040 and the Epson WF-C5790, and 2ppm behind the HP 9015.
To test it, I clocked the EC-4030 over an Ethernet connection from our standard Intel Core i5 testbed PC running Windows 10 Professional.
It churned out our 12-page Microsoft Word text document at an average rate of 21.3ppm, or 1.3ppm faster than Epson's rating.
That's 4.1ppm behind the EC-4040, 3.1ppm slower than the WF-C5790, and a mere 0.7ppm short of the HP 9015.
See How We Test Printers
Next, I continued the benchmarking regimen by timing the EC-4030 as it printed our suite of Adobe Acrobat documents, Excel spreadsheets and charts and graphs, and PowerPoint handouts containing various business graphics and different size and colored typefaces, including a few decorative fonts.
Then, I combined these results with those from printing the 12-page text document in the previous test and came up with a score of 16.2ppm.
Here, the EC-4040 beat the EC-4030 by a meager 0.8ppm, the WF-C5790 pulled ahead by 1.5ppm, and the HP 9015 was slightly slower by, again, 0.7ppm.
Finally, I finished the testing by printing our brilliantly colored and detailed 4-by-6-inch test snapshots several times and came up with an average of 14 seconds.
That's a little faster than the other AIOs mentioned here.
PrecisionCore 4S Output
Epson's PrecisionCore 4S printhead, which is comprised of ink chips populated with significantly more and smaller, tightly condensed ink nozzles than many other inkjet models, provide WorkForce Pro printers an advantage over other printers, both laser, and most other inkjets.
PrecisionCore ink chips apply ink to paper with greater accuracy than traditional printheads.
After several years of reviewing printers, I've yet to see a PrecisionCore machine that failed to produce impressive detail and exact, vibrant colors.
The EC-4030 delivers highly legible, well-shaped, near-laser quality text more than suitable for both internal and external business documents.
The full-page PowerPoint handouts and Excel graphs I printed during testing were nearly flawless, too, with only minor, mostly imperceptible banding here and there.
My test photos also came out highly detailed and accurately and brilliantly colored, and an advantage of the EC-4030 is that it prints borderless photos at 4 by 6, 5 by 7, 8 by 10, and 8.5 by 11 inches, as well as A4, 16:9 wide (4 by 7.11 inches).
Borderless finishing is an advantage that most inkjet printers have over all laser printers, in that the latter must leave a small one-quarter-inch or so border around all documents and photos.
Affordable Cost Per Page
An advantage of most midrange, relatively high-volume AIOs like this one is that, compared with their entry-level and laser counterparts, they cost significantly less to use.
When you buy the EC-4030's highest-yield (up to 2,600 black pages and 1,900 color pages) ink cartridges, monochrome pages should run you about 1.9 cents each and color prints about 8.2 cents each.
That's just less than the Epson WF-C5790's running costs.
The HP 9015, on the other hand, when you subscribe to that company's 700-page-per-month $19.99 Instant Ink for Business plan, delivers all pages—black, color, document pages, photos—for 2.9 cents per page, which is an excellent value if you print a lot of pages with a high percentage of ink coverage.
That said, the EC-4030's running costs are significantly lower than most equally endowed laser AIOs.
Little Fish, Big Pond
Without question, the Epson WorkForce Pro EC-4030 is a good machine with many admirable qualities, including excellent print quality and decent running costs.
But competitors, including the slightly more expensive Editors' Choice HP OfficeJet Pro 9015, are faster and offer more office-friendly features.
Or, for $100 more, the WorkForce Pro EC-4040 gives you faster speeds, a larger auto-duplexing ADF, and a roomier touch screen.
That said, if you're looking to save a few buck and don't need an auto-duplexing document feeder and lightning-fast print speeds, the WorkForce Pro EC-4030 is a solid small-office AIO.
Epson WorkForce Pro EC-4030 Color Multifunction Printer
Pros
Excellent print quality.
Decent running costs.
Supports Wi-Fi Direct and NFC peer-to-peer network protocols.
Deep 500-sheet paper input capacity.
Borderless output up to letter-size.
View More
The Bottom Line
The Epson WorkForce Pro EC-4030 color inkjet all-in-one prints well and offers reasonable running costs, but it's overshadowed by faster, more feature-packed competition.
