Epson WorkForce Pro WF-M5799 Review

The Epson WorkForce Pro WF-M5799 ($399.99) is a monochrome inkjet all-in-one printer designed for small-to-midsize offices and work groups.

We don't typically see monochrome inkjet AIOs, but as a business-centric model with low long-term running costs and admirable output quality, it's a viable alternative to buying a laser printer.

In fact, its running costs are lower than most of its laser competition, which are typically less expensive to use than inkjet printers.

These perks make it an excellent choice for offices where monochrome printing is key.

Middleweight Contender

Measuring 17.7 by 16.7 by 22.8 inches (HWD) and weighing 41.2 pounds, the WF-M5799 is close in size and girth to many of its laser AIO competitors.

The Canon MF424dw ($679.99 at Amazon) and the Brother MFC-L5700DW ($374.99 at Amazon) , for example, have very similar footprints and weigh about 5 pounds less, while Canon's imageClass MF249dw (an entry-level Editors' Choice laser AIO), is significantly smaller all the way around and it weighs about 6 pounds less than the WF-M5799.

Atop the WF-M5799 is a legal-size 50-sheet single-pass auto-duplexing automatic document feeder (ADF) that allows you to copy, scan, and fax multipage two-sided documents without having to flip the originals manually.

The two Canons and the Brother model mentioned previously also come with 50-sheet ADFs, and the Canons also support auto-duplexing, while the MFC-5700DW supports only manual-duplexing.

Out of the box, the WF-M5799 holds 330 sheets, split between a 250-sheet drawer and an 80-sheet multipurpose tray that extends out from the rear of the chassis.

You can expand that to 830 sheets by adding an optional 500-sheet drawer ($199.99).

The WF-M5799's maximum monthly duty cycle is a whopping 45,000 pages, but its recommended monthly print volume is a somewhat meager 2,500 pages.

Like most business-oriented AIOs, you can configure, monitor, and operate this one from either its built-in secure (HTTPS) website Epson calls Web Config, or via the AIO's spacious and easy-to-use control panel, shown below.

The panel consists of a handful of buttons for setting up and executing functions, anchored by a large 4.3-inch touch screen that provides fast, easy access to configuration settings, reports, connectivity options, security, and more.

But what makes this AIO different from its competitors is, of course, that it uses ink instead of toner.

Like several of Epson's latest business printers, this one comes equipped with the company's Replaceable Ink Pack System, which, as shown below, uses aluminum bags filled with ink, rather than cartridges.

Typically, most AIOs hold four inks; this compartment, then, would share this space between the four ink bags.

In a monochrome printer, though, just the one bag is required, allowing for a huge supply of black—in this case up to 40,000 pages—in a single container.

Connectivity, Software, and Security

The WF-M5799 comes with a full complement of standard connectivity options, including Ethernet, Wi-Fi, connecting to a single PC via USB 2.0, and Wi-Fi Direct.

In addition to Wi-Fi Direct, you get several other mobile printing solutions via a collection of apps (Epson Email Print, Epson iPrint Mobile App, and Epson Remote Print) dubbed Epson Connect.

You also get third-party support through Apple AirPrint, Google Cloud Print, and Amazon Fire OS.

And, when all else fails, you can print from or scan to a USB thumb drive via the port located on the left side of the chassis, shown below.

The software bundle that ships with the WF-M5799 consists of the printer driver and Epson's Document Capture Pro, a more than capable scanner interface with basic document-management features, such as scanning to email, a network folder, and the cloud.

You can also scan to image, searchable, or password-protected PDFs.

The utility provides some flexible document-naming conventions that can help arrange your scans into a basic document-management system.

User-level security features are typical for a printer in this class.

As with most business-centric AIOs nowadays, you can secure your print jobs with PINs, or lock users or entire departments out from accessing specific features or the printer itself by IP addresses, Secure Socket Layer (SSL), and IPsec.

With the secure web portal mentioned earlier, you can monitor historical or live usage data and generate reports.

Web Config is also compatible with MPS (managed print service) software applications from ECi (FMAudit), PrintFleet, and others, to collect, analyze, store, and share critical fleet usage data.

And finally, as one of Epson's enterprise-grade MFPs, the WF-M5799 also supports Epson Open Platform (EOP), which allows you to integrate WorkForce Pro printers with web-based enterprise applications and document workflows.

Quality Over Speed

Epson rates the WF-M5799 at 24 pages per minute (ppm), which is closer to the entry-level speeds of monochrome laser machines that list for $100 to $200 less, such as Canon's imageClass MF232w.

In fact, Brother's $199.99 MFC-L2710DW ($312.99 at Amazon) is rated at 36ppm.

Speed isn't always the most important consideration when shopping for an office machine like this one, though.

See How We Test Printers

I tested the WF-M5799 over Ethernet on our standard Intel Core i5-equipped testbed PC running Windows 10 Professional, and it churned out our 12-page Microsoft Word text document at the average rate of 24.4ppm.

That's more than 10 pages behind the Canon MF424dw and the Brother MFC-L5700DW laser AIOs mentioned above, but then these machines are rated significantly higher.

The entry-level Canon MF249dw, which is rated at 28ppm, churned at 27.5ppm on this test, while the 24ppm-rated MF232w managed 0.4ppm faster than the WF-M5799.

Next, I timed the WF-M5799 as it printed our collection of complex color business Acrobat, Excel, and PowerPoint documents containing embedded charts, graphs, and other business graphics, as well as a few photos.

Then, I combined these results with those from printing the 12-page Word document in the previous test, to come up with a comprehensive score of 17.2ppm for printing our entire suite of business documents.

That, too, was a bit behind its higher-rated competitors, but not by much.

Good-Looking Grayscale

A laser alternative should print and copy at least as well as most of its laser and laser-class competitors.

Monochrome laser printers are chosen most often for environments that need to print a lot of text documents, with the occasional business graphic thrown in.

To that end, the WF-M5799 churns out highly legible, near-typesetter-quality text at all point sizes, even some smaller sizes down around 5 and 6 points.

For the most part, its grayscale graphics look good, too.

I noticed some minor banding and light streaking in some of the darker gradients and fills, but not enough to cause significant diminishment to overall document quality or the intended message.

Easy on the Budget

By far, one of the most attractive aspects of the WF-M5799 is its potential to deliver per-page running costs of less than 1 cent—especially for a machine in the under-$400 price range.

When you buy the extra high-capacity ink pack ($300) for this printer, each page you print should run about 0.75 cents each.

Midrange monochrome laser AIOs with similar list prices, such as the Canon MF424dw (2.3 cents) or the Brother MFC-L5700DW (1.6 cents) cost at least twice that much to use, and entry-level models cost even more.

The Canon MF249dw ($439.00 at Amazon) , for example, will cost you about 3.5 cents per page.

If you need to print several hundred or thousands of pages each month, the lower the running costs, the better.

Sensible Monochrome Laser Alternative

For small and midsize offices that don't require color printing, the Epson WorkForce Pro WF-M5799 is an great choice.

It's not the fastest of its competition, but it produces excellent output, it's loaded with features, and, best of all, using it is very inexpensive.

If speed is everything, the Brother MFC-L5700DW is a great alternative, but you'll have to sacrifice a bit in print quality.

But besides being a bit sluggish, the WF-M5799 is an impressive monochrome inkjet AIO.