Designed for small-to-medium offices, the Epson EcoTank L6490 Printer lets you photocopy, scan, fax, and print affordably. It uses ink instead of laser toners, but unlike HP's thermal inkjets, does it with Epson's patented Heat-Free Technology printhead. It also uses a lot less power than a laser printer — just 12W when printing compared with the HP LaserJet M211dw's 420W, for example.

The Epson L6490 printer is pretty easy to set up. It's quite compact, and doesn't take up a lot of space, so you can easily place it at the corner of your desk or on a shelf. Once powered on, connect the printer to your Wi-Fi network, and it's all set to go. You'll need the Epson Smart Panel app if you want to print from your phone, or you can just use AirPrint (for iPhones). The load tray is at the bottom, and can hold up to 250 sheets of plain paper. Refilling the ink is also easy, just plug the ink bottle into the printer's ink compartment, and it will fill up. It's idiot proof, since the bottle only plugs into the right slot, and doesn't spill.

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Located at the back: An Ethernet/fax port, as well as another Ethernet port and USB. If you don't need the fax function, you can pick up the L6460 model, which comes without it. You also get Wi-Fi Direct and Wi-Fi connectivity. Besides using your phone, you can also print or scan from your PC or Mac computer. But you will need to download Epson's software first. At the top of the printer is the flatbed scanner for copying or scanning. There's also a feeder tray similar to the one on a photocopier.

Printing is almost instantaneous. Unlike a laser printer which needs to heat up first, the Epson started churning out prints almost immediately. Print speeds are decent, too, though not as fast as a dedicated black-and-white laser printer. Based on my tests, colour prints take around 17 seconds per page, while black-and-white pages took around 8 seconds per page. You can also do double-sided printing to save paper. Pages that come out are cool to the touch, and not warm like those from a laser printer. The default image quality is decent, but you can increase the quality, or use glossy photo paper. The pigment ink is also water resistant, and doesn't smudge.

At S$759, the Epson EcoTank L6490 Printer is a good buy for your office, especially for its low printing cost. Refills cost around S$20 to S$25, which works out to be less than a cent for black-and-white prints. Colour copies are around S$0.01 a page. If you're getting it from Shopee, use promo code EPSONXAL for S$50 off from Feb 6 to Feb 19. Alternatively, it's also available from Lazada (though we don't have a discount code for it).

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Note: Review unit provided by Epson.