The good: Best in class print speeds; inexpensive; all-inclusive control panel; five separate ink cartridges.
The bad: No Wi-Fi or autoduplexer; underwhelming photo quality.
The bottom line: The Epson Workforce 310 may be a cost-efficient all-in-one printer that gives you five separate ink cartridges with an automatic document feeder and a detailed control panel. Combine those features with its lightning-fast print speeds, and the WorkForce 310 is a worthwhile addition to your office arsenal.
With all-in-one printer vendors competing to offer the most functionality at the lowest price, consumers are left with a difficult shopping decision to make. During a recent review, to the $99 Lexmark Impact S305 scored positively with us, but we felt cheated by the missing fax function. Epson picks up Lexmark's slack with the introduction of their $120 WorkForce 310, a true all-in-one device that can print, fax, copy, and scan with output speeds that crush the competition. The printer can use improvement in photo output quality and benefit from a wireless connection, but its low-cost cost of ownership and rapid print speeds make the WorkForce 310 a fully capable business printer and well worthy of our recommendation.
Design and features:
The Epson Workforce 310's design marries an elegant wave shape with a solid control panel in the center that gives you one-touch access to the most popular settings. Most of the printer is swathed in a matte black finish with small touches of a faux-carbon black plastic weaved throughout the external case. We took issue with the barren control panel on the Lexmark Impact S305, but Epson suffers no issues here; the two-line LCD displays all relevant print information as well as individual job progress, cartridge-installation directions, and detailed instructions on how to fix a paper jam. The unit can store up to 60 speed-dial numbers for outgoing faxes and you get five empty buttons on the panel to start you off. There's also the standard array of buttons for print modes, menus, and a large directional pad for scrolling through the screens.
