PRINTING. The Epson Workforce Pro WF-5690 prints using inkjet technology, which sprays liquid ink onto the paper from a moving head. It prints Very Good photos on glossy paper that most people would be happy with. Unlike most color printers, it can't print borderless photos. It prints text very well, nearly as good as a laser printer. Text printing was very quick, 15 pages per minute, costing 1.8 cents per page. It prints color graphics well enough for most purposes, such as school reports, at 6.7 pages per minute, costing 11.2 cents per page. It has auto-duplex printing to print both on sides of the page, with no loss of quality. The capacity of the main paper tray is 250 sheets, a generous size. There's a second tray for full-size paper, allowing you to load letterhead paper, for instance.
SCANNING and COPYING. Scanning performance was Very Good, fine for general-purpose scanning. It can scan or copy an area up to 11.7 x 8.5 inches (letter size). Copying performance was Very Good, suitable for most purposes. It has an Automatic Document Feeder (ADF) for easily scanning/copying a stack of pages. The ADF can duplex--it's a DADF--which can scan/copy both sides of each page. Includes OCR (optical character recognition) software, useful for making scanned documents editable in a word processor program.
CONTROLS and DISPLAY. The printer has a large, 4.4-inch display screen with a touchscreen that can preview each photo in a 3.2-inch window.
CONNECTIVITY and NETWORKING. You can connect directly to a PC with a USB cable, or to your network router either wirelessly with WiFi or with an Ethernet cable. Apple AirPrint and Google Cloud Print are built-in, to print wirelessly from smartphones, tablets and PCs. You can also install Epson's app on your smart phone or tablet, as another option for printing over your WiFi network. You can also print an email remotely by forwarding it directly to this printer. This model has built-in faxing, can store incoming faxes if the paper runs out, and can send faxes from an attached PC.
COST OF OWNERSHIP AND INK. When this section was last updated, the printer's purchase price was about $420, very expensive for an all-in-one inkjet printer. Printing uses up ink. Over time, as you print, the costs add up. This printer uses 4 cartridges. The Epson ink cartridges used in testing were the 788XXL BK, 788XXL C, 788XXL M, and 788XXL Y. At the time, their prices were $65, $74, $74, and $74 respectively. We estimate the cartridges to last an extraordinarily long time: around 1.8 years. After 2 years of typical use, we estimate the total cost to be $557, very high for an inkjet. The estimated yearly cost is $69, typical for this printer type. So the 3-, 4- and 5-year estimates are $626, $695 and $764 respectively.
NOTE. The printer takes up a lot of space and might be more suitable for an office than a small desktop.
PRINTER FIRMWARE. Firmware is software that exists inside the printer. All models are evaluated using the latest firmware version available at the time of testing. The firmware version of the Epson Workforce Pro WF-5690 was 26.B9.GC28E5.
SOFTWARE. The collection of software accompanying the printer may include: the printer driver, printer applications, electronic user manual, (and for all-in-ones:) scanning, faxing, and OCR apps. These get installed on your personal computer. All models are evaluated with a Windows 10 PC using the latest version of printer driver and printer support apps available at the time of testing. The software version was 2.11.0.0.
