The Epson WorkForce Pro WF-5110 ($199.99) is yet another example of an inkjet printer designed to go head to head with color lasers. It delivers high-quality output, faster speed, and a lower cost per page than color lasers in the same price range, and a level of paper handling you'd expect from a laser. The combination makes the WF-5110 an attractive choice for moderate-duty use in a small office or heavy-duty use in a micro office.

In most ways, the WF-5110 is essentially identical to the Epson WorkForce Pro WF-5190, our Editors' Choice color printer for moderate-duty printing in a small office or heavy-duty printing in a micro office. The only difference between the two, according to Epson, is that the WF-5110 doesn't include support for PostScript and for HP's Printer Command Language (PCL), the two most widely used printer languages.

If you need a printer with one of these printer languages—for some specific application that requires it, for example—that rules out the WF-5110. If you don't need either, however, the WF-5110 will otherwise give you the same capabilities as the Epson WF-5190, at a lower cost.

Basics

Like the Epson WF-5190, the WF-5110 takes advantage of Epson's PrecisionCore technology, which can combine multiple print chips in one print head for faster printing. The four chips in the WF-5110 let it lay ink down on paper fast enough to make lasers look slow in comparison.

The level of paper handling is suitable for the speed, with a 250-sheet front drawer, an 80-sheet rear tray, and a duplexer (for two-sided printing). If you need more, you can get a second 250-sheet tray ($99.99), for a total of 580 sheets.

Very much worth mention is the WF-5110's mobile printing support. If you connect the printer to a network by Ethernet or Wi-Fi, you can connect to it and print through a Wi-Fi access point from iOS, Android, Windows, and Kindle Fire devices. You can also print through the cloud, assuming the network is connected to the Internet. If you use a USB connection to a single PC, rather than put the printer on a network, you won't be able to print through the cloud. However, you'll still be able to print from a mobile device by connecting directly to the WF-5110, thanks to its Wi-Fi Direct support.

Setup, Speed, and Output Quality

Setup is standard fare. For my tests, I connected the WF-5110 to a wired network and installed the drivers on a system running Windows Vista.

I timed the printer on our business applications suite (using QualityLogic's hardware and software for timing) at 10.3 pages per minute (ppm). Not surprisingly, considering that the two printers are so similar to each other, that's a match for the Epson WF-5910. It's also faster than the far more expensive HP Officejet Enterprise Color X555xh Printer, at 8.8ppm.

Output quality counts as another plus, despite being a little uneven, with excellent text and photo quality for an inkjet, but slightly below-par graphics.

Text in my tests was better than most inkjets by far, with crisp, highly readable characters even at small font sizes. However, it's not quite a match for a good laser, and can smudge just a bit if it gets wet. Photo quality on the matte presentation paper that Epson recommends for photos is better than you'd expect from drugstore prints, as long as you're comfortable with the photos having a matte, rather than glossy, finish.

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Graphics output is a touch below par for an inkjet, with minor banding in my tests on some full-page graphics. However, most pages are easily good enough for PowerPoint handouts or the like, and even pages with banding were otherwise attractive, with good color quality and no other significant problems. Depending on how critical an eye you have, and whether there are any pages that show banding, you may or may not consider the graphics good enough for handing out to an important client or customer. You can eliminate the banding by using a higher-quality setting in the driver, but that will also slow down the printer.

One final plus is the WF-5110's low cost per page. Epson doesn't quote running costs, but based on the claimed yields and ink prices, the cost works out to just 1.6 cents for a monochrome page and 7.2 cents for a color page.

If you need output that will not smudge at all if it gets wet, you should be looking at a laser. If that's not an issue, and you need a printer with PCL or PostScript, consider the Editors' Choice Epson WF-5910 or another inkjet, like the HP Officejet Pro 251dw Printer, that supports the printer language you need.

That said, if you don't need PCL or PostScript, the Epson WorkForce Pro WF-5110 will match the Epson WF-5190 point for point otherwise, and cost a bit less as well. The difference in price isn't enough to make the WF-5110 an Editors' Choice also, but it is enough to make it a serious alternative to a color laser printer in a small office or workgroup.