Epson WorkForce Pro WF-4730 - Review 2022

Positioned betwixt ii Editors' Choice recipients, the Epson WorkForce Pro WF-4720 and the WorkForce Pro WF-4740, the WorkForce Pro WF-4730 ($199.99) is a step upward from the former and a step down from the latter. Like its siblings, the WF-4730 inkjet all-in-one (AIO) printer produces great output, and it is fast for its class. It provides higher newspaper input chapters than the WF-4720, but its automatic document feeder (ADF) is smaller than the WF-4740'due south, and it's incapable of automatic two-sided scanning, whereas the WF-4740's auto-duplexing ADF scans, copies, and faxes 2-sided multipage documents without intervention. Every bit is the case with its siblings, the WF-4730 is a highly capable solution for moderate-book printing and copying in a pocket-size workgroup or micro office, simply it lacks the machine-duplexing ADF of the WF-4740 and the lower cost of the WF-4720.

Smaller Bang, Fewer Bucks

Like the Epson WF-4740, the WF-4730 comes with two 250-sheet newspaper trays, compared with the WF-4720'south single 250-sheet tray. Similarly, Catechism'due south Maxify MB2720 Wireless Home Office All-in-One Printer, another top pick in this class, also has two 250-sheet cassettes, as does its highly capable and more expensive sibling, the Maxify MB5420 Wireless Office All-in-One Printer. And, equally mentioned, the WF-4730's 35-sheet ADF isn't car-duplexing, which is likewise the case with the Epson WF-4720's identical ADF. With these models, you lot must plow pages over manually to browse the other sides, unlike with the Epson WF-4740's 50-sheet auto-duplexing ADF.

At 13 by xvi.seven by xix.viii inches (HWD) and weighing 26 pounds, the WF-4730 is the aforementioned size and weight as the WF-4740, several inches shorter and 6 pounds lighter than the WF-4720, and close in size and weight to the MB2740 and MB5420, putting it on the lighter size for its class. The WF-4730'due south maximum monthly duty bike is xxx,000 pages (with a recommended monthly print book of i,500 pages), the same as the other models mentioned here, except the MB2720, which is 10,000 pages per month less.

The WF-4730's command panel, where you configure the machine and perform walkup tasks, such as making copies or printing from or scanning to USB thumb drives, consists of a ii.7-inch color touch LCD, compared with the WF-4740's 4.3-inch display. (The USB port is located on the front of the chassis, in a covered compartment to the left of the control panel).

A Connectivity Medley

All three WorkForce Pro models provide a plethora of connectivity applied science, starting with Ethernet, Wi-Fi, and connecting to a single PC via USB. Y'all also get the ii popular peer-to-peer networking features, Wi-Fi Directly and nigh-field advice (NFC) for connecting to mobile devices without a router. Neither the Canon MB2720 nor the MB5420, on the other paw, support NFC or Wi-Fi Direct.

In addition, the WF-4730 (like its siblings) supports Apple tree AirPrint, Epson Electronic mail Impress, and Google Cloud Print, along with Epson iPrint (for printing, scanning, and sharing photos, emails, webpages and files, including Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF documents, and files to and from your favorite cloud sites, direct from your Android phone or tablet). Additional mobile connectivity features include Creative Impress App, Epson Remote Impress, Fire OS printing, Mopria, and Browse to Cloud.

Powered by PrecisionCore

A few years back, Epson began deploying its PrecisionCore printheads in its WorkForce and WorkForce Pro lines of small-business printers. WorkForce Pro models utilize the visitor'south PrecisionCore 4S configuration, pregnant that the printhead holds iv PrecisionCore high-density ink nozzle fries. As I pointed out in the WF-4740 review, the more chips, the faster the printer.

Epson rates the WF-4730's print speed at xx pages per minute (ppm), the same as the WF-4720 and slightly lower than the WF-4740'due south 22ppm. Despite the identical rating, it performed slightly better on our tests than its less-expensive sibling. (I tested it over Ethernet from our standard Core i5 PC running Windows 10 Professional person.) It churned out our 12-page monochrome Microsoft Word text document at 21.3ppm, slightly college than the WF-4720's 20ppm and a bit behind the WF-4740'south 27.3ppm. The Canon MB2720 and MB5420 managed 20.6ppm and 20ppm, respectively.

For the next office of our testing regimen, I combined the score from press the Word document in the previous test with the results from printing several PDF, Excel, and PowerPoint documents comprised of color, graphics, and photos. As most printers practice at this betoken in our tests, the WF-4730 slowed considerably, to 14.7ppm, slightly faster than the WF-4720'south 14.1ppm and simply behind the WF-4740'due south xv.1ppm. The MB2720 and the MB5420, at 8.2ppm and 7.8ppm, respectively, didn't fare also, plummeting by well over l percentage on this part of our tests.

Each of the WorkForce Pro models discussed here printed our brightly colored and highly detailed 4-past-6-inch snapshot in less than 15 seconds, whereas the two Catechism Maxify AIOs took 4 to 5 times longer.

Output You Can Be Proud Of

Ane thing all the printers here have in common is improve-than-average output quality, and that includes scanning and copying. The WF-4730'south text came out well-shaped and highly legible, even at some of the smaller signal sizes we test, and most of the decorative fonts in our output quality tests looked expert.

Then did the graphics in our Excel charts and graphs and PowerPoint handouts. Gradient fills and backgrounds, fifty-fifty the darker ones, displayed footling to no banding or other ink distribution issues, and brilliant-colored hairlines (rules 1 point and smaller) printed highly visible and uninterrupted from finish-to-cease. As I usually encounter from PrecisionCore-based machines, photos came out vibrant, accurately colored, and highly detailed, with quality rivaling consumer-grade photo-centric printers. I've no complaints about the WF-4730's print quality.

Cost Per Folio

All three of the 4000-series WorkForce Pro models use the same relatively high-yield ink cartridges (ii,600 black pages or 1,900 color pages) that deliver running costs of 1.nine cents per monochrome page and 8.2 cents per color page. These numbers are lower than the Catechism MB2720's black cost per folio (2.seven cents), simply slightly higher than its color cost per page (8 cents), and lower nonetheless than the MB5420's 1.v cents per monochrome page and 7.1 cents per color page. (But then the MB5420 costs more.) How much these seemingly minor differences matter depends on how much you lot print. If, for instance, yous print 1,500 pages per calendar month, a 1-cent difference in running costs will cost you lot $15 each month, $180 a yr, and $540 over three years—more enough to buy a WF-4730 every year with money left over for ink.

Choose Your Features Smartly

The WF-4730's list price is $twenty higher than the WF-4720's and $100 less than the WF-4740's, only all three printers' actual street prices fluctuate dramatically. Choosing betwixt them, then, entails matching features to your needs. Depending on your application, an auto-duplexing ADF can exist a lot to cede. That characteristic lone, in the right setting, would be a big timesaver, only will you lot utilize it frequently enough to make upwardly for the $100 (or more) cost to step upwards to the WF-4740? On the other hand, getting an additional 250-sheet paper drawer for the $xx difference betwixt the WF-4720 and the WF-4730 is a good bargain, and more than than reason enough to choose information technology over its less-expensive sibling.