Epson EcoTank ET-2800 vs HP Smart Tank 5101: 5,760 Against 1,200 dpi

Two refillable tank all-in-ones of about the same weight. Amazon states 4.8 times the resolution for the Epson, and the number says which figure each listing chose to put in that field.

The two listings at a glance

Two refillable ink tank all-in-ones that weigh the same to within a third of a pound. Each prints, copies and scans, neither has Ethernet, neither prints two-sided automatically, and each states a black speed of about ten pages per minute, 10 and 12. Where their listings differ most is the resolution, and the difference is a lesson in what the number is, because Amazon’s Epson says 5,760 and Amazon’s HP says 1,200.

Resolution: 5,760 against 1,200 and what each number is

Amazon’s Epson field reads “5760 x 1440” and its maximum print resolution “5760 dpi”, and our review gives “5760 x 1440 dpi (color), 5760 dpi (black)”. Amazon’s HP field reads black 1,200 by 1,200 rendered and colour 4,800 by 1,200 optimised, its maximum print resolution field says 1,200, and our review gives 4,800 by 1,200 for colour and 1,200 by 1,200 for black. So the figure a catalogue extracts depends on which field it reads. Taken from the maximum-resolution field, the Epson has 4.8 times the HP’s resolution. Taken from the colour figure, they are 5,760 and 4,800, a gap of a fifth. Neither says anything about how a printed page looks. The HP’s “rendered” and “optimised” qualifiers and the Epson’s plain figure are different kinds of statement, and the plain-paper resolution is not stated on either.

Speed: ten against twelve, and what both leave out

Amazon states 10 pages per minute for the Epson and 12 for the HP, and each review table gives the colour figure as 5. The Epson’s bullet calls its 10 an ISO figure, and neither listing says how its colour rate was measured. The 20 percent gap is within the spread of the class, whose median is 13 pages per minute across 112 inkjet products, and it comes from a pair of ratings that each maker chooses to publish, so the figures do not separate the two printers.

Size, power and the ink

The HP takes much less room. It is 14.2 inches deep, 17.1 wide and 6.2 tall, 243 square inches of footprint, against the Epson’s 14.8 by 22.8 by 10, 337 square inches, which is 39 percent more floor for a machine that weighs about the same. The Epson’s listing gives a power consumption of 12 watts, one figure; the HP’s gives two, 0.11 watts standby and 3.02 watts operating, and Amazon files the two under different labels.

The ink claims are the other half of the comparison, and they are not comparable. The Epson’s bullet says each set of bottles is equal to about 90 cartridges and gives up to 4,500 black or 7,500 colour pages in the box. The HP’s says “up to 2 years of ink included”, a time, not a page count. Our review of the HP states its duty cycle as 6,000 colour pages and 3,000 black, which reads as an ink yield and not a duty cycle, while the Epson review’s duty cycle is 1,500 pages a month, 3,000 extended. Two different quantities sit under one label.

Paper, scanning and spare parts

The listings are more different here than in the headline numbers. Amazon gives the Epson two paper sizes, 4 x 6 and 5 x 7 inches, though our review adds 8.5 x 14, and gives the HP a list of eight or more from 3.5 x 5 inches to A4, legal and half letter. Both are flatbed all-in-ones: our review of the Epson gives a scan resolution of 300 x 600 dpi and a black-and-white copy speed of 10 pages per minute, and the HP’s Amazon page gives a maximum of 99 copies per run. Their print heads differ in kind, a Micro Piezo heat-free head on the Epson and HP’s thermal inkjet, and neither listing says what that means for a printed page. HP’s title also says its wireless is 2.4 GHz only, a limit that matters if the home network is 5 GHz.

One more field is worth a glance. Amazon’s page lists the EU spare-part availability as one year for the Epson and two years for the HP, the period for which the maker commits to supply parts in the European Union. It is not a warranty and it is not a US figure, but it is the only place either listing says anything about how long the printer is expected to be repairable.

Which suits which

What this comparison cannot tell you

Nothing here was tested. We did not print a page, so we cannot say which makes sharper text, which smears or which costs less per page over its life. The speeds, resolutions and ink yields are the makers’ numbers. For each in full, read our review of the Epson ET-2800 and our review of the HP Smart Tank 5101, and see the all-in-one printer reviews for the rest of the type.

Figures are the manufacturers’, as published on each listing and quoted in our reviews; none was measured by us. How we work · Affiliate disclosure