WF-4740

We purchased this printer (WF-4740) in early November to replace the previous model WF-4630. We had moved and had kept the WF-4630 in storage for a few months - which doesn't work well for inkjets (had the same issue with another printer from different manufacturer). We had been happy with the WF-4630 as long as it worked, and the W-4740 is essentially a newer model of the same printer.The printer has two paper trays, which if you sometimes print on brochure paper, envelopes, etc.We could not be happier with the purchase. ADF scanning works perfectly, print speed and quality are good; doublesided printing may be a tad on the slow side but works like a charm.Some reviewers noted problems with paper jams or the printer grabbing multiple sheets, which was a concern prior to purchasing this printer. Fortunately, after almost two months, we have not had this problem (although we are printing a lot of in-house stuff on reused paper, which is not always pristine). Same for the ADF for scanning or copying - as long as the paper is more or less smooth the feeding works fine (just smooth out creases from folding and smooth out the holes left behind by staples).The footprint of the WF-4740 is also a tad smaller than the WF-3630 and looks more streamlined; gone are the physical buttons which have been replaced by a beautiful large touchscreen. Generally I feel that physical buttons are more "reliable" than touchscreens, but this one works really great.No problem with WiFi connection either.Print quality is fine (I have NOT tried to print photos yet, but text or text with graphics come out great).The scanning app has been improved. On the 4630, the scanning app may hand if you wait to long before saving the scanned pages, but I am not having this problem with the 4740.Now a few critical points:- Ink cost:The Epson 802 and 802XL cartridges look small when compared to the 786/786XL and are very expensive. For the more economic high-yield XL size, each of the four cartridges (three colors plus black) is $40, so the full set comes to $160. Which is much more than the 786XL cartridges for the previous model were. According to Epson, the black XL should give 900 pages and the color XL cartridges 650 pages, although this will depend on your use. So far I cannot judge whether this is somewhere in the ballpark or not.If you print a lot, then the ink cost may be an issue for you.- Draft print mode:The WF-4740 has a "draft" print mode which uses less ink. Unfortunately (and this seems to be an issue with many Epson inkjets), the draft mode prints extremely light (to the point of barely legible), so I am reluctant to use it even for in-house printing. It is more like a "superdraft" mode, and I wish there was a setting between this "superdraft" mode and the "standard" mode. We did have the same issue with the WF-3630, and this seems to be an issue with many (maybe all) Epson inkjets. I feel it is more of a problem with the WF-4740, due to the higher cost of the 802 ink cartridges.- First page slow/wake-up:It takes a long time for the printer to wake up from sleepmode, but depending on your printing frequency, you can change the timeframe when the printer goes into sleepmode. Even if not in sleepmode, there is quite a lag until the first page of a print job starts printing. (At least with the printer connected via WiFi, which is the way we have it set up). This lag is noticeably longer than it was for the WF-4630. Subsequent pages of a multi-page document print very quickly, though. The lag is only or the first page of a print job, and it is more a minor annoyance than a problem for us.Altogether I am very happy with this printer. My only concern is the ink cost, and time will tell how it compares to the previous model. I do wish Epson would give us a draft mode that sits between Standard and the current draft mode.

We had previously purchased the Epson WF 4640 back in May of 2014 and it was a bigger machine than this new WF 4740. Both seem similar and with the one digit number change I figured it was just an updated version of the old one. Well, it is extremely fast (like the old machine) however the difference lies in the ink cartridge size from what I can see. The older model, the 4640 used huge plastic tanks that slid in the front and just clicked in place. Not terribly expensive to replace the color you need however if you were replacing a whole set with the black, it could get a little costly. The new model, the 4740 has smaller sized cartridges similar in size to the competitors printers on the market. Not sure if they hold as much ink as they are much smaller but so far they are good. Setup on this machine was very quick and Epson respects the right that some people out there don't own a Windows computer and has all the updates easily downloadable online for the newest version of an Apple computer. Printing on this machine might just be a little quicker than the older version machine. The price is much less as we purchased on Amazon for $179 and our old Epson was $249. Our old Epson did die on us and we used the Square Trade warranty we purchased on Amazon. They were great about replacing the printer and gave us our full purchase price back on the old machine. Love this new printer. Text is very sharp, colors are very good. Pictures even on photo paper are just okay, not up to par with some of the other brands out there like Canon. However, if you are going to print pictures a lot, get a photo printer dedicated just for them.*****UPDATE TO MY REVIEW 3 YEARS LATER******Our printer, they WF4740 has been giving us all kinds of problems in the last year. There is a 'can't scan" type of message that will not turn off. The ink usage on this machine is horrible and the cartridges are SUPER EXPENSIVE. More expensive that I remember for the older Epson machine. Looking now to replace this Epson printer. I will certainly NOT be looking at a new Epson and I would NOT recommend this printer. Getting all kinds of error scan messages on screen. Tells me to turn it off and on again. Now, the printer won't even go into a mode where it will print. Luckily, after owning the last Epson AIO printer that broke and I had an extended warranty I took the warranty on this one too. I WOULD NOT buy any all in one printer from any brand without taking a warranty. It seems especially with the Epson that these are being built to be a throw away item after using for just a couple of years. This time, for efficient ink usage at a great price, I just ordered the Canon G7020. It's a MEGATANK where you fill up the ink tanks with the bottles of ink that come with it and the refill ink bottles are super affordable. Yes Epson makes an ECOTANK system but after owning two Epson AIO printers since 2015 I am done with the brand. Besides, Canon will print photos MUCH better using the Canon glossy photo paper than any Epson AIO printer. I had a Canon small printer (not an AIO) many years ago going back to around 2003 and the photos printed on it in 8x10 on Canon glossy photo paper that I have framed at home still look amazing and not faded now in 2020. That speaks volumes about the quality of Canon. The only reason I went with a MEGATANK printer is it's easy to keep extra bottles of ink just in case as you always seem to need a cartridge of ink at the most inconvenient times and this way I am always prepared and not spending a lot for ink cartridges. I just bought a 3 color plus XL. black kit for the now broken WF 4740 printer and spent $125. Crazy expensive. DO NOT BUT this WF4740 unless you take out an extended warranty. It's a piece of garbage. And, the customer support by Epson is non existent too. Hard to get ahold of when and if you need them. Go with another brand even if not Canon.

I’ve only been using this printer for about a month so keep that in mind. But so far, so good. I received and set it up as per the included instructions. It was pretty straightforward and easy. I set it up as a completely Wi-Fi printer. I now print wirelessly from my desktop, laptop and iPhone. I have had zero problems with the unit and have printed several dozen multi page documents using it. I would recommend this printer but one should be aware: this is an inkjet printer and needs to be used fairly frequently to prevent the ink in the print heads from drying out. But I like the unit. The fact that it can print both sides of page is great.July 03, 2022 - Printer is still operating fine. I am utilizing the "auto order" for the ink cartridges. Works great! But again - this thing IS an inkjet printer and if you don't print to it at least once a week the print heads will dry out and you will have to have the unit clean them. This uses ink up VERY quickly. In an office environment, this will be fine.June 4, 2023 - Printer is still operating great! But it DOES use the ink at a good clip. Still, the ease of set up and use is making this a good buy for me. I am happy with it.July 1, 2025 - Still going and not a moments problem with it. However, I will be replacing this soon with a Laser printer. The laser toner lasts for a long time and it doesn't dry up link the ink cartridges. And color Laser printers are getting much more affordable.