Pros

  • Economical inks
  • Very fast at printing text, copying, and scanning
  • Low purchase price

Cons

  • Middling text quality at default settings
  • High-yield inks offer little savings
  • No automatic duplexer

At A Glance

The WorkForce 520's speed and cheap inks address two small-office needs, but its text quality on plain paper falls short of another.

Manufacturer’s Description

Easily accelerate office productivity with the WorkForce 520, the world's fastest all-in-one1, which features ISO print speeds of 15 ISO ppm and 5.4 ISO ppm . Quickly connect and print wirelessly from multiple computers with Easy Epson Wi-Fi with n compatibility1. Use the 30-page Auto Document Feeder to easily copy or scan stacks of documents. The Super G3 fax ensures high-speed faxing in color or black and white, while instant-dry DURABrite Ultra Ink delivers smudge, fade and water resistant documents that you can handle immediately after printing.

The Specs

Pricing
Part Number C11CA78241
Requirements
Operating System Compatibility
  • Macintosh OS X 10.5.x
  • Macintosh OS X 10.6.x
  • Microsoft Windows 7
  • Microsoft Windows Vista
  • Microsoft Windows XP
Display
Photo preview 0
Display type Monochrome (fixed-character)
Text Only 1
Touchscreen 0
Ports and Connections
USB Yes
Wireless connection Yes
Power
Maximum Power Draw (watts) 15 watts
Standby Power Draw (watts) 4 watts
Green
Energy Star compliant 1.0
Faxing
Fax page memory capacity 180.0
Dimensions
Width 18.1 inches
Depth 21.3 inches
Height 11.9 inches
Weight 16.3 pounds
Media Handling
Standard Number of Input Trays 1
Maximum sheet capacity with standard trays 100.0 sheets
Optional Trays Available 0
Manual Feed Slot 0
Automatic Duplexer Not Available
Dedicated photo tray 0
Media Sizes Accepted Legal inches
Automatic Document Feeder 1
Scanning
Scanner Type Sheetfed
Horizontal Optical Scan Resolution 1200
Vertical Optical Scan Resolution 2400
Maximum External Bit Depth 24-bit
Platform Support
Printer languages supported GDI/Host-based
Printer Type
Number of Colors 4
Colors Available
  • Cyan
  • K (Black)
  • Magenta
  • Yellow
Cost Per Page
Plain Text Page (Highest yield vendor ink) 2.4 cents per page
4-color page (cheapest vendor ink) 11.9 cents per page
Vendor Rated Speeds
Monochrome print speed 15 ppm
Color print speed 5 ppm
Warranty
Warranty information 1 Year

Performance

PCWorld Test Center (Quality)
Print quality: Text Fair
Print quality: Color photo Good
Scan quality: Text Good
Scan quality: Color photo Good
Scan quality: Line art Fair
Copy quality Good
PCWorld Test Center (Speed)
Print speed: Text 12.6  ppm
Print speed rating: Text Superior
Print speed: Color photo 1.6  ppm
Print speed rating: Color photo Good
Copy speed 7.3  ppm
Copy speed rating Superior