Epson has been so big on its new Ink Tank System, that it has been churning out new ITS-based all-in-one printers quite frequently. I received the Epson L486 printer for a test drive and I am glad to report that that the performance on this one was outstanding.
In terms of design and build quality, the L486 boasts a typical “Epson” kind of setup. The L486 follows the same core design with many of its Epson siblings with the same multifunctional capabilities. As always Epson’s ITS stands out from other brands of printers, which despite adding additional bulk, adds quite a lot more in terms of value.
The L486 comes with a ‘floating’ main panel, which can be tilted up or pushed back depending on your preference. You will find a set of buttons on the panel, which includes the on/off, home, navigational, cancel and maintenance buttons. The panel also comes with a 1.45-inch colour display.
The display is of the non-touch variety – so it is operated by means of the navigation buttons. The L486 also accompanies an SD card slot, which allows you to print directly from the memory card.
Setting up the printer was a walk in the park. As soon as you take the L486 out of its box, the first thing you need to do is fill up the ink tank with the ink that accompanies the printer, in bottles.
Once you have filled up the ink tank system, you go through the ink charging procedure. It takes around 20 minutes for the L486 to completely charge the ink that was poured into the ink tank system. All this while, you will see the power light flashing, indicating that the ink is being charged.
Once the ink is charged, you are good to go. The L486 also supports printing directly from a phone by using the Epson iPrint app. Wireless printing also includes support for Epson Connect (iPrint, Email Print), Apple AirPrint and Google Cloud Print.
The print quality is pretty impressive. The L486 also can be used for photo prints – for best results use glossy photo print paper. We tested the printer on three different quality of photo papers in A4 and A5 sizes, one matte, one premium glossy, and another a more generic glossy photo paper.
The Epson L486 was able to deliver brilliant and accurate colour reproduction on all prints. In terms of print speed, the L4886 was able to achieve speeds of 34 pages/min in monochrome, and 16 pages/min in colour. At an asking price of AED 1099, the Epson L486 is not really cheap. However, the kind of cost savings you can experience due to the Ink Tank System over time, makes it a wise buy.
Price: AED 1,099
