Epson WF-C5790 and HP M577dn business printers are both excellent, high speed colour printers for offices across Canada, but they take different approaches. One, the Epson WF-C5790, is inkjet based while the other, the HP M577dn, is laser based. They have a lot in common, too. Let’s take a look at how these two printers compare.

Epson WF-C5790 @ $ 389.00 CAD

The Epson WF-C5790 multifunction printer uses Epson PrecisionCore Heat-Free Technology, which offers outstanding speed, print quality, energy savings, and reliability. The all-in-one printer prints, scans, copies, and faxes. With Ethernet, USB, wireless, and both mobile and remote printing, the Epson WF-C5790 is extremely flexible.

As an inkjet-based printer, the  Epson WF-C5790 multifunction colour business inkjet printer uses pigment inks in black, cyan, magenta, and yellow. These high yield inks come in large Replaceable Ink Pack System (RIPS) ink packs, an innovation that makes colour printing affordable. In fact, Epson offers two versions of the Epson WF-C5790. The standard printer retails for $389 CAD. The Epson WF-C5790 Supertank version comes with two years’ worth of ink in the box and retails for $999 CAD.

With a print resolution of up to 4800 dpi and brilliant full colour pigment inks, the Epson WF-C5790 produces fade-resistant, professional quality printouts. This printer is recommended for offices with monthly print volumes of up to 2,500 per month.

The Epson WF-C5790 has a fast first page out time and a maximum print speed of 24 ISO pages per minute, helping your office to work more productively without the energy requirements or high consumable costs of a colour laser printer.

HP M577dn @ $1688.00 CAD

The HP M577dn prints, scans, and copies but does not support faxing. It uses laser technology and colour and black toner cartridges to print and copy colour and monochrome documents. The HP M577dn has Ethernet, USB, and wireless and mobile capabilities.

As a laser printer, the  HP M577dn uses black and colour toner cartridges and has some operational costs to be aware of. The printer itself has been discontinued but its cartridges are still available. Replacing the full set of toner cartridges can cost close to $1,000 CAD, or even more if you go for the high capacity versions. Laser printers also tend to use much more energy than their inkjet-based counterparts.

The HP M577dn has a print resolution of up to 3600 dpi, resulting in excellent print quality. Its recommended monthly print volume is from 2,000 to 7,500 pages.

The HP M577dn has an impressive 40 pages per minute print speed. Because it is a laser printer, however, the HP M577dn must warm up before printing begins. Its first page out time is between 5.5 and 6.8 seconds (black and colour). In contrast, the Epson WF-C5790 does not need to warm up and can begin printing right away. Thus, the 16 pages per minute difference in print speeds between the HP M577dn and the  Epson WF-C5790 becomes less dramatic.

You can see how first page out times make a difference by watching the side-by-side speed comparison for yourself here: