★★★★★ 5
Brilliant photo prints on Epson media
For convenience, I am writing and updating this review as I work with the Epson ET-8500. At this point, I have unpacked the device, completed the setup process, installed driver on my Windows 11 PC, printed test pages, and, most recently. installed driver on my Windows 11 laptop. The remainder of the review summarizes all additional experience with the printer.
My inkjet printer experience is substantial. After a lifetime of various HP inkjets, the ink/printhead hassle finally led me to the Epson WP-4090 in 2014. That printer served well and reliably but in the past couple years its print quality has become more spotty. It's consumed nearly six complete sets of ink cartridges and I was looking at needing another set sometime this year. Finally, the increasing cost of cartridges vs. decreasing quality has led me to retire the old gal.
Unpacking the ET-8500: Removing all the external blue tape was easy. The quick start guide is vague on removing the internal tape. I opened the scanner to reveal the interior where much additional blue tape is located. However, I could not re-close the scanner because I was at this stage unwilling to force it -- everything in there is plastic. I finally located a Reddit string of someone with the same dilemma. The answer is basically to apply more force to the right side. This worked.
There was still blue tape visible on the output tray, but not accessible with the output tray retracted. Based on a web query, I manually pulled out the output tray (normally a NO NO based on all other documentation). I removed the tape but of course couldn't close the output tray. The control panel is useless at this point because it is focused ONLY on filling the ink reservoirs. After more web queries, I manually closed the output tray, as gently as possible. Hopefully, I have not destroyed the output tray automation mechanism.
I also noticed that the blue transport lock lever was already in the unlocked position. So this printer came all the way from Indonesia to me with the print mechanism unlocked. I will only find out if there is any damage when I start printing in a few days.
Rating so far: Three stars based solely on the infernal complication of what should have been an no-brainer unpacking procedure, aggravated by the poor Epson documentation and dicey web insights. I expect this rating would improve in the next several days as I fill the ink reservoirs, connect up the first PC, and perform initial printing.
Completing the setup: Filling the ink tanks. Next morning I'm fresh and ready to proceed with the ink. This turns out to be just as easy as promised. Not a drop was spilled. Finally (I thought) was the moment to load letter paper. A web query explained that you must pull out the large bottom paper tray by yanking on the opened bottom cover. I never would have guessed, but it did the trick.
I printed the single "alignment" page which looked great but the control panel defaults to printing a bunch more test patterns, which I was able to skip. By the way, after all that struggle to load paper into the bottom tray, the test page demanded a sheet fed from the rear input.
Driver installation onto Windows 11 PC: I should mention that I connect this printer via Ethernet, so no fooling around with Wi-Fi settings. The Epson support page allows all driver and utility components to be downloaded individually, but recommends downloading the single, small, master installer. When this one is run, it asks what components you want, then downloads and installs those. It then automatically finds the printer on the network, configures the PC to access it, and offers to print a test page. Wouldn't you know it, the paper source is still that darned single sheet feeder on the rear.
Finally, time to use Word to print my standard printer quality page consisting of various fonts and images. First attempt again demanded the single sheet feeder on the rear. I cancelled that job in the queue and looked much more closely at the print options dialog (need the printer-specific dialog, not the Word dialog to see this). Paper source was Auto, which one would imagine means use the main paper tray if it's full and the rear tray is empty. Evidently not. I had to change the paper source setting to specify the lower paper tray. Then it worked fine.
Oh, I see from a web query just now that you must "register" the size of paper loaded into each tray into the control panel. Then, it claims, "Auto" source will work correctly. I will have to try that tomorrow.
Rating so far: In view of the successful operation of the printer, in spite of all the shenanigans from the day before that could have broken something, I have raised my rating to Four Stars.
Driver installation on Windows 11 laptop. I mention this because the installation procedure (identical to that for the Windows 11 PC, above) ran just fine (downloading multi-megabytes of driver installation files over the laptop's Wi-Fi connection) but hard-failed at detecting the printer. It claimed that the laptop wasn't connected to a network. The only option was to cancel the install and start over. My theory is that the author of this code assumed that if the printer were Ethernet-connected, then the computer trying to find it must also be Ethernet-connected. Nonsense, I agree, but I plugged the laptop into an Ethernet port, reran the Epson installer, and it detected the printer just fine, no hesitation.
Heady from this success, I installed the Epson Smart Panel app onto my iPad. Needless to say, this app seems to assume everything is on Wi-Fi (and maybe even Bluetooth, which it demands access to - why?). Of course, it couldn't find the Epson printer. However, there was an option to enter the printer's IP address, which worked. It raises the question, what happens if, next time through the DHCP initialization process, the printer is assigned a different IP address?
Today, I also "registered" the main lower paper tray as containing letter-sized plain white paper, using the printer's control panel. After that, print jobs with paper source set to "Auto" printed correctly. Woo hoo!
In spite of apparent lame networking assumptions coded within the Epson installation package and IOS Smart Panel app, my cumulative star rating remains, for now, at four stars.
Remainder of review: the following experiences will be updated from time to time.
Connecting printer to Apple Mac Mini Tahoe. The Epson ET-8500 support webpage allows selection of Apple Mac Tahoe but the resulting download is for Intel silicon. However, I found that the Mac's Setup Add Printer function finds the printer on the network and installs required driver software with one click. The is typical Apple user-friendly experience vs. multiple technical steps needed on Windows.
Printing of high-quality art prints. I printed out two of mine on 8.5"x11" premium glossy photo paper. Output quality "Standard", while it prints much faster, yields coarse-resolution ink dot patterns on the print. Output quality "High" prints much more slowly, but the image is rendered mostly at resolution. However, under a magnifying lamp, periodic white dots are visible, lined up in the direction of paper travel (not print head travel). These flaws will prevent the prints from being used in presentations. On the web, I learned that these dots are called "Pizza Wheel" marks and are caused by the serrated exit guide wheels pulling the paper through. Some mitigations are suggested, which I will experiment with in the days ahead.
Solution to the "Pizza Wheel" marks: Those flawed results described above were obtained using on some old HP Premium Glossy Photo Paper that I had laying around. Understanding that Epson would optimize settings for their own media products, and also that fresh media is usually recommended, I got ahold of some letter-sized Epson Ultra Premium Presentation Paper Matte and some 4"x6" Epson Ultra Premium Photo Paper Glossy (these two styles were the ones available for same-day delivery). The art prints on the presentation paper were flawless, though the brilliance range was of course somewhat reduced from the glossy print. Next, I started printing out some 4"x6"s on the ultra premium glossy stuff and the results were flawless and brilliant. I kept printing a number of my favorite images until I forced myself to stop. Some letter-size of the ultra premium glossy paper is coming soon, and printing on that will be the acid test. But I am happy enough now and confident enough to raise my star rating of this Epson ET-8500 printer to Five Stars.
Full-size (8.5"x11") photo printing: Using fresh letter-size Epson Ultra Premium Photo Paper Glossy, I printed two of my art photos with a variety of dark or well-saturated color areas. These came out brilliant and perfect. The Epson ET-8500 is a winner,
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Reviewed in the United States on May 23, 2026
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