Epson WorkForce ES-50 Review
Our Verdict
Compare to Similar Products
This Product Epson WorkForce ES-50 | |||||
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Awards | Best Portable Scanner | Best Bang for the Buck | |||
Price | $130 List $122.00 at Amazon | $180 List $149.99 at Amazon | $120 List $99.00 at Amazon | $120 List $119.99 at Amazon | $0.00 List |
Overall Score | |||||
Star Rating | |||||
Bottom Line | While probably sufficient for most, this portable model is not a great option for the home office | Great performance from a portable scanner that isn't to bad on the wallet | Great performance for infrequent tasks, but not great for large tasks that require auto feeding and higher speeds | While not the fastest, it excels in every aspect at a relatively low price | You can give it a try without any risk, and packs a lot of performance into a phone app, but isn't great for longer documents |
Rating Categories | Epson WorkForce ES-50 | Epson WorkForce ES-60W | Epson Perfection V3... | Brother DS-640 | Scanner Pro App |
Scanning Performance (35%) | |||||
Speed (30%) | |||||
Ease of Use (20%) | |||||
Software (15%) | |||||
Specs | Epson WorkForce ES-50 | Epson WorkForce ES-60W | Epson Perfection V3... | Brother DS-640 | Scanner Pro App |
Paper Sizes | 8.5" x 72" | Max: 8.5" x 72" | 8.5" x 11.7" | Max: 8.5" x 32" | Any size |
Resolution | 600 dpi | 1200 dpi | 4800 dpi | 600 x 600 dpi | N/A |
Simplex/Duplex | Simplex | Simplex | Simplex | Simplex | Simplex |
Automatic Document Feeder | No | No | No | No | No |
Measured Pages Per Minute | 6.7 | 7.5 | 3.8 | 4.0 | 3.0 |
Weight | 0.6 lb | 0.7 lb | 3.1 lb | 1.0 lb | N/A |
Our Analysis and Test Results
Performance Comparison
Scanning Performance
The color accuracy of the Epson WorkForce ES-50 left a little to be desired in our scanning performance tests. Scans of the original test photos consistently produced oversaturated colors, with blues being especially oversaturated and unnatural looking. Additionally, brightness and contrast ended up looking different from the originals, with highlights that were overly bright, and shadows that became faded and too dark. While the scanning performance overall is fine for small documents and one-off business applications, this model would not be the best choice for digitizing a family photo album.
Speed
The small size, portability, and convenience of the Epson WorkForce ES-50 are great features, but they come at the cost of a significant reduction in speed. The single-sheet feed design can process a single-sided 600 DPI sheet in 6 seconds. This is not terrible when compared to a handful of the slower models we've tested, but the single sheet feed format and lack of duplex mode slows this down significantly when used for our 10-page document 600 DPI black and white duplex test, in which we had to manually scan each side of the 10 sheets, resulting in a tedious and slow 6.7 pages per minute scanning rate.
The Epson WorkForce ES-50 was clearly not designed for speed, so if you plan on doing more than occasional scanning on the go, the slow speeds and manual sheet feeding might be a good reason to consider another model.
Ease of Use
There are no paper output trays, autofeeds, or large arrays of buttons to deal with when operating the Epson WorkForce ES-50, which keeps the operation quite straightforward. It has one single button and requires manually setting each page to feed. It doesn't get much more simple than that! Those who seek simplicity will appreciate the ES-50's uncomplicated design and user-friendliness. Settings and adjustments are also easy to access via the software on a computer.
Software
Epson delivers consistent, problem-free software with the vast majority of its scanners, and the Epson WorkForce ES-50 follows the standard to a tee. We experienced no issues while operating the ES-50 and found the software to be typical of a company with a well-known pedigree in the printing and scanning industry.
Should You Buy the Epson WorkForce ES-50?
We liked the Epson WorkForce ES-50 for its portability and the fact that it targets a niche mobile role in scanning. However, it fell short of the performance of another very similar but faster and more capable Epson model, and is more expensive than our favorite portable budget option. Therefore, it isn't our top recommendation for a mobile scanner, and we feel that there are better options to consider.
What Other Scanners Should You Consider?
For mobile scanning, the Epson WorkForce ES-60W stood out as the better choice over the Epson WorkForce ES-50 as the ES-60W offers higher quality scanning and faster speeds in our comprehensive testing. While it is a little more expensive than the ES-50, the significant improvement in scanning performance makes up for the price difference in our eyes. If you don't need a portable scanner, the best performance and, in particular, the fastest speeds can be found in the Fujitsu ScanSnap iX1600, but expect a big hit to your wallet. Because the iX160 is more expensive than most may be willing to spend, the Canon ImageFORMULA R40 is a great option with even better scanning performance and a lower price, however, it doesn't compare to the incredible speed of the iX160.