Even my technophobic mum found this Epson printer ridiculously easy to use — now the EcoTank gets a big price cut at Amazon

Amazon is currently running a Tech Week sale on a whole range of goodies - and one particular deal caught my eye. It's for the Epson EcoTank ET-2861 that's now £150 (was £240) at Amazon.

It prints, it copies, it scans. And it comes with with three years' worth of ink in the box (four coloured bottles). This budget ink tank printer is a very simple and straightforward model that's well-suited for home or home office use. And I know this because it's the one I bought my mum a few weeks ago.

It's difficult to describe how technophobic my mum is - even copy-and-paste functions are pitched somewhere between the mysterious, the magical, and the demonic. So, I think it speaks volumes that even she got this one up and running and printed a tonne of documents without needing to call me (if you're also the 'tech support guy' of your family, then hello!).

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Today's top Epson EcoTank printer deal

Save £90.02

Epson EcoTank ET-2861 with 3 years' ink: was £239.99 now £149.97 at Amazon

This budget Epson EcoTank is a great entry-point into ink tank printers, and can print, copy, and scan. In my own experience, I found it quick for general tasks like mixed colour and monochrome documents. Setup was easy, and the four ink tanks produced results that are suitable for home and home office use.

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Now, I always champion ink tank printers over inkjets - they may be slightly more expensive in the short-term, but they're far cheaper to run using bottled ink, and faster than cartridge-based printers.

The ET-2861 (sometimes labelled the ET-2860 on sites like Argos and Currys, but effectively the same) is no different. I really appreciated the amount of ink you get in the box, letting you start printing right away without spending more money.

It felt quick to print - somewhere in the middle of a fast inkjet and a slow laser printer - Epson lists print speeds on Amazon as 33 pages per minute in monochrome, 15 in colour, and although I didn't time it, that feels about right.

It's not as high-resolution as some of the EcoTank models, especially those aimed at professional photographers and designers, and only carries four tanks, rather than the six that high-end ink tanks possess. But for home printing, I don't think that's a problem at all.

It also has no Apple AirPrint support - although printing via Epson's own app on an iPhone proved no problem at all when I tried it. You can also print direct from places like the Google Drive app, which worked seamlessly.

Set-up is very simple - the longest part of the process was connecting the printer to the Epson app, and that was mostly because of slow Wi-Fi speeds. Once that's done, it's really easy. If my mum can use it, anyone can.

For more top-performers, check out my guide to the best home printers and best ink tank printers we've tested and reviewed.

More printer deals

Save £79.29

HP LaserJet M234DW all-in-one laser printer: was £179.99 now £100.70 at Amazon

One for the home office or small businesses. This HP monochrome laser printer is a good pick if you're only printing documents and you want them to look crisp and sharp. It hits up to 30 pages per minute. It's a multifunction device that prints, copies, scans, and even has automatic double-sided mode.

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TATTMUSE portable A4 thermal printer: was £94.99 now £64.99 at Amazon

This portable A4 thermal printer features Bluetooth connection for printing business-critical documents from your phone. On a single charge, you can print up to 160 sheets, and this deal comes with a roll of 20 A4 sheets to get you started.

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Kodak Dock Era Desktop Photo Printer + 50 sheets: was £149.99 now £116.32 at Amazon

The Dock Era from Kodak is a simple way to print photographs from your iOS or Android phone, through both Bluetooth or by connecting it to the dock. This bundle includes fifty 4 x 6in sheets.

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