I'm betting you're just as curious as I was about the new "S Series" signage printers from Epson. Let's take a close look at the differences — they're significant.
The Epson SureColor S9170 surpasses the older S80600 with drastically faster print speeds, a wider color gamut including a new Green ink and up to 99.5% PANTONE coverage, and the innovative addition of a user-replaceable printhead. The S9170 improves on the S80600's solid reputation for quality and reliability with key advances that boost productivity, expand gamut, and reduce downtime.
Performance and Efficiency
Feature
Epson SureColor S9170
Epson SureColor S80600
Print speed
Up to 2.5× faster than the S80600 in comparable quality modes, achieved with fewer print passes thanks to a larger, more advanced printhead.
Significantly slower, requiring more passes to reach the same visual quality.
Printhead
New, larger PrecisionCore® Micro TFP® printhead. The first solvent printer in its class with a user-replaceable printhead, drastically reducing maintenance downtime.
Smaller dual-array PrecisionCore TFP printhead. Replacement requires a service technician, meaning longer downtime.
Productivity
A major boost, with reports of jobs completing in half the time compared to the S80600.
Reliable but slower, less equipped for high-volume, fast-turnaround demands.
Color and Image Quality
Feature
Epson SureColor S9170
Epson SureColor S80600
Ink set & gamut
11-color UltraChrome® GS3 ink set adding a new Green ink, expanding the gamut to up to 99.5% of the PANTONE® PMS Formula Guide Solid Coated (2022 Edition).
10-color UltraChrome GS3 ink set including Red, providing 98.2% PANTONE coverage.
Specialty inks
The new Green ink replaces the Metallic Silver option. Optional White or cleaning solution in the 11th channel.
Optional White or Metallic Silver.
Print quality
Larger printhead and enhanced ink algorithms produce visually identical quality at much faster speeds. Blind tests showed its 4-pass mode matched the quality of the S80600's 8-pass output.
Excellent photographic-quality output, but needs more passes to get there.
Design and Usability
Feature
Epson SureColor S9170
Epson SureColor S80600
Physical design
Modern, compact, space-saving design — roughly a foot narrower.
Larger, older-style design occupying more floor space.
Usability
Intuitive 4.3-inch color LCD touchscreen for simple navigation.
Smaller 2.72-inch LCD screen.
Media handling
New front and back loading levers plus a media lifter for easier roll handling.
Standard media handling for its generation.
The Verdict
I hope you've found this comparison helpful. The new S Series is super cool, in my view — the combination of a wider gamut, genuinely faster throughput, and a printhead your own team can swap changes the economics of a signage floor.
Schedule a Consultation
Contact Bill Owen at Alder Color Solutions for more info, pricing, and consultation. You may need to upgrade your RIP with a new printer option to drive this printer — we can help. billo@aldertech.com — 720-933-4413
About the Author
Bill Owen
Lead Color Specialist, Alder Color Solutions
Bill is an Idealliance-certified G7 Expert and founder of Elevated Color, with more than 45 years in prepress, printing, and color management — including over 25 years dedicated to helping printers achieve predictable, repeatable color across commercial, packaging, wide-format, offset, digital, and inkjet work.
He specializes in G7 implementation, ICC profiling, press and monitor calibration, proofing systems, and workflow standardization, with deep experience across RIPs including EFI Fiery XF, PrintFactory, ChromaChecker, Onyx, Caldera, and Xitron Navigator, and platesetter workflows such as Agfa Apogee, Kodak Prinergy, Esko, and Heidelberg Prinect. His work has appeared in PRINTING United, Idealliance, and WhatTheyThink.
