Epson Expression Premium XP-820 Printer Review. The Expression Premium XP-820 printer from Epson is a compact, feature rich all-in-one print, copy, fax machine with an innovative design that offers some of the best photo quality prints around at great price. Perfect for your home or home office.
Expression Premium XP-820 Features
The Expression XP-820 all-in-one features an 8.5×11″ copy bed, top load 30 document automatic feeder, fax ability, wireless printing, built in USB 2.0 and SD card reader for direct file printing without the need for a pc. The XP-820 is also capable of WiFi B/G/N network speeds and also offers a 10/100 ethernet port WiFi Direct printing across your home or small business network.
Setting up WiFi for the XP-820 is easy and quick. Simply tap the network icon on the LCD touchscreen and enter in your network info or you can even use WiFi Direct supported wireless printing, AirPrint, Google Cloud Print, Android 4.4+, Mopria and Epson Connect.
The Expression XP-820 also features a 4.3″ color touch screen LCD panel with gesture recognition to make things easier for you to navigate. The all-in-one printer features a built-in 33.6kbps color/blk & wht fax machine and convenient direct numeric pad with address book on screen for easy use when operating fax functionality.
Automatic top load or traditional front load scanner bed allows for quick and convenient copying at your deskside without sacrificing a ton of space. You can scan or copy at 4800dpi or maximum 9600×9600 dpi interpolated in color or black and white with the Epson Scan software included with the driver install CD; scan and attach documents into PDF or JPEG automatically to your email, locally to your computer or even to a cloud storage location via Easy Photo Scan.
Also featured is an SD card reader slot, and CD/DVD label printer. The unit comes in a 21.5 lbs measuring 19.1 x 10.4 x 16.8 inches and is Energy Star rated for more efficient and lower power consumption. Supported Operating Systems: Windows 8/7/XPSP3&64bit/OSX/Universal
For when you need the 30-page automatic document feeder, simply lift the cover and open, the other half of the cover will descend allowing the documents to return once they’ve run through the bed. A little pull tab gives the paper some extra support upon exit and folds back up clean when you don’t need it.
A broad lip allows you to conveniently lift upward to reveal the scanner bed. Just under the right upper corner is a recessed area that allows you to lift the scanner glass layer up and expose the 5 ink reservoirs. Very easy to install and replace ink cartridges.
Using the Expression Premium XP-820
The touchscreen LCD panel will automatically raise when printing and can be somewhat confusing at first. I’m not a big fan of the LCD door and it can act a little odd from time to time; Just let it settle down then work with the panel if necessary. The panel will swivel up automatically upon powering up to a more comfortable viewing angle and lower and tuck away once you go idle for a short period to save on energy. An on screen tray button also allows you to close the tray immediately when necessary.
The UI is fairly easy to use and intuitive and LCD allows for an easy swipe so you’ll feel comfortable using it. The paper tray however may confuse you at first. The paper,photo and CD trays are located behind the lower door which will swivel down towards you with a simple finger tug in the slot provided to the left. The output tray will automatically open for you when you print something and is located behind the upper door or LCD panel.
Tugging on the already open lower door extends the main bulk paper tray which holds about a half inch or so of plain paper. Just above the main bulk paper tray is the photo tray which allows you to place an array of different sized photo paper, card stock, envelopes etc using the slide adjustment guides.
Oddly the upper photo tray must be gently pushed back until it clicks and seats itself and the two white arrows align, if you push too hard, the tray will go back too far and you must be conscious to keep the arrows aligned and tray center seated. You’ll easily be able to tell when it’s sitting properly. The main paper tray may be quite small for many and will only hold about a half inch or less of plain paper, so frequent reloads may be necessary depending on your usage.
CD/DVD labeling can be confusing as the system does not have a dedicated tray for it, but rather a plastic template/carrier that resides in a storage slot just under the main paper tray door. You must pull it out all the way, seat your cd in it, then physically insert it into the CD/DVD label slot which is just above the main output tray. Again you will need to align the printed white arrows that exist on the cd/dvd tray and the open slot above the main output tray. Just as with the photo tray it IS possible to push the CD/DVD tray in too far. It would have been a better design to have the trays securely seat when pushed in all the way, vs aligning visual arrows. Once you’ve oriented yourself with the process, it isn’t a problem, but luckily we don’t burn, much less label many CDs or DVDs these days.
Printing Quality on the Expression Premium XP-820
In addition to it’s functionality, photo quality of the prints is where the Epson XP-820 shines. Clear and crisp with excellent color saturation the printer will work great for in a pinch presentation material or family and vacation photos. Printing text documents are clear and clean with acceptable resolution for most any files you need to print out.
The Epson XP-820 prints quite well on plain paper without over-saturating and making it soggy with ink. It even deals with double-sided printing efficiently so no need to buy ink jet printer specific paper all the time. Print speeds of 14ppm black and 11ppm color seemed to be plenty fast enough for any home or small office setting. If you are super impatient or need faster printing you’ll undoubtedly be shelling out more money for it. Arguably you will not find a better model with the photo quality, versatility and the price on sale this season.
I’m a big fan of hexachrome 6 color cartridge printing, but the Epson Expression XP-820 uses a 5 color cartridge format separating into two different blacks; Black, Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Photo Black giving excellent results for a 5 color system. The printer produces beautiful photos and having the separation of photo black vs black does afford your ink a little more mileage. Ink overall however seems to be used fairly quickly when compared to other home class printers, but the image quality is noticeably better than other printers at the same level so choose your evil wisely.
The Cartridges will run you $12.99 for the standard and $18.99-$22.99 for the high capacity XL versions. Running costs run about on par with about 250-300 prints and 500-650 prints with the high capacity cartridges.
In addition to the standard paper sizes: 3.5″ x 5″, 4″ x 6″, 5″ x 7″, 8″ x 10″, 8.5″ x 11″, 8.5″ x 14″, A4, B5, A5, A6, half letter, executive, the XP-820 also supports borderless paper sizes: 3.5″ x 5″, 4″ x 6″, 5″ x 7″, 8″ x 10″, 8.5″ x 11″, 16:9 wide, great for when you need to run a bleed.
Conclusion
It’s an excellent choice for many for it’s speed, versatility and performance at a sub $200 price tag. (on sale considerably cheaper this holiday season) The Epson Expression XP-820 offers a wide array of functionality and absolutely shines with it’s photo quality prints. Great for any home or home office network environment with excellent photo quality and overall performance.
MSRP is $199 spotted on sale this holiday from major electronics retailers
www.EPSON.com
