Epson Expression Premium XP-810 Small-in-One review: Do-it-all printer offers best photo quality for the price
The Epson Expression XP-810 Small-in-One Printer could make almost anyone happy. It has an impressively deep list of features for a home printer and is also one of the best all-around performers in it price range.
Here’s the big catch: ink costs. This is officially a $230 printer (as of 11/8/2013)—though you should be able to shop around for a better price, and Epson is currently discounting it on its own site. However, if I’m spending that much, I expect to be repaid with lower ink prices. Instead the costs are a little higher than average: 4.6 or 5.2 cents per page (cpp) for black, and 13.4 or 18.2 cpp for a four-color page, using the high-capacity or standard-size cartridges, respectively.
I had the same complaint about ink costs recently with a close competitor of this model, the Canon Pixma MG7120. Not a good trend! The best overall deal in this price range currently is the HP Photosmart 7520 e-All-in-One, whose inks are refreshingly affordable.
The only compensation for the ink costs is the print quality, which is some of the best you’ll experience with a consumer-level inkjet. The Expression XP-810 has both pigment- and dye-based blacks as well as cyan, magenta, and yellow. The pigment-based black helps it create crisp-looking text even on plain paper. Meanwhile, the dye-based black helps it create a nice sense of depth in photos. We’ve always liked the bright, lively palette of Epson-printed photos anyway, and the Expression XP-810 sticks with that tradition. Photos printed on plain paper can look a little pinkish, but they look spectacular on Epson’s own photo paper.
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