Review: Epson Expression Premium XP-800 All In One Printer
For Xmas, my wife bought me an Epson Expression Premium XP-800 All In One Printer (yes, that’s it’s official title), which carries a retail value of $279, but can currently be found for $199, which is more of a fair price-point for the XP-800; I believe $279 to be too much for this device.
The XP-800 measures 17.2″ x 23.5″ x 8.1″ (W x D x H) when in full printing mode; and 15.4″ x 13.3″ x 7.5″ (W x D x H) when all the drawers and flaps are closed; which also keeps dust and dirt out of the unit; a feature which I really like, even more so when it stops kids poking things into the printer.
Connectivity on paper is very good; offering wireless B/G/N, Ethernet and USB connectivity; the XP-800 also has support for Google’s Cloud Print and Apple’s Airprint as well as Epson’s own EpsonConnect wireless printing system; all this systems allow for printing from smart devices, such as Android phones, iDevices and tablets. The Epson also has slots for SD/SDHC/SDXC, MS Duo and Compact Flash for printing directly from flash memory cards using the XP-800’s 3 1/2 touchscreen.
Printing is very good, very clear results with no noticeable bleed; a large step up from the HP Officejet 4500 which the XP-800 replaces. Print speed is also excellent, Epson claim 11ppm in black; which is within the realms of possibility, I’ve not printed 11 pages in one print job yet but a single page comes out within a 5 – 7 seconds, which would be about right for 11ppm. I haven’t tested colour printing; but Epson claim 8ppm; Epson also claim a 4 x 6 photo can be printed in 12 seconds. The Epson offers duplex printing as well; which is a nice feature to save paper and the environment.
The XP-800 is able to print on just about any type of paper, envelope, photo paper upto A4 size and even has a special tray for printing onto inkjet printable CD/DVD’s, I really like the flexibility that the XP-800 offers. It has two paper trays; one for A4/Letter/envelopes and another for photo paper, along with rear paper feed for envelopes and Avery labels, an option to cover every situation.
Scanning performance is good; no complaints from me; it has an auto document feeder; which offers duplex scanning, which is a massive time saver; no more scanning one side, turning the document over and scanning the rear of the document, then ordering the pages. The XP-800 also has a flatbed scanner for photo scanning, which produces high quality 4800dpi scans at the $199 price-point.
The Epson XP-800 also has copy and fax facilities; the copy function works well enough; it does what it says on the box; it scans and prints out a copy. I haven’t used the fax functionality as we don’t have a landline phone; so I won’t make any comment on the fax facility, but I assume it’s as good!
OK, now we move onto the problem areas; the wireless connectivity is very suspect; I couldn’t get the scanner to work wirelessly at all; the Epson Scan software reported that it couldn’t connect to the printer; despite telling it which IP address the device was located on. I had to connect an Ethernet cable to make it work; then re-enabled wireless (unplugging the Ethernet), but after leaving it overnight; the scanner was not found by the Epson Scan software. I have given up on the wireless connectivity and just hardwired it to the network, I can’t be bothered with messing around with the wireless connectivity every time I want to scan something; it’s just not worth the stress!
There is also a big problem with ink economy; after less than 20 black only text prints, I received a low ink warning; not just the black ink either, the cyan, magenta, yellow and photo black were also almost depleted despite not printing a single colour page. At $12.99 for each ink cartridge; it makes the Expression Premium XP-800 very expensive to use, as it requires five ink cartridges!
The final issue is frequent paper jams; one in every three prints infact; using standard letter sized paper; I understand that paper jams happen, but one in every three prints is unacceptable.
There is also a bizarre issue of the motorised tray automatically extending when printing, which is a cool feature, but the tray doesn’t automatically retract. Having to force the tray back inside the printer, pushing against the motor; it’s crazy for a motorised tray to extend but not retract!
I honestly can not say that I recommend this all-in-one after one month of use; too many issues and the poor ink economy make this an AVOID LIKE THE PLAGUE product; the only good thing I can say is that the scanner unit is very good but $200 for a scanner is way too much, very disappointing!
I returned the XP-800 to Best Buy and bought a HP Officejet Pro 8600 Plus for an extra $30; which after a little over 12 hours of ownership appears to have none of the problems that the Epson had!
I just purchased this unit which overall I am very pleased with. The one thing I find very odd though is that the motorised control panel and output tray opens automatically but will not retract, having to be closed manually. I have read various reviews on the web that say this is normal but I can’t quite believe it I’m afraid. The tray is clearly motorised and could retract after printing and removal of print job just as easily as it opens. It feels odd to push the tray back in and you can clearly feel the resistance of the motorised mechanism. I have also seen this review that stated clearly that in the review model the output tray “When idle, the control panel and output tray retract automatically,….”
I have seen the control panel close once automatically but never again since.
Did they forget to include a sensor so it doesn’t close on output that has not been removed…? Thereby having to disable this functionality in drivers….?
The FAQ on the US support webpage has also only just appeared as it is flagged as new on 09/01/2013; it does not appear on the UK webpage. In addition, the manual explicitly mentions the manual opening and adjustment of the control panel but does not mention the output tray has to be manually closed.
What are you not telling us Epson?
Kevin, hopefully your experience will be better than mine, maybe the UK version is better than the US version? which I owned. The motorised tray not closing automatically, or even by pressing a button, does seen very odd to me as it felt like I was forcing the tray back inside the unit, oh well, I have returned my XP-800 and found something I’m happy with!
I TOTALLY agree.
It doesn’t feel natural to push a motorized tray back in. It seems as though you’ll be breaking it in the not so distant future. I wonder if they’ll send out a patch or update that will satisfy this concern.
I agree, its absurd one has to shut the tray manually. Considering how well designed it is, I’m stunned this feature even exists. It should retract no problem?
If it closed ‘easily’ that would be one thing..but you literally have to ‘jam’ it in.
and If you choose NOT to close tray? beware, you will eventually bang into it b/c it sticks out a mile long! Negates the sleek look. Odd flaw indeed.
Hmm, found my way here by Google search. I was questioning myself as to whether It was broken or not! So it would seem not! Back driving the extend motor and physically forcing the tray home is ridiculous! I mean who would even allow that in the R & D department! Stupid, stupid, stupid feature, to what is otherwise a lovely printer.
My boss has an XP 800, it has just started printing every page with a yellow back ground!! It is not ink on a roller it is a defined set of boxes not all exactly the same size, but very defined. No one else seems to have this problem on all the searches I have done. I am waiting for Epson UK to call me back.
If anyone else has heard of a soulution please let me know. I deleted the printer off the pc reinstalled and I have updated the drivers, still the same?