- Superior photo quality and sharp text with 5 individual ink tanks
- Dedicated photo tray, plus print CD/DVDs with special tray
- 30-page Auto Doc Feeder with 2 sided scanning, faxing, and copying
- Intuitive 3.5" touchscreen with gesture navigation
- EPSON Connect - easily print from iPads, iPhones, tablets, and smartphone
I was excited to see an all-in-one printer that had the added capability of high quality photo printing. The XP-800 is a good printer as all of Epson''s printers are, but I''d recommend choosing one of their workforce series all-in-ones and buy a high quality photo printer separately.
The reason is that the photo capability all but kills the regular paper capacity of the unit in order to make room for the special photo paper tray. They also include a tray for printing CD''s and DVD''s that have special printable tops to them. The XP-800 uses an extra "photo black" cartridge for photo prints. Photo print quality is good but I''ve seen better out of dedicated photo printers. A few test images I sent to the printer are a bit grainy despite setting the printer to its highest settings and printing on glossy photo paper.
Another odd decision was the motorized output tray that pops out of the unit when printing. Kind of an odd thing to have especially since it won''t retract it when the printed papers are removed. Pushing the tray back in is met with some resistance from the electric motor and it feels like something might break after awhile. Document print speed is good and about on par with the product description.
I do like the expanded Epson Cloud Connect feature. You can now scan directly to Dropbox, Google Drive, Box.Net, Evernote, and email. Setup is easy and just requires running a piece of software initially to configure things. They also kept my favorite feature, scan to memory card, which will scan images to PDF and save them on a memory card inserted in the printer''s card reader. Turning on a file sharing feature will allow you to access those files over your home network.
Configuration on my Mac was incredibly easy. I didn''t have to install any drivers and the printer appeared immediately after I configured it to access my home wifi network. It also showed up on my list of printers on my iPhone and iPad. Very cool.
Bottom line: This printer tries to do it all but doesn''t do a very good job of it. If you''re looking for a home or small office all-in-one consider one of the Epson Workforce printers and buy a second printer for photo prints.I was ready for a new printer and having had a prior Epson printer and currently having an Epson scanner, I researched various Epson printers and despite having no reviews on Amazon at the time, I dove for this one. While we really don''t need to print pictures, this one can and it has a higher scanner spec than the ones I was comparing it to.
The short version of my review is below:
In summary:
Good:
***Quick & easy setup
***Crisp clean prints
***Seamless wireless setup even when not attached to a computer
***Having the option to print to mobile (but the setup of this was awful)
Bad:
***Suggesting setup attached to a computer
***Seems fragile
***Paper trays not easy to find
***Setup for print from mobile abysmal.
***LCTM client is a means of getting advertisements directly on my computer.
I have not scanned to a computer yet, or printed a picture. Also I have not yet sent a fax. Nor have I used the multi-page feed mechanism yet. When I do, I will repost.
PRINTER SEEMS FRAIL AND MADE OF MANY MOVING PARTS:
What first struck me with this printer, is that it seemed fragile and fussy. Not a good start, but given the durability of other printers have not been an issue, we''ll see how it goes. Only time will address this.
Out of the box, there was lot of blue tape to remove. Apparently there are a lot of moving parts that have to be secured to ship this item. I would say about 25-30 and loads of clear plastic.
The scanner multi-feed tray closes nicely giving the printer a sleek look, but at the slightest press it snaps open. One of my cats were startled to discover this option. I''m concerned that these plastic components seem fragile. Hopefully this action will keep my cat from stepping on this printer in the future, but anyone who has cats know that what they are allowed to do and what they do when you are not home are two different things. I hope they don''t break it.
QUICK START SETUP WAS SEAMLESS
The Quick start guide walked us through a simple bunch of steps. Including plugging it in and installing software on our computer, as well as putting paper in it. One thing it suggested us to do was to connect to a computer for initial setup, which I balked at. I didn''t buy a wireless printer to set it up tethered. Luckily it had a direct to wireless option, that I used seamlessly to punch in the long WPA2 password for our router security. Worked great.
It was a very quick and easy start up and in under 30 minutes we were printing. 10 minutes of that was removing blue tape.
FINDING PAPER TRAY WAS DIFFICULT:
It took me the longest to figure out where to put the paper. As short as this printer is, there are multiple paper trays. One for pictures, one for paper, one for CDs and even a back input for on the fly paper additions. The output tray glides out by itself, which I thought was pretty cool.
NICE UI DISPLAY:
The LCD display looks nice and is clean and easy to figure out. I keep trying to press the down arrows on the display, but some were so close to other icons, I kept hitting those. They had up/down arrows to the right of the LCD that worked fine though. However when are poking at a touch screen, you don''t notice them.
PRINT FROM MOBILE SETUP WAS AWFUL:
Another reason I had opted to get a new printer, was to use the print from phone, or tablet option. Epson connect is something that provides this and I don''t think I have had more difficulty than this in a long time setting something up. I have an Android phone and an iPad. Both easily found the app. However initiating this option for the printer on the computer was a maddening experience. Finding info on the main Epson site was impossible. Apparently all the info is on the Epson connect site. We needed an Epson printer email that took a day and a half to obtain, only because the site had a circular logic to it. While I registered the printer, and Epson acknowledged it, this was not visible to me in my account settings at the main Epson site. This seemed to be necessary to unlock the epson email address to my printer. My printer was not acknowledging this, so I could not install the software. We spent a lot of time and hazarded on to the solution more by accident than design. I can''t recommend this. They need to fix this process as it was painful and if not for our persistence beyond all reason, this would have never gotten sorted out. Every time I looked for something in the site, it gave me all the steps after I had the email address. However it never really told me how to get this email address. It told me where it would be(sort of, as they didn''t call the things the same name from one area to the next)...but not how to get to the step to initialize it (registering). As a usability engineer, I know they need work on testing this process and getting the instructions in line. Better yet, make it seamless. More of us want prints from our mobile devices. This is not a "me too" option but more important than they realize..
Also I wrote an email to the first Epson connection in this search for information and instead of help, I received a note telling me I had written to the accessories division and I had to write to a different location to get help. Shame on you. What would it take to forward this note to the right parties? You are both representing the same company. When I received a reply from the "right" division, it was a form letter using keywords from my note sending me back to same useless locations, that I had already tried....which I had included in my letter.
Once I had the print to mobile working, I could print from stuff on my phone/ipad and even scan to my phone. I''m still seeing how well that works. I tried to print from my Google drive and it was sporadic. I printed a spreadsheet that the orientation was wrong on. Since I had previously printed this same spreadsheet out in the correct orientation, I don''t know why it was wrong here. No small issue as it took a page that would have printed in 1 page to 5. No idea how to fix it and I could not print Google documents. It kept saying failure to transfer error -15. Not very helpful mind you. I did however scan to google docs, which was kind of cool. I will use this more.
LCTM CLIENT ADDED FROM THE EPSON SOFTWARE IS A MEANS OF ADVERTISING
Generally when I add software to my computer from a manufacturer whose product I purchased I don''t expect them to push spam. Yeah I know an occasional tool bar, but not a whole program. However I ended up getting something called the LCTM client that is an advertisers means of getting directly to me. Epson would also sent me offers through this but it was also for 3rd party advertisers as well. Shame on you Epson, I bought your commodity (the printer) and you will make more than enough money from me through the ink to make it worth your while, you don''t have to sell me off as a client from the get go.
MORE TO COME:
As I use the printer more, I will add to this review.
UPDATE 2/19/2013
I would like to say, when I complained about the print from Mobile setup above. I also did so directly to the company. It is very likely they repaired the circular link that was part of my frustration. I''m a savvy computer person and was floored that I could not get the links to get me where I needed to go. I had another seasoned computer person look over my shoulder to see what the issue was and they too, were frustrated with the inability to complete the steps stated. Could have been a fluke, but once it was resolved it all seemed to work. You see that''s the thing about a review. It was my personal first time use... I can''t speak for anyone else. I can say the printer works very well and gets weekly use. We don''t push the limits. I have printed mostly black and white documents. Soon, I need to change the black ink. I have copied and have scanned and sent it to a network computer. I''m very pleased with the printer to date and despite the issues of the mobile setup would recommend this printer to anyone.
I still am not thrilled about including the LCTM client in the software package as it if is to my benefit. To me when you pay for something you are entitled to not have to deal with ads. Most people install everything they get and don''t read.. Just seems seedy.I have an old HP Photosmart C6180 All-In-One that decided to fade and add lines on my scanned docs. I came to the conclusion that it would cost just as much to repair vs buying a new scanner/printer, so the hunt began with...The Epson WF3520 I purchased about 2 days ago (from a local dept store) & I wrote a good review on it. As much as I loved that printer, I returned it to get an actual touch screen model vs a touch panel (which is what the WF3520 had).
So, I purchased the HP PS7520 thinking I was getting a better quality/more updated multifunction than the WF3520. Boy was I wrong! It had a full touch screen & scan to email (without PC), but that''s as far as it goes. There was no automatic double side scan, you had to manually flip the papers & put them back in the feeder. The HP web apps are a joke and the size of the printer is HUGE! Once again, I was on the hunt and back at the customer service counter doing another return.
Then came the Epson XP 800. I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THIS PRINTER. The price could''ve been a little bit cheaper but that''s just me. Set up was a breeze. It flawlessly connected with my Windows 7 PC, Google Drive, Cloud Print, and Dropbox. The features are great and easy to use. I''m going to have a blast with the CD/DVD printing! I use the Epson iPrint app on my Samsung Galaxy S3 to scan & print docs. The ePrint feature to a customized email address is pretty cool. The automatic double side scan is the best and the automatic output tray is an added bonus. I do agree with other reviews I''ve seen about the output tray retracting. However, I''m assuming the printer would need a sensor to know when the printed docs are removed in order to retract. Otherwise, where would the printed docs go...I''ll leave it up to Epson to implement that on the next model.
Overall, it''s a great product! I hope this was my last trip to the return counter...LOL. So if you''re on the hunt like I was for an all-in-one replacement, look no further...Epson XP 800 is the way to go!The printer worked correctly right out of the box. Instructions were clearly written and everything went well.
This printer is AirPrint compatible with approproate Apple products (iPAD, iPhone, MAC) but the instructions are NOT in the manual. I had to go to the Epson website to find out how to set it up. It was easy, though. You just set up the printer for your wifi network (those instructions are in the manual) and then look for the printer on your Apple device.
Couldn''t have been easier.
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The printer does print beautifully as promised. I have only had it a short time and still have a lot to learn on how to use it to its best capabilities. Some of the photos are coming out a little darker than the originals or other slight color differences. I am hoping to be able to make the proper adjustments. Scanning is very easy and I have the whole printer hooked up wirelessly, which seems to work perfectly. A very good value.
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