You’d never believe photos this good come from a $150 printe…

Epson Expression Premium XP-7100

MSRP $239.99

“Epson’s Expression Premium XP-7100 delivers incredible photos on par with far more expensive models.”

Pros

• excellent photo printer

• fast color print

• compact size

• Low Price

• Thumb drive and SD card support

Shortcoming

• High cost per page for color

• 300 dpi mobile scan

• envelope printing failed

Epson’s Expression Premium XP-7100 is an all-in-one printer that’s optimized for photos, but the selling price puts it in the budget category. At $150, we’re surprised at how good a photo printer it is. We also tested the speed, ease of use, and long-term cost of this cartridge-based printer to find out if it offers enough quality and value.

design

The XP-7100’s black color matches its premium aspirations and would fit in well in a home photo studio. Home printers that are meant for casual use are often white to blend in more easily with decor.

I don’t mind the textured black top, and the glossy faceted corners look nice. It’s also compact, especially for an all-in-one printer that includes an automatic document feeder (ADF). It’s just 8.1 inches long with the ADF panel open for scanning. To access the flatbed scanner, you have to lift the lid.

The footprint is 15.24 inches wide and 14.5 inches long when the tray is closed. Epson gave the Expression Premium XP-7100 a clever automatic output tray that extends when printing. The large 4.3-inch color touchscreen panel tilts automatically at the same time. This increases the length to 23.5 inches.

There’s a USB port on the front for easy walk-up printing and scanning via a thumb drive. Its memory card slot accepts SD, SDHC, SDXC, and microSD with an adapter.

The main paper tray is hidden at the bottom and is remarkably thin for such a multifunctional system. It’s fully removable, can hold 100 sheets of paper up to 14 inches long, has a built-in photo tray, and includes a holder for printing directly onto CDs and DVDs. Envelopes and special paper are loaded in the back.

Epson has packed a lot of functionality into a small space. The question is whether the quality and speed are good enough with this compact design.

printing performance

In testing, the Epson Expression Premium XP-7100’s output was impressive. I tested borderless full-page printing, 4×6 photo printing, and plain paper printing of various images. Color fidelity is excellent, with detailed images on photo paper and good quality even on plain paper.

It’s no surprise that Epson knows how to make a great photo printer, but I wrongly assumed there might be some compromise in quality at such a low price. The Expression Premium XP-7100 uses a five-color Claria Premium ink system that roughly matches Epson’s six-color variety.

A professional photographer might notice the difference, but it was a challenge for my eyes to detect the slightly better color fidelity of Epson’s EcoTank ET-8500, a six-color premium photo printer. This is a much more expensive printer, but for a heavy user the ink tank savings will add up over time.

Naturally, black-and-white printing is also clear. Monochrome prints are fast at 15.8 pages per minute, and two-sided printing is supported. Rang is also not far behind, turning 11 pages in a minute.

If you’re short on time, don’t be afraid to try “Draft Mode” photos. Images printed in draft lose a little detail but look just as good as normal print quality, which is almost indistinguishable from the best quality.

When printing multiple copies, it is worth checking if the draft mode is good enough as it saves ink and prints much faster. To be honest, I doubt I would ever choose the best quality with such beautiful photo prints at the standard setting. A 4×6 is ready in just 12 seconds and looks great.

The compact paper feed seems reliable, but two 4×6 photo papers were pulled through at a time. This had no effect on printing and may be due to the high humidity and inherent stickiness of photo paper. The envelope test is the only place where the Expression Premium XP-7100 disappointed me. After three tries I couldn’t get an envelope to print correctly. I will update this article if I find a solution.

This is not an ideal office printer; This is a photo printer. If you want speed and reliable document, label, and envelope printing, a laser printer is often a better choice than inkjet. Overall, print speed and quality were excellent despite the envelope issue.

special features

The Epson Expression Premium XP-7100 is an all-in-one printer that can serve as a scanner and color copier. Printing and copying is excellent, but scanning is its weak spot, at least the way I use the scanner.

When scanning on a mobile device, I needed the Epson iPrint app. It’s an older app, and it only supports up to 300 dots per inch (dpi), which doesn’t provide good enough quality when cropping a scan. If you scan to a USB thumb drive, SD card, or computer, there’s an option for up to 600 dpi resolution.

The thumb drive and memory card options are important to me since my computer is not near a printer. The app’s lack of high-resolution scanning seems like an omission. Epson maintains the iPrint app, and the latest update was just a few weeks ago. Perhaps the solution to higher scanning density will come in a future update.

For a low-profile printer, Epson gave the Expression Premium XP-7100 a good document feeder. The ADF performed well, quick and reliable when scanning many two-sided pages. It can handle 30 pages at a time. The flatbed scanner is quick and simple to use, making copying easy.

Software and Compatibility

With the Epson Expression Premium XP-7100, setup starts with installing the ink cartridges and aligning the print head. This is fairly standard for inkjet printers, although some use a scanner to automate and speed up the alignment process.

Epson’s documentation warns that you should gently shake the largest cartridge, which is black, before installation. This is a detail that is easily missed and can cause printing problems.

Since this is a photo printer, it has five types of ink, including the usual cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. It also has a photo black that works better when printing pictures.

Epson includes a plastic bag to store the ink cap that needs to be removed. This can be messy, so roll up your sleeves before you start.

After installation, the printer takes a few minutes to prepare the ink cartridges. The next step was to connect to Wi-Fi. Epson doesn’t mention a mobile app in its quick start guide, so I connected manually. Since my printer is upstairs, I used my router’s long-range 2.4GHz band.

Connecting via Mac or Windows PC is easy and simple. You’ll need to install Epson apps to access each feature, but for printing, you can use the system software.

From iPhone, you can print without any apps. On Android, I installed Epson Print Enabler, which acts as a driver. To use the scanner, I discovered I needed the Epson iPrint app. It also provides more control over printing. To be honest, the printer handles documents and pictures with ease, so you only need the app to scan and monitor ink levels from your phone.

price

The Epson Expression Premium XP-7100 has a retail price of $240, but the sale price is closer to $150 at many retailers. This greatly reduces the upfront costs for such high quality photo printers and all-in-one devices.

Long-term ink cost is really the most important consideration for a cartridge-based inkjet printer. A four-pack of color cartridges costs $48.29, which is good for about 300 color documents. This brings the cost of color printing to 16 cents per page.

Epson says the four high-capacity color cartridges last for about 650 pages. That’s $75.96, reducing the cost of an average color document by 12 cents. It’s better, but still expensive.

Black-and-white printing costs between 4 to 5 cents per page, but as a photo printer, I wouldn’t use much black ink.

Is this the printer for you?

Epson’s Expression Premium XP-7100 can print beautiful photos quickly and handle most monochrome printing tasks well. Scanning and copying with the flatbed and document feeder works well with thumb drives, memory cards, and computers.

If you need to do medium to high-volume photo printing, the Expression Premium XP-7100 will quickly become expensive because Epson’s premium Claria ink cartridges are relatively expensive for a low-yield ink cartridge that can be used to print in color. Four are required for printing and one is required to print in color. Monochrome.

The printer is thoughtfully designed and well built, but it does have some rough edges when it comes to printing envelopes and scanning on a mobile device.

Overall, I was impressed with the print quality, but I wish the cost per page was lower. This is a great option for photography enthusiasts who occasionally want to print their best photos to share with friends and family. If you want to print in color every day or make a lot of color copies, another photo printer may better suit your needs.