Epson Expression Photo XP-960 Small-in-One Review - Review 2022

The Expression Photo XP-960 Minor-in-1 ($299.99) is the tiptop-of-the-line model in Epson's electric current generation of Photo Small-In-I multifunction printers (MFPs). Information technology's a little pricey for what it offers, given that it was was slow in testing, and the quality of its text was below par, but the XP-960 ($266.98 at Amazon) is well worth considering if you need a printer for abode use and want to print occasionally on paper every bit big every bit 11 by 17 inches, specially for large-size, borderless photos.

Don't allow the combination of the XP-960's price, the discussion "photo" in its name, and its ability to impress large images mislead y'all into thinking it's an MFP equivalent of the single-function Catechism Pixma iP8720 Wireless Inkjet Photo Printer ($214.99 at Adorama) , our Editors' Option consumer-level almost-dedicated photograph printer for up to 13-past-nineteen-inch output. It's really more of a full general-purpose abode model, much like the less-expensive Epson Expression Abode XP-420 Small-in-One ($289.99 at Amazon) , albeit more capable.

Basics

Core MFP features in the XP-960 are limited to printing from and scanning to a PC, plus working every bit a standalone copier. Like virtually MFPs meant for home use, information technology lacks some of import office-centric features, including an automatic document feeder (ADF) and fax adequacy. However, information technology offers both an Ethernet port and Wi-Fi capability, so you lot tin share it hands on a network.

The XP-960 can also impress from and scan to a memory carte du jour and can both impress to a printable optical disc and re-create an image from its scanner directly to a disc. It can even print to a disc straight from a memory card or a USB fundamental. The LCD control panel earns praise for both its well-designed menu system and its 4.3-inch touch screen, which is large enough to make giving commands especially easy.

Paper treatment is disappointing for the cost, simply a lot better than what nosotros typically run across in a home printer. The principal tray holds a meager 100 sheets and is limited to a maximum size of eight.5-by-11-inch paper. Helping make up for the depression capacity, withal, is a born duplexer and a second tray for up to 20 sheets of 5-by-7-inch photo newspaper. Having a photograph tray means y'all don't have to swap out paper in the main tray every time you switch between press documents and photos.

There's also a rear tray for up to tabloid-size (eleven-by-17-inch) paper. Even so, it can hold just 1 sail at a time, which limits its usefulness, and you tin can't simply put a page in the tray and then impress, which makes it a little inconvenient to use. You first take to send the print job to the printer and and then await for a message on the front console telling y'all to load the paper. If you load the paper first, the printer volition send it to the output tray without printing. And if you lot to print a multipage job, you have to wait after each folio for the printer to tell you when it's okay to insert the next one.

Mobile Press and Scanning to the Cloud

Also going across the basics is back up for press through the cloud, likewise as printing from and scanning to a telephone or tablet through an access point on your network. If yous connect the printer to a single PC via USB cable rather than a network, you'll lose the power to print though the cloud, simply you can even so take advantage of the printer's Wi-Fi Direct to connect straight to it and print from or browse to a mobile device.

If you lot register the printer with the Epson Connect site, yous can too employ forepart-panel commands to scan to selected cloud sites (Dropbox, Evernote, Box, and Google Drive). In addition, Epson provides a browse utility that lets you send scanned files to selected sites even if y'all connect to the printer via USB cablevision.

Setup, Speed, and Output Quality

At v.viii past eighteen.9 by sixteen.iii inches (HWD) and nineteen pounds half dozen ounces, the XP-960 is smaller and lighter than most printers that can print on tabloid-size paper. Setup is standard fare. For my tests, I connected the printer to a network using its Ethernet port and installed the software on a system running Windows Vista.

I timed the XP-960 on our business organization applications suite (using QualityLogic's hardware and software for timing) at 4.ix pages per minute (ppm), which makes it tedious, given how much it costs. In comparing, the similarly priced Epson WorkForce Pro WF-5620 ($299.99 at Epson) —our preferred pick for a color MFP for heavy-duty use in a micro function—came in at ten.3ppm on the same examination.

The XP-960 was faster on our concern applications suite than well-nigh home printers and well-nigh-dedicated photo printers. The home-oriented Epson XP-420 managed simply ii.6ppm, for example, and the Canon iP8720 scored 2.7ppm. Photo speed for the XP-960 is suitably fast for an inkjet, averaging i minute 4 seconds for a 4-by-vi-inch print in my tests.

Output quality is a little subpar overall, but only because of lower quality text than almost inkjet MFPs. Graphics and photos are both typical for the brood. Fortunately, even though the text quality was near the bottom of the range for inkjet MFPs on our tests, it's nevertheless good enough for most dwelling house use. As long every bit you don't use fonts much smaller than x-bespeak size, y'all shouldn't have a problem with it.

Run across How We Examination Printers

Graphics output on patently newspaper in our tests was hands suitable for home utilise and even adept enough for well-nigh business apply, including PowerPoint handouts and the like. Even more than than with most inkjets, yet, the graphics quality varied on our tests, depending on the paper. With the plain paper we use for testing, colors were a piffling dull and thin lines tended to fill in. With Epson'southward Premium Photo Paper Glossy, even so, colors were vibrant, and overall quality is suitable for professional person graphics work, despite the trend for sparse lines in some graphics to fill in.

Photo quality on photo paper is a match for the loftier terminate of what you'd expect from drugstore prints—for color photos at least. With a blackness-and-white photo, I saw obvious tints in some shades of gray. That lowers the overall score for photos, just if you impress color photos only, that won't matter.

Determination

What makes the Epson Expression Photo XP-960 Small-in-Ane stand out is its ability to impress at tabloid size—a feature that'south rare amongst MFPs and even rarer for a home MFP. It's also what makes it pricey. Unless y'all demand the feature, you'll be better off with otherwise comparable, but less expensive, models like the Epson XP-420 or the Catechism Pixma MG5720 Wireless Inkjet All-in-One ($377.00 at Amazon) , our Editors' Choice for inexpensive home MFPs. For more frequent press at a large size, yous may want to consider the single-role Canon iP8720, but and then y'all won't get any MFP features. The XP-960 fills a niche between those ii levels of choices.

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Source: https://sea.pcmag.com/multifunction-printer-reviews/9657/epson-expression-photo-xp-960-small-in-one-review

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