Epson Expression Home XP-412 – Print Speeds

Epson rates the Expression Home XP-412 at 8.7ppm in black and 4.5ppm in colour. In our tests, we saw 6.1ppm on our 5-page text test, which isn’t far off the claim, and this rose to 7.6ppm on the 20-page test. A draft mode print gave 8.3ppm, though Epson’s draft mode is quite pale and dotty. A 5-page text and graphics document gave 2.6ppm, quite a bit lower than spec.

This printer has no duplex mode, which is quite surprising, given the rest of its feature set and that cheaper rivals do. You have to resort to duplexing manually.

15 x 10cm photos took 2:07 for best quality from a PC and 1:39 for normal quality from a Samsung Galaxy SIII Android smartphone. Neither time is particularly impressive.

Epson Expression Home XP-412 – Print Quality and Costs

Print quality on plain paper is OK rather than great. The piezoelectric mechanisms of Epson (and Brother) machines have never reached the near-laser finesse of Canon and HP’s thermal heads, but the Expression Home XP-412 is fine for day-to-day prints. Colour graphics are smooth and unblemished, but not as vivid as they might be and the colour copy we took was a little blotchy in it colour fills.

Photo prints, as always from Epson, are smooth and natural, though some detail was lost in shadowed areas of landscape images.

The four ink cartridges are available in two yields – both confusingly known as ‘Daisy’ cartridges. Using the more economical XL versions gives page costs of 3.6p for black and 10.1p for colour. The black cost is reasonable compared with rivals in the same price bracket, but the colour cost is high for an inkjet.

Should I buy an Epson Expression Home XP-412?

There are plenty of good things that can be said about the Expression Home XP-412. It compares well on size and ease of use with machines like the HP Envy 4500 and Canon’s https://www.trustedreviews.com/canon-pixma-mg3550_Printer_review PIXMA MG3550 and it’s neat touch panel and LCD screen outdo both, but plain paper print quality isn’t as good as either.

Verdict

Epson’s Expression Home XP-412 is a neat, well thought-out all-in-one which is a good match for most mobile devices you might want to print from. A couple of niggles, like its lack of duplex print and comparatively high colour print cost, don’t detract too much from the rest of the package. This machine is definitely one to add to a shortlist.