Verdict

Pros

• Small format
• Front access paper tray
• Easy cartridge access

Cons

• Small, 37mm LCD screen
• No front panel USB socket
• Noisy paper feed

What is the Epson Expression Premium XP-510?

Inkjet all-in-ones range from true entry-level machines to high-end, business printers. In the middle are family and student printers, which are designed as good all-rounders, just as capable of plain paper prints and printing photos from PC and mobile device. Epson’s Expression Premium XP-510 fits in this bracket and the company makes a lot of its high quality photos.

Epson Expression Premium XP-510 – Design and Features

Epson’s lower cost all-in-one printers, like the Expression Premium XP-510, have the advantage of being physically smaller than many of their rivals. This machine is squat, as well as having a small footprint on the desk.

Decked out in piano black plastic, but with a textured lid to its scanner – without extending hinges for bound documents – the printer looks simple and does, indeed, have a straightforward control system. Epson, in its wisdom, has assigned it a 37mm LCD screen, which is really small, though pin-sharp.

Its software engineers have done their best to make this workable, using colour to good effect and keeping the text short and the font small. There’s a four-way navigation square to the right of the screen and buttons to start and stop a job and to take you to the home screen.

Below the control panel is an output tray which slides out manually from inside the printer and below that a flip-down front panel to the single paper cassette, which can take up to 100 sheets – not a lot. Unlike earlier Epson printers, the only paper feed is now from the front.

Epson Expression Premium XP-510 – Connections and Installation

At the back is a single USB socket, the only cabled connection. A wireless link is also provided and this supports Wi-Fi Direct, AirPrint, Google Cloud and Epson’s own equivalent to ePrint printing via email, called Epson Connect.

Hinge up the whole of the scanner section and you have very easy access to the five ink cartridges, which clip into the printer’s piezoelectric print head. There’s an extra photo black, intended to improve definition on darker photo prints. Installing and changing cartridges is the work of a few moments.

Software is a little sparse, without the ABBYY OCR software supplied with more expensive machines in the range, but you do get Epson Scan, Easy Photo Print and Event Manager.