Epson XP-820 review
This sleek little desktop printer does everything and does it well
By Jennifer McCartney
"The Epson XP-820 is a great option for a households and small offices that don't need to print documents in bulk but enjoy printing high-quality photos."
- Sleek design
- Color touchscreen display
- Prints high-quality photos
- Two-sided printing/copying
- Prints custom CD/DVDs
- User's guide is online only
- Lower dpi than comparable devices
The 21.5 lb unit measures 17.2" x 23.5" x 8.1" (W x D x H). While this model is mainly of interest for its color photo printing capabilities, the Wi-Fi-enabled device also offers two-sided printing as well as copying, scanning, and color faxing with a one year limited warranty in the US and Canada. It's supported by the major operating systems including Windows 8 and Mac OS 10.10.
Out of the Box
The Epson XP-820 leaves a great first impression - it's an attractive device with a solid design and an intuitive color touchscreen. Set-up was quick and easy and the driver installation took just a few minutes. But in order to figure out how to use any of the features I had to go online to look up the comprehensive user's guide - the "quick guide" manual that comes with the printer is pretty basic and includes tips on loading paper and solving a paper jam, but frustratingly that's pretty much it.
Epson's XP-820 is also "Mopria-certified," (Mopria is a non-profit organization promoting the expansion of mobile printing) meaning it works with both Mopria's Print Service and the built-in printing framework in Android (included in v4.4 and up) allowing users to print anything regardless of the brand, device, or the operating system. Users also have access to Epson's iPrint mobile app (more on that later). Let's look at how the Epson XP-820 holds up as a device for printing color snapshots
Photos and scanning
Printing photos
To test whether the Epson XP-820 is worthy of printing your vacation photos, we snapped in the five ink cartridges (CMYK and black) and took it for a spin. For a printer billed as having "unbeatable photo quality" compared to leading photo all-in-one printers, the print resolution isn't as high as we would have expected: 5760 x 1440 optimized dpi (versus 9600 x 2400 dpi for both the Canon Pixma MG6220 and Kodak ESP C310 devices mentioned earlier). Epson also advertises that the ink droplets are as small as 1.5 picoliters (a trillionth of a liter). We'll take their word for it - but the photos do look sharp my eye, despite having a lower dpi than competing models. No complaints there.
In addition to the device's ability to print color photos quickly, the Epson XP-820 offers users a number of editing features to enhance the images: Auto Photo Correction which gets rid of red eye plus the ability to crop, rotate and enlarge images. The options to get creative are numerous - users can print photo greeting cards, passport photos, personalized photo stationery, etc., on a variety of materials like labels, card stock, envelopes, and photo paper and in a variety of sizes up to 8.5 x 11.
Another interesting feature is the ability to make a customizable CD and DVD. The designated CD and DVD tray lets users print any color or black and white image directly onto the disc - making this printer a great option for aspiring musicians wanting a professional look for their latest release, or for anyone that wants to organize and store photo albums, documents, or home videos.
To sum up, the photos look great - as a color-photo printing device the Epson XP-820 delivers on its promises.
Scanning, copying, faxing
While the photo-printing capabilities of the Epson XP-820 will likely be the main reason for consumer purchase, the printer has a ton of other features that make it suitable for a home office.
The color scanner on the Epson XP-820 has a dpi of 9600 x 9600. The fax speed is about three seconds per page with a memory of up to 180 pages. The fax also has a speed-dial function.
Epson iPrint mobile app
As is standard for new printers these days, the Epson XP-820 comes with its own mobile app. The iPrint mobile app allows users to print, scan, and share photos, webpages, and files from a tablet or smart phone. Users can print from anywhere to an email-enabled printer - enabling you to print documents from another room or another country. The app is compatible with both Dropbox and Evernote along with Google Drive and Microsoft One Drive. iPrint also lets you check the ink levels or the print status on their Epson device.Available from the Play store for Android users or the Apple store this free download will add an element of convenience for users on the go. While the app's design is a bit clunky and outdated in appearance, the functionality has earned it a solid four star rating out of more than 40,000 reviews in the Play store.
