Epson Expression Home XP-4200 Printer Review

This printer feels fairly sturdy, similar to its predecessor, the Epson Expression Home XP-4100. The power cord is detachable, making it easy to replace it if it gets damaged. However, there are a couple of design elements that aren't very user-friendly. You can only access the sheet rollers through the rear panel (when duplex printing) or the maintenance bay, and the latter is limited in space, so it may be hard to reach in if you have large hands. Also, the lid dampener isn't very good, as it doesn't slow down the speed at which the lid closes and only prevents it from slamming shut. Lastly, the scanner's background is only a thin sheet with no foam backing, and the lid's hinges can't extend to accommodate thicker items like textbooks.

Like most inkjet printers, the printheads can clog if you don't print regularly. Even a few days of inactivity can cause clogging. There are maintenance functions built-in to help resolve any clogging or print quality issues, like printhead cleaning, printhead nozzle check, power cleaning, printhead alignment, and paper guide cleaning. Unfortunately, you'll have to replace the cartridges often because they run out quickly. Replacing the cartridges is easy; you just need to ensure the printer is on and select the Ink Cartridge Replacement function to access the cartridge bay. As mentioned in the build section, you can access the sheet rollers through the rear cover (when duplex printing) or the main maintenance bay. As for the input tray, it only holds 100 sheets of paper and will likely need frequent refilling.

You can see the user manual here.

The display is okay. It's small but bright and easily visible whether you're sitting or standing. You can also tilt the panel to make it easier to see. The horizontal viewing angle isn't as good, though, so it's harder to see from the side. The buttons feel tactile but a little cheap, and you can't press them too quickly, as the printer won't register some button presses. The user interface has large, easily identifiable icons and is easy to navigate.

This printer has very low page yields, meaning you'll have to replace the ink cartridges often. The printer alerts you when ink is low. For black and white printing, it continues printing even if the quality degrades, and it continues if one of the color cartridges is empty. For color printing, it stops as soon as the ink level is too low or if one of the cartridges (black or color) is empty. There's a high-yield black ink cartridge (232XL) that'll last longer, but there aren't any high-yield color cartridges.

This printer only has a flatbed scanner, so scanning multi-page documents or double-sided sheets can be extremely time-consuming. It has an optical character recognition feature that lets you save scans as searchable PDFs, but it's software-based, meaning you need to install the Epson Scan 2 application to use it. It works well most of the time; it only makes mistakes when there are special characters and symbols.

The scanner produces outstanding scans. It captures almost everything perfectly. It boosts the contrast and color saturation to make the scan look more vibrant, which is good for text because it makes it easier to read; however, it might not be ideal if you're digitizing photos and expect the scan to be as close to the original photo as possible.

• User guide
• Power cord
• Set of Epson 2321 starter ink cartridges:
• 1x black
• 1x cyan
• 1x magenta
• 1x yellow

The print quality for black-and-white documents is great. Everything looks sharp, and finer elements are present. There are some vertical lines at times due to overlapping print lines, but it's not too bad. The printer will allow you to continue printing temporarily in black and white if a color cartridge runs out; however, it's unclear how long this temporary status lasts.

The print quality for color documents is good. Text looks clear, and finer elements come through. However, the colors look a little washed out, and colored areas look grainy.

The cost-per-print is decent. Although you have to replace the ink cartridges often, the cartridges are relatively cheap, so your maintenance cost won't rise too quickly.

This printer has slow printing speeds. It takes a long time to initialize and get a single page out, and it's slow to print multi-page documents and photos.

Although you can print on A5 paper, you can only do so by setting a custom size, as there isn't a preset for this paper size. You can set custom sizes from 3.5" x 5" to 8.5" x 47.2" (89 mm x 127 mm to 215.9 mm x 1,200 mm).

This printer has a decent color gamut. It reproduces bright, saturated tones well, but it struggles with lighter shades of blue and darker shades of green and yellow. Color transitions look relatively smooth; they're a tad grainy, and there's also a little bit of banding.

This printer has poor color accuracy. Most colors look different from the original, especially blues and greens. Skin tones still look relatively natural, though.

This printer is outstanding at reproducing small details. Fine elements look clear; it's mainly distant objects that get blurry due to the use of halftones (dot effect).

The Epson Smart Panel mobile app is very feature-rich. You can use it to print, scan, copy, check the printer's ink levels, view the user manual, and perform maintenance tasks like printhead cleaning. It also has a feature that lets you copy both sides of an ID card into a single page. The app has Google Classroom integration, so you can easily print assignments. The app also contains links to the Epson Creative Print app and the Epson Gallery website. The Creative Print app lets you create collages and artwork, and Epson's Gallery website contains patterns and images you can use for crafts.

You need to manually install drivers on Windows to use the printer, but not on macOS and Chrome OS.