Epson Expression Home XP-4200  Printer Review

The Epson XP-4200/Epson XP-4205 feels fairly sturdy, similar to its predecessor, the Epson Expression Home XP-4100. The power cord is detachable, making it easy to replace if damaged. However, a couple of design elements 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 access if you have large hands. There's also no dampener to prevent the scanner bed from slamming shut if you drop it, though it does have a plastic lever that keeps the bed propped open. Lastly, the scanner's background is only a thin sheet with no foam backing.

Like most inkjet printers, the printheads can clog if you don't print regularly. Even a few days of inactivity can cause clogging. Maintenance functions are built-in to resolve any print quality issues, like printhead cleaning, printhead nozzle check, power cleaning, printhead alignment, and paper guide cleaning. Unfortunately, you'll often have to replace the cartridges because they run out quickly. Replacing the cartridges is easy; you need to ensure the printer is on and select the Ink Cartridge Replacement function to access the cartridge bay. As mentioned in the Build Quality 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.

See the user manual here.

The display is okay. It's small but bright and has good vertical viewing angles, so it's easy to see whether you're sitting or standing. You can also adjust the panel's tilt to improve visibility. 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 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 doesn't stop printing even if the quality degrades or when one of the color cartridges is empty. For color printing, however, 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 no high-yield color cartridges exist.

This printer only has a flatbed scanner, so scanning multi-page documents or double-sided sheets can be extremely time-consuming. If you're looking for a similar printer equipped with an automatic document feeder, the Epson WorkForce WF-2950 is a very solid alternative.

There's 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. Fine details are retained, and text is crisp and legible. The image processing boosts the contrast and color saturation to make the scan look more vibrant; however, it might not be ideal if you're digitizing photos and expect the scan to be as close to the source photo as possible.

• User guide
• Power cord
• Set of Epson 232 starter ink cartridges:
• 1x black
• 1x cyan
• 1x magenta
• 1x yellow

This is a corded printer.

The print quality of 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 of 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 due to their low yield, they're relatively cheap, so your maintenance cost won't rise too quickly.

This printer is pretty slow. 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 source, especially blues and greens. It's fine for printing the occasional family photo, but professionals seeking more accurate color reproduction should look elsewhere.

This printer is outstanding at reproducing small details. Fine elements look clear; it's mainly distant objects that look blurry due to the 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 or Chrome OS.