Epson Expression Photo HD XP-15000 Printer Review

This printer is well designed. You can access its internals by opening the top of the printer to reveal the cartridge bay and via the rear by removing the rear input tray. The top lid has good dampers that lock it in place, so you won't need to engage in a battle of wills with the lid as you attempt to change the ink cartridges. Changing the ink cartridges is straightforward, given the large access to the cartridge bay; however, the printer needs to be powered on, and you need to navigate to the menu to the "Replace Cartridge" option for the cartridge tray to become accessible. There's also a user-replaceable maintenance box that's easy to service and a detachable power cord, making it convenient to replace in case of damage. Not everything's perfect design-wise, though. For example, although the output tray features a motorized system that extends it according to the size sheet you're printing on, you can also retract it by simply pushing on it (although there's some resistance). Similarly, while the printer generally feels solid, not all parts are properly aligned. The plastic also feels cheaper than other Epson printers, and the tape used to secure moving parts during transport leaves a residue that needs to be cleaned.

You can expect to perform a fair bit of maintenance on this printer if you print regularly. The ink yield is quite low across the six cartridges, so you'll have to replace them often if you print in high volume. Replacing the ink cartridges requires the printer to be on, and you must navigate through the menu to the "Replace Cartridge" option. There's also a user-replaceable maintenance box; it stores ink that gets flushed from the system during print head cleaning. You'll need to replace it once it gets full, but this is pretty straightforward; just unscrew a plastic panel at the front of the printer and remove it. There are several points of access to the sheet rollers in case of paper jams. You can remove the front cassette tray, the rear input tray, and also lift the top of the printer for access. All three provide good access to the printer's internals, but know that if the paper gets stuck behind the ink cartridge tray, it can't be moved out of the way to access the jam. Finally, like all inkjet printers, there's a risk of clogging if the printer sits unused for long periods. Thankfully, there are built-in maintenance tasks to help, including printhead nozzle check, printhead cleaning, and power cleaning. Other tasks include printhead alignment (vertical and horizontal), checking the maintenance box's remaining capacity, and cleaning the paper guide.

This printer has a decent display. This color LCD display is a non-touch panel that offers good visibility whether you're sitting or standing in front of it, but it's harder to see from the sides. The display is housed on a panel with the rest of the controls that can tilt up to 90 degrees for better visibility. Finally, its 10 physical buttons are easy to use to navigate the menu.

This printer has a six-cartridge system. It has low ink yields across its six cartridges; however, some colors have higher yields than others, so depending on what and how often you print, you may need to replace some cartridges far before others. This printer is compatible with Epson 312 XL high-yield cartridges for Black, Cyan, Magenta, and Yellow—their advertised yield is 500 pages. The Red and Gray cartridges are only available as XL cartridges (Epson 314XL). If you're looking for a wide-format printer but want a higher page yield, consider the HP OfficeJet Pro 9730e.

You receive warning messages when ink is low and when you are out of ink. You can continue to print in black when one or more color cartridge is empty, but only temporarily. The printer requires ink from each cartridge to prevent air bubbles from entering its permanent printhead and causing damage.

• User documentation
• Cleaning sheet (to clean the rear paper path)
• Power cable
• CD-ROM (user guide and software)
• Set of starter ink cartridges:
• Epson 312 Cyan
• Epson 312 Magenta
• Epson 312 Yellow
• Epson 312 Black
• Epson 314XL Red
• Epson 314XL Gray

This printer produces decent black-and-white documents. Text is legible, and fine details are clear enough despite some graining. The main issue is that this printer cannot produce true black-and-white documents; instead, it prints documents in grayscale. This means that black-and-white documents have a somewhat purplish tint to them. Printing using the High Quality mode produces the same results. If you only print a text document, the tint is still noticeable.

Color documents look great from this printer. Text is clear and legible, and colors are vibrant and saturated. There's a good amount of detail in fine lines, like lines on a graph; however, there's some graininess in larger blocks of color, producing a textured-like appearance.

Our estimated color cartridge costs only apply to the Cyan, Magenta, and Yellow cartridges. As the color codes for the Red and Gray color cartridges aren't advertised, we're unable to perform our ink yield tests on them. These two colors are used when printing photos to enhance the gamut range and are sold separately from the other cartridges; we've included their cost as part of the total color cartridge price.

Photos print much slower than the advertised time of 27 seconds. The cassette holds 200 sheets of plain paper, 50 Legal size sheets, or 50 sheets of photo paper, while the rear tray holds 50 sheets of letter or legal paper, or 20 sheets of photo paper. The output tray can hold 100 sheets of plain paper or 20 sheets of photo paper.

The Epson 15000 printer's front cassette can only accommodate sheets up to Legal size; for Tabloid or Super Tabloid sheets, you must use the rear feeder. Similarly, you must use the rear feeder to print on card stock. You can also print on CDs using a tray that slots under the main cassette. You can read more about printing on a CD in the User Manual

The Epson XP-15000's color gamut is superb. It can reproduce a wide range of colors, and it handles color transitions well, with no banding and minimal grain. It struggles a little with very dark, saturated reds and greens, but it's better than the vast majority of office or home printers.

The Epson XP-15000 has reasonable color accuracy. It mostly struggles with blues, oranges, and yellows because the printer oversaturates these colors. Skin tones are also off but not to the point of appearing unnatural. There are various color correction modes to enhance the printed image depending on the subject. For example, the People mode enhances skin tones while the Landscape mode enhances the colors of the sky and greenery. There are also Gray and Black and White Photo modes, which, as you may guess, convert color photos to grayscale and black and white, respectively. Black and White looks and performs better, with an average dE of 3.07 for the 6 grays used by this mode.

If you want an alternative with better color accuracy right out of the box, consider the Canon PIXMA PRO-200.

The Epson XP-15000 is outstanding at reproducing small details. Fine lines appear sharp, and the contrast is fantastic. Even minute background details, like the skyline on the horizon of the city photo, are easily differentiable.

This printer can perform borderless printing up to 13" x 19" (330.2mm x 482.6mm).

This printer is compatible with the Epson iPrint app. You can use the app to initiate printing and use the camera on your device for 'Document Capture,' which converts photos to scans. You can also check ink levels, order ink, perform maintenance tasks like head cleaning and nozzle check, and update the device's firmware.

There's also a second compatible app, Epson Creative Print. This app focuses on creative projects like photo collages, printing on CD/DVD, making coloring book pages from your photos, printing stationery (lined paper, calendars), and printing design paper.

You must manually install drivers on Windows devices to use this printer, but you don't need to on Chrome OS or macOS. You can download the drivers from Epson's website.