The Epson Expression Premium XP-6100 is a decent all-in-one inkjet printer that's meant for everyday home use, whether it's for printing your taxes, homework assignments, or photos. It's fitted with a fairly basic scanner that can get most jobs done, but the lack of an automatic document feeder makes scanning multi-page documents a bit more challenging. Although its cartridges' poor yield results in the frequent replacement of the ink cartridges, black ink cartridges are relatively cheap, making this printer more suitable for those who mostly print in black. Color printing is prohibitively expensive if you print a lot, due to the high cost of the color cartridges. It's not the fastest at printing black or color documents, but it's pretty decent at printing photos, and the photos look alright. Its wide connectivity options include support for USB thumb drives and SD cards, and it's compatible with Epson's outstanding mobile app.
Our Verdict
The Epson Expression Premium XP-6100 is a decent family printer. It's mainly made for printing black and white documents, as the black ink cartridge is relatively cheap. However, it gets very expensive to print in color, especially if you print photos regularly. As for the quality of the photos, they look okay but a bit grainy. It can print directly from a USB thumb drive or an SD card, and it supports printing from mobile devices using AirPrint or Mopria.
- Great cost-per-print for black only printing.
- Support for external storage devices.
- Decent photo printing quality.
- Outstanding mobile app.
- Expensive to print in color.
- Photos look grainy.
- Low black and color page yield.
The Epson XP-6100 is a bad printer for small or home offices. The cartridges don't yield a lot of pages, so they need to be replaced frequently if you print a lot. It's also slow at printing black and color documents. Also, it doesn't have an automatic document feeder to process multi-page documents, and consequently, can't perform duplex scanning.
- Great cost-per-print for black only printing.
- Expensive to print in color.
- No automatic document feeder.
- Slow printing speed for black only documents.
- Low black and color page yield.
The Epson Expression Premium XP-6100 is a good printer for students. It's relatively cheap to print, as long as you only print in black. It's decently fast at printing the first page of a document, but it doesn't get much faster for the remaining pages. It supports most wireless connections as well as external storage devices, and you can perform most tasks on your smartphone with Epson's outstanding mobile app.
- Great cost-per-print for black only printing.
- Support for external storage devices.
- Outstanding mobile app.
- Expensive to print in color.
- Slow printing speed for black only documents.
- Low black and color page yield.
The Epson XP-6100 is a mediocre printer for printing black and white documents. The black cartridge doesn't yield many pages, so you need to replace it often; however, the cost-per-print remains very good thanks to the relatively cheap black ink cartridges. Unfortunately, it prints at a snail's pace, which isn't ideal if you need to print in bulk.
- Great cost-per-print for black only printing.
- Slow printing speed for black only documents.
- Low black and color page yield.
The Epson Expression Premium XP-6100 is decent for printing photos. Photos have a good amount of details and the colors are well-defined, but there's some graininess and there's color in the grayscale. Color accuracy is decent as well, and it has a dedicated photo paper tray that supports most photo paper sizes, except for 2" x 3". The main downside is that it's very expensive to print in color.
- Decent photo printing quality.
- Expensive to print in color.
- Photos look grainy.
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Popular Printer Comparisons
The Epson Expression Premium XP-6100 is a decent all-in-one family printer. It's a good choice for those looking for a compact printer and print mostly in black; however, there are better printers at this price range, such as the Canon PIXMA TR8520, or even Epson's own WorkForce Pro WF-3720. For more options, check out our recommendations for the best photo printers, the best home printers, and the best printers for college students.
For most uses, the Canon PIXMA TS6320 is much better than the Epson Expression Premium XP-6100. The Canon has better photo printing quality and it yields a lot more color pages, making its overall cost-per-print significantly lower in the long run. The Canon prints photos much faster, but the Epson is faster at printing color documents and it has better color accuracy.
The Canon PIXMA TS8220 is much better than the Epson Expression Premium XP-6100. The Canon has a better display screen, it has more connectivity options, and its higher color page yield results in a much lower cost-per-print. The Canon prints better-looking photos and prints them faster, but it's slower at printing documents than the Epson.
The HP OfficeJet Pro 7740 is significantly better than the Epson Expression Premium XP-6100. The HP has a much better build quality, it yields a lot more black and color pages, and it has a full-feature scanner. The HP also prints faster, it prints higher quality photos, and it's a lot more cost-effective over time.
The Epson Expression Premium XP-6100 is a bit better than the HP ENVY Pro 6475. The Epson has a display screen, more connectivity options, and a better mobile app. It also has a higher page yield, making its cost-per-print lower over time. However, the HP has an automatic document feeder, better color accuracy, and better photo printing quality.
Test Results
The Epson Expression Premium XP-6100 has a mediocre design. Paper jams are fairly easy to remove, as it only involves opening a panel on the back of the printer. The USB and SD card inputs are located on the front and are protected by the top and bottom front panels. The display console doesn't need to be raised during print jobs since there's enough clearance for the output tray; however, the output tray needs to be manually pulled out to begin printing.
The output tray is on top of the two paper trays, which means that you have to push in the output tray first if you need to load more paper. The main paper tray's capacity is rather small, as it can only hold a maximum of 100 sheets of paper. The printer needs to be turned on when changing the ink cartridges, and lastly, the scanner's lid doesn't extend, which makes it more difficult to scan thick documents.
The Epson XP-6100 is a compact printer that's well-suited for small spaces.
The Epson XP-6100's display console is okay. The screen is on the small side but icons are identified, and the menus are easy to navigate, albeit a bit laggy. It's not a touchscreen, so navigation is done solely with the surrounding buttons. Visibility is good whether you're standing or sitting, and the entire front panel can tilt upwards if needed.
- Power cord
- Installation CD
- User guide
- Set of starter ink cartridges:
- 1 x Epson 302 Black ink cartridge
- 1 x Epson 302 Cyan ink cartridge
- 1 x Epson 302 Magenta ink cartridge
- 1 x Epson 302 Yellow ink cartridge
- 1 x Epson 302 Photo Black ink cartridge
The Epson XP-6100 has a poor cartridge system. Both the black and color cartridges have low yield, which means that you would have to replace them often. If you print a lot, the printer accepts higher yield cartridges. If any of the color cartridges run out during a print job, the printer offers an option to continue printing in black-only.
The Epson XP-6100 has mediocre scanning features. It doesn't have an automatic document feeder, which makes scanning multi-page documents much more time-consuming. Also, the lid isn't extendable for thicker documents or books.
The Epson XP-6100's cost-per-print is okay. Both black and color cartridges need to be replaced frequently due to their low yield. However, the black ink cartridge is significantly cheaper than the color cartridges. So, while the cost of printing in black remains relatively low, the cost of printing in color rises sharply the more you print.
Keep in mind that even if you only print in black, most inkjet printers continue using the color cartridge for servicing tasks, so you'll likely still need to replace it eventually.
The Epson XP-6100 has decent printing speed. It takes a while to print the first page of a black-only document, and it doesn't get much faster for the remaining pages. Printing color documents is slow too, but it fares a bit better when it comes to photo printing compared to other printers.
The Epson XP-6100's color accuracy is decent. Most colors are noticeably different from the source, so it isn't recommended for any type of work that requires exact coloring. However, it should be fine if you're just printing for personal use or adding a bit of color to a document. If color accuracy is important to you and you want a similarly-priced printer, then check out the HP ENVY Pro 6455 or the HP ENVY 6055e.
The Epson XP-6100's photo printing quality is decent. There's a good amount of detail and the colors are well-defined. There's some graininess in certain areas of the picture, and there's also the presence of color in the grayscale.
These results are based on the actual physical photo, not the scanned image provided for reference above, which may not be representative of the printer's photo print quality.
If you print photos regularly and you want a printer that prints higher-quality photos, check out the Canon PIXMA TS6320.
The Epson XP-6100 has an input tray that supports most paper sizes and it can hold up to 100 sheets of paper. There's a dedicated photo paper tray that can hold up to 20 sheets of glossy paper, and it supports most sizes, except 2" x 3". Also, it has another tray for printing CDs and DVDs.
The Epson XP-6100 has great connectivity options; however, it doesn't have an ethernet port and there's no Bluetooth support. The external storage support includes both USB thumb drives and SD cards.
Update 12/03/2020: We changed the Text Files (TXT) support to 'Yes'. While it doesn't print .txt files natively, it automatically converts them to a PDF to print. We've updated our results and text accordingly.
Epson's iPrint mobile app is outstanding. It allows you to perform basic tasks, such as printing, scanning, and copying. You can perform maintenance tasks like printhead cleaning, firmware updates, and check the printer's ink level.