Epson offers an entire line of printers, ideal for everything from basic home printing to high-end, high production office needs. If you’re looking for a decent printer at a great price for standard home use, the XP-420 could be just what you need.
I’ve previously reviewed other printers in the Epson Small-in-One line and been impressed by their performance and compact size. As one of the newest additions, the XP-420, provides a low-cost option that will serve your home printing needs while also providing a few nice extras that new moms will appreciate.
Available for only $99.99 (and currently even less on the Epson website), the XP-420 serves as a printer, flatbed scanner and copier. It packs all of these features into a 15.4” W x 20.8” D x 11.0” H casing and weighs only 9 lbs. When not in use, the printer packs down even smaller, making it ideal if you don’t have a dedicated office space and need to tuck it into the corner of your kitchen or living room.
To meet the lower price point, Epson has stripped away features that are less essential for basic home use while maintaining print quality for standard documents. Thus, the XP-420 does not include a paper tray, an automatic document feeder or duplex printing. If you regularly scan, copy or print in great quantity, include graphics or need to print multiple photos, you’ll want to look higher up in the Epson line, which has many great options to meet these needs. However, if you’re only doing basic home printing, there’s quite a bit here that you’ll love.
Text prints look great, and the XP-420 prints relatively quickly for a low-cost printer. For those interested in the specs, they’re listed as 9.0 ISO ppm when printing in black and 4.5 ISO ppm in color. For printing, the XP-420 accommodates paper sizes ranging from 4” x 6” to 8.5” x 44,” as well as envelopes. Load up to 100 sheets at a time. Note that for scanning or copying, you’ll be limited to 8.5” x 11” since there isn’t a document feed option and you’re constrained by the size of the scanner bed.
Set up is simple. Just plug in the power cord, download the driver (available on the accompanying CD or online) and let it guide you through the set up process. As part of set up, you have the option to connect your printer to your Wi-Fi network, which makes it effortless to print wirelessly from anywhere in your house. Should you not want to go the Wi-Fi route, connecting via USB cable is also an option, though you’ll need to provide the USB cable yourself. Personally, I love the convenience of working off my laptop in one room, hitting print and then finding my prints ready and waiting in the next room. Another great option is printing directly from mobile devices via AirPrint, Google Cloud Print or Epson’s very own Epson Connect. This is fantastic when I receive an email with a form, and I can send it straight to my printer without ever opening my laptop. So easy!
In addition to printing from mobile, there are a couple other PC-free features that can come in handy. Included software allows you to send scanned images straight to the Cloud, making quick work of posting images to Facebook or storing them in Dropbox. In addition, a memory card slot and 2.5” color LCD screen let you easily access and preview photos. You can even perform simple editing, resizing, cropping and color adjustment right on the printer. The photo paper tray accommodates photo paper from 4” x 6” to full letter paper size. While it takes a couple minutes to print a photo, the quality is decent, so this will serve you well for the occasional photo need.
For those interested in the eco aspects of their printer, the XP-420 is Energy Star qualified and uses 4 separate ink cartridges, allowing you to replace single colors as they run out – a feature that’s good for your wallet as well as the planet!
A reliable, good quality printer for the price, the XP-420 is a great addition for new moms who need to get more done from in and around the house. Learn more about the XP-420 from Epson’s website.