Epson Expression Photo XP-950 review

The Epson Expression Photo XP-950 is, in many ways, the polar opposite of the similarly priced Pixma iP8750. While the Canon is the model of minimalism, Epson’s touchscreen all-in-one is a moving feast of automation. Paper-output trays automatically slide open when needed and fold themselves away when it’s time to power down.

Yet at other times the Epson requires a little too much manual effort. Print an A3 photo from the rear input tray and you have to first send the job to the printer, wait a few seconds for it to sort itself out, and only then insert the A3 sheet in the rear tray – or the printer spits out any paper waiting in the rear tray. You’ll have to wait for those A3 photo prints, too: it took a sluggish 7mins 48secs to complete our test print at the highest quality, although high-speed mode knocked three minutes off without a huge deterioration in quality.

Epson Expression Photo XP-950 review: print quality

Although the XP-950 is a multipurpose all-in-one, photo printing isn’t shabby. It delivered natural colours and subtle variations in the skin tones on the model’s face on the test print. It showed more variation in grey scales than the Pixma iP8750, and it wasn’t far off the Pro-100, which has three separate ink cartridges for greys and blacks, while the Epson has only six inks overall. Our monochrome test photo showed excellent contrast, although the background gradient wasn’t rendered as smoothly as on the Pro-100, and the grey tones had a blue tinge to them.

Our test studio portrait was equally well handled. The skin tones were a little darker than they should have been, but the portrait popped off the page. Detail was a little softer than with the Pixma iP8750, but the overall quality was more than acceptable.

If the Epson has a weakness, it’s in rendering shades of brown. The brown rocks in our test landscape came out almost charcoal grey and looked unnatural. This is disappointing, since in almost all other respects the XP-950 delivers better photos than you’d expect from an all-in-one.

When it comes to general document printing, the Epson raced through our five-page colour brochure test, spitting out the document in a mere 52 seconds. Text and coloured charts were well handled, and the XL black cartridge should last for around 500 pages of monochrome documents.

Epson Expression Photo XP-950 review: running costs

Overall print costs are higher than the Pixma iP8750, however. A borderless A3 print will cost £1.87 (excluding paper) using XL cartridges, which is about 30p more than to print a slightly larger A3+ print on the Canon. All those ink cartridges can be replaced individually, and the printer’s screen provides step-by-step guidance on how to change them.

The Epson has more to offer than mere photo printing, of course. The 4,800dpi A4 flatbed scanner is excellent, maintaining sharp levels of detail when scanning photos, although it turn images a shade darker than the originals. We also like the option to take advantage of the built-in Wi-Fi and scan directly to cloud services such as Dropbox or Google Drive. The touchscreen makes accessing these features relatively painless, although the fold-out panel in which the screen sits has to be dabbed gently or it folds back flush into the printer.

Overall, the Expression Photo XP-950 is an excellent all-rounder. It doesn’t offer the greatest photo quality, but it’s more than sufficient for casual photographers who want the convenience of home printing.