The Epson Expression Premium XP-6100 is a good all-in-one inkjet printer for everyday home use, like printing your taxes, homework, or photos. It has a basic scanner that can do most jobs, but since it doesn’t have an automatic document feeder, it’s harder to scan documents with more than one page. Even though its cartridges don’t last long and have to be replaced often, black ink cartridges are cheap, which makes this printer a better choice for people who mostly print in black. Due to the high cost of color cartridges, printing in color isn’t worth it if you print a lot. It’s not the fastest at printing documents in black and white or in color, but it’s pretty good at printing photos, and the photos look fine. It has a lot of ways to connect, including support for USB thumb drives and SD cards. It also works with Epson’s great mobile app.
1. Design
The design of the Epson Expression Premium XP-6100 isn’t great. To get rid of a paper jam, all you have to do is open a panel on the back of the printer. The USB and SD card ports are on the front, and the top and bottom front panels cover and protect them. During print jobs, the display console doesn’t need to be raised because there’s enough room for the output tray. However, the output tray needs to be pulled out by hand before printing can begin.
The output tray is on top of the two paper trays, so if you need to load more paper, you have to push the output tray in first. The main paper tray can only hold up to 100 sheets of paper, which isn’t very much. When you change the ink cartridges, you have to turn on the printer. Also, the scanner’s lid doesn’t open all the way, which makes it harder to scan thick documents.
The screen on the Epson XP-6100 is fine. The screen isn’t very big, but the icons are clear and the menus are easy to use, even if they move slowly. It doesn’t have a touchscreen, so you can only use the buttons around it to move around. You can see well from both standing and sitting, and the whole front panel can tilt up if you need to.
2. Printing
The Epson XP-6100 has a good speed for printing. The first page of a black-and-white document takes a long time to print, and the rest don’t go much faster. Printing color documents is also slow, but it does better than most printers when it comes to printing photos.
The cost-per-print is fine for the Epson XP-6100. Both black and color cartridges have a low yield, so they need to be changed often. But the black ink cartridge is a lot less expensive than the color ones. So, the cost of printing in black stays low, but the cost of printing in color goes up quickly as you print more.
Even if you only print in black, keep in mind that most inkjet printers still use the color cartridge for maintenance, so you may still need to replace it at some point.
The Epson XP-6100 does a good job of printing photos. There are a lot of details, and the colors stand out well. Some parts of the picture have a grainy look, and there are also hints of color in the grayscale.
These results are based on the real photo, not on the scanned image shown above, which may not be a good example of how well the printer prints photos.
3. Mobile apps and connectivity
The Epson XP-6100 has a lot of ways to connect, but it doesn’t have an Ethernet port and it doesn’t work with Bluetooth. Both USB thumb drives and SD cards can be used as external storage.
All View
The Epson Expression Premium XP-6100 is a good printer for the whole family. It’s mostly made for printing black-and-white documents because the black ink cartridge is cheap. But printing in color gets very expensive, especially if you print photos often. As for the photos’ quality, they look fine, but a little bit grainy. It can print directly from a USB thumb drive or an SD card, and it can also print from mobile devices using AirPrint or Mopria.
The Epson Expression Premium XP-6100 is a good family printer that can print, copy, scan, and fax. It’s a good choice for people who want a small printer and mostly print in black. However, there are better printers in this price range, like the Canon PIXMA TR8520 or Epson’s own WorkForce Pro WF-3720. Check out our suggestions for the best photo printers, the best printers for the home, and the best printers for college students for more ideas.
