As its name makes clear, the Epson Expression Home XP-410 is meant as a home printer. Although it doesn’t fit all that neatly into that category. In particular, its text output is better looking and surpasses many home printers. If the text-quality is anything to go by, then you’re better off considering at least for light-duty home-office as for typical home use.
Design
Ideally, as more consumer trends are evolving, with the need for either too big or go small, probably the biggest TV, but a small enough music player to fit in your pocket. Printers, however are a weird place. Many people find them weird for their size, mostly hide them maybe behind the closet but here is one printer you won’t be hiding anytime soon. The price is also right for basic printing, scanning and copying.
As you might expect from the price, paper handling is not all that glamour. The Expression XP-410 has a 100-sheet input tray, without a duplexer and no upgrades in sight. Even by home and home-office standards, that is an absolute limitation to light-duty use. However, setup and output speeds are relatively a standard affair with the output quality being better than expected for a printer meant for home use.
Although it doesn’t guarantee full professional quality for documents such as resumes, its definitely good enough for most business and personal needs. With the text quality, its predictable that color photo quality will fall below what you would expect from drugstore prints.
On the Expression Home XP-410 color photos depict certain tints at different shades of gray, you can use it for photo printing, especially photos meant for, say, framing. Strictly for color photo printing. It is clearly the wrong printer if you want to print photos in black and white with different shades of grey. But if you’re looking for an MFP for home use, light-duty home-office use, or dual use in home and home office, it offers a lot to like otherwise.
Performance
All said, the XP-410 delivers good quality than most home printers but that doesn’t mean that its otherwise focused on office needs. Unlike the Brother MFC-J430W, for example, it falls short of office-centic features such as automatic document feeder (ADF) an fax capability which is essential for nay office.
An ethernet port is also missing conveniently on the XP-410. However, it includes Wi-Fi as a connection voice, but if you don’t have wireless connection in your office or home then you’re in for a toast. If you do, then Wi-Fi connectivity will make it for you to share in the dual role of home and home-office printer.
Apart from printing from and scanning to a PC, as well as copying, the Expression XP-410 is able to print from and scan them to a memory card. It uses JPG as the default printing option but you have a choice of JPG or PDF scanning format for files. Amazingly, it lets you preview the JPG files before printing on its 2.5-inch color LCD.
It also supports mobile printing through the cloud, although without Ethernet the only option to connect to the Internet is through a Wi-Fi access point in your network-which rules out cloud printing when connected through a USB cable. On the plus side, the XP-410 features Wi-Fi Direct which allows you connect and print directly by Wi-Fi from or scan to a supported smartphone or tablet.
Recommended Configuration
Epson Expression Home XP-440 Wireless Color Photo Printer with Scanner and Copier, Amazon Dash Replenishment Enabled
1 used from $349.99
Conclusion
The Epson Expression Home XP-410 will suffice as the right choice for light home/student use. it offers surprisingly good print quality, but ironically, the pricey inks mean you shouldn’t buy this machine unless…you don’t print much in which case the cost of ink matters less. All in all, Its combination of text, graphics, and photo quality, with extras like Wi-Fi Direct for easy printing from smartphones and tablets, will be hard to match elsewhere at this price, thus it can easily pass as the right choice.
