APC Australia

Epson Expression Photo XP-960

A compact MFP that can produce highly profession­al results.

- Jim Hill

There are plenty of all-in-one inkjet printers on the market, but not so many that are capable of handling A3 paper. Epson’s relatively affordable XP-960 takes up minimal desk space, uses an extra colour in its six ink system, can scan at 4,800dpi, and has three trays for dedicated media, making it a machine suitable for a home office or a mediumsize­d business.

The rounded sides of the Expression Photo XP-960 reduce physical bulk as much as possible, so while it has the capacity to handle A3 paper, it’s small enough to share an average-sized desk with a computer and still have room to spare. The glossy black finish is a magnet for dust, but because all the trays and flaps automatica­lly fold neatly away, it’s very easy to wipe down with a duster. The colour display is a generously-sized 4.3-inch touchscree­n, making it quite easy to print directly from an SD card (or myriad other flash memory cards) without any need to access a computer, as well as making the setup process a breeze.

The ability to handle A3 paper is what really sets the XP-960 apart from your average all-in-one photo printer, but besides that, you have a fairly full feature set, too. Duplex printing is possible with A4 plain paper, for example, and in this mode, the print speed accelerate­s from 8 to 28 pages per minute.

Having two paper in-trays is an advantage, because it means you can load one with plain A4 and the other with photo paper, envelopes or printable blank CD-sized discs, and not have to empty the tray each time you switch media.

The scanner, meanwhile, can capture very high resolution scans of 4,800 x 4,800dpi, which is good news for designers who can save the scanned documents onto a USB thumb drive or a mobile device via the app — or have it emailed to a PC.

Epson’s Claria Photo HD ink system uses six, instead of the usual five, colour cartridges (magenta, light magenta, cyan, light cyan, yellow and black) to achieve superior colour fidelity.

The XP-960 achieved average results after its print heads were cleaned and realigned — the print speed is a little slow at less than nine pages per minute, but text looks sharp enough. Characters lack the light touch of a laser and look a little heavy-handed, but they’re perfectly acceptable for an inkjet.

Colour documents benefit from the six ink cartridge system and show good separation and consistenc­y. When it comes to printing photos on photo paper, the XP-960 really shines. There’s no ink mixing or smearing, and a real boldness to the colour palette gives quality images that profession­al touch.

Thanks to its accurate six-ink cartridge system, the Expression turned out profession­al quality prints every time in our full colour tests. For plain text documents, this machine begins to look a little expensive to buy and run, but its wide feature set and ease of use justify the costs if you plan to do any kind of A3 printing as well.

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