Epson Expression Photo XP-8600

£130/$250 A conventional six-ink printer

Bucking the trend of combining pigment and dye-based black inks for document and photo printing, the XP-8600 runs on six dye-based inks that include CMYK, plus photo cyan and photo magenta to broaden the colour space. Even so, it produces pretty solid-looking text.

Drop for drop, ink costs about 10 times more than for the Epson EcoTank ET-7700, although the XP-8600 is much less expensive to buy. Like the EcoTank ET-7700, there’s a 2.7-inch colour LCD, but this time it’s a touchscreen without the surrounding array of push-button controls.

Performance

Epson six-ink photo printers are somewhat renowned for their vibrantlooking output, and the XP-8600 is no exception. Indeed, colour saturation and contrast can sometimes look a little lurid, especially in ‘photo enhance’ mode. Steer clear of that option, though, and photo output is more accurate for colour and tone. Print speeds are generally very fast.

Print speed

Super-fast for 6 x 4-inch prints in standard quality mode, and rapid for A4 standard prints, the XP-8600 slows noticeably in its highest quality setting.

Ink cost

Cartridges are available in standard or XL options, the latter giving better economy and narrowly beating Canon A4/8.5-inch rivals.

Tech focus

Print size: A4/8.5-inch Resolution: 5,700 x 1,400dpi Inks: cyan, light cyan, magenta, light magenta, yellow, black

Interface: USB 2.0, Wi-Fi

Digital Camera verdict

The dye-based six-ink cartridge line-up should theoretically be more photo-friendly, but we prefer the output quality of Canon’s A4/8.5-inch printers on test.