Epson Expression Photo XP-8600

A conventional six-ink ‘photo’ printer

Bucking the trend of combining pigment and dye-based black inks for document and photo printing, the XP-8600 is a more conventional ‘photo’ printer. As such, it runs on six dye-based inks that include CMYK, plus photo cyan and photo magenta, to broaden the colour space.

Drop for drop, ink costs about 10 times more than for the Epson Ecotank ET-7700 printer, although the XP-8600 is much less expensive to buy. There’s a 2.7-inch colour LCD, but this time it’s a touchscreen without a surrounding array of push-button controls. Printing from memory cards and photocopying is a little more intuitive, but the small touchscreen is a bit fiddly to use.

Performance

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

N-photo verdict

The dye-based six-ink cartridge set-up should be more photo-friendly but we prefer Canon’s A4/8.5-inch printers.

Ink cost (per ml)

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

Print speed (mins)

Super-fast for 6x4-inch prints in standard quality, and rapid for A4 prints, the Epson slows in its highest quality setting.