PRINTING. The Epson Expression Home XP-430 prints using inkjet technology, which sprays liquid ink onto the paper from a moving head. It prints photos on glossy paper that are fine for casual users, but not as good as most inkjet printers. Photo printing speed is typical, about 2.9 minutes for a 4x6, costing 60 cents. Text printing is not a strong point, with noticeably fuzzy edges on letters. Text printing was reasonably fast, 7.9 pages per minute, costing 6.4 cents per page. It prints color graphics well enough for most purposes, such as school reports, at 2.4 pages per minute, costing 28.5 cents per page.
SCANNING and COPYING. Scanning performance was Good, but had a few noticeable flaws. It can scan or copy an area up to 11.3 x 8.2 inches (letter size). Copying performance was Very Good, suitable for most purposes.
CONTROLS and DISPLAY. The printer has a medium-size 2.6-inch display screen that can preview each photo in a 2.8-inch window.
CONNECTIVITY and NETWORKING. The Epson Expression Home XP-430 has a memory-card reader for directly printing documents and images stored on an SD card. You can connect directly to a PC with a USB cable, or to your network router wirelessly with WiFi. There's a WiFi Auto-connect feature that makes it easy to link to your wireless router. Apple AirPrint and Google Cloud Print are built-in, to print wirelessly from smartphones, tablets and PCs. You can also install Epson's app on your smart phone or tablet, as another option for printing over your WiFi network. You can also print an email remotely by forwarding it directly to this printer.
COST OF OWNERSHIP AND INK. When this section was last updated, the printer's purchase price was about $100, typical for an all-in-one inkjet printer. Printing uses up ink. Over time, as you print, the costs add up. This printer uses 4 cartridges. The Epson ink cartridges used in testing were the 288XL BK, 288XL C, 288XL M, and 288XL Y. At the time, their prices were $31, $17, $17, and $17 respectively. We estimate the cartridges to last a short time: around 2.8 months. After 2 years of typical use, we estimate the total cost to be $344, typical for an inkjet. The estimated yearly cost is $122, also typical for this printer type. So the 3-, 4- and 5-year estimates are $467, $589 and $711 respectively.
PRINTER FIRMWARE. Firmware is software that exists inside the printer. All models are evaluated using the latest firmware version available at the time of testing.
SOFTWARE. The collection of software accompanying the printer may include: the printer driver, printer applications, electronic user manual, (and for all-in-ones:) scanning, faxing, and OCR apps. These get installed on your personal computer. All models are evaluated with a Windows 10 PC using the latest version of printer driver and printer support apps available at the time of testing. The software version was 2.52.0.0.
