How To Setup Wireless Printer Epson Xp 446 With Your Phone

Tom'due south Guide Verdict

The XP-640 offers helpful features, loftier-quality graphics and fast functioning across the board, although text quality is less impressive.

Pros

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Fast printing speeds, including duplex
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Quick at making copies and high-resolution scans
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Beneath average ink costs
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Reliable affect panel

Cons

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Text prints are not razor-abrupt
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Slow black-and-white PDF scans
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Inconsistent scan quality

The $79 Epson Expression XP-640 offers a good for you variety of features and solid performance for a very compelling cost. It's a real speed demon at nearly every task, and it produces high-quality prints — at least when it comes to photos and graphics. In fact, information technology's amongst the all-time printers we've seen for photograph printing.

Design

The front end panel of the XP-640 hinges upward to 90 degrees and has a ii.7-inch color LCD. That'due south non a touch on screen; instead, you lot operate the printer with the adjacent affect console. This may audio old-fashioned in the age of the smartphone and touch displays, but personally I prefer it. Too oft, printer touch screens are unresponsive and cumbersome to use. The XP-640's touch panel was reliably responsive to my input.

That is not to say it's perfect. Y'all have to select a complicated password, which is cumbersome as you navigate through the letters on an on-screen keyboard. I also ran into some frustration when manually selecting a paper setting. (Thankfully, well-nigh of the time the printer detects the type of paper you've loaded.)

The XP-640 offers two input trays, a primary 100-canvass paper cassette and a special media tray that holds upwards to 20 sheets of glossy paper, at sizes up to 5 x 7 inches. In that location's a 30-sheet output tray on elevation of the main paper cassette that obstructs access somewhat. I got around that by leaving the input tray'due south drib-downwards door down. In addition, a thin tray for printable CD/DVD disks is stored beneath the output tray. After loading a deejay, you lot insert it partially into the printer, higher up the output tray. The XP-640 draws information technology in to print on the deejay, then the tray slowly emerges.

Other features include a duplexer for two-sided printing, Wi-Fi connectivity, and both a USB port and SD Card slot for press from thumb drives and memory cards. The but major missing characteristic is an automated document feeder (ADF) for hands-costless multipage copying.

Print Speed

If the demand for speed tops your list, the XP-640 is unlikely to disappoint. On nigh every timed test, the XP-640 was among the fastest inkjets we've tested. For example, the Epson printed text documents at 9.i pages per minute, versus the average of viii ppm.

MORE: Best All-in-One Printers

The Epson has a duplexer, which isn't normally much crusade for celebration in this budget class, as it can slow things down. Only the XP-640 excelled hither, making two-sided text prints at five.five ppm. The side by side-fastest competitor, the HP Envy 5540, clocked in at 3.6 ppm. The Canon TS6020 made two-sided prints at three.5 ppm, while Canon's Pixma MG3620 did so at a pokey ane.7 ppm.

The XP-640 spat out mixed text and graphics in a fraction of the fourth dimension of nearly other tested models. It churned out our vi-page document in 1 minute, 11 seconds (5.1 ppm), almost double the two.6-ppm average. The side by side closest model, the Canon Pixma TS6020, took 1:54 to print the same certificate.

Glossy photos printed at faster-than-average speeds. The XP-640 printed our letter-size photo in ii:33, way alee of the 6:22 boilerplate for inkjets. Still, a few models bested Epson'due south all-in-one, including the Canon TS6020 (1:54) and the HP Green-eyed 5540 (2:12).

Every bit noted, the XP-640 can print a color label onto a coated CD, an unusual ability amid the all-in-ones we've tested. The printer can handle that task in one:12.

Copy and Scan Speed

Copy speeds were improve than the average for inkjet MFPs. On text documents, the XP-640 was quick, making a copy in 11.eight seconds. This was significantly faster than the average of 15.six seconds, although the Epson WF-2760 (10.half-dozen seconds) and the Canon TS6020 (9.four seconds) were both faster.

Color copying likewise was quick. The XP-640 made a color copy in 23 seconds, well ahead of the average of 28.6 seconds. Only the Canon TS6020 was faster, at nineteen.2 seconds.

The XP-640 made a loftier-resolution JPEG colour scan in 41.half-dozen seconds, nearly 30 seconds faster than the boilerplate inkjet. Only the Canon MG3620 was faster, at 39.iv seconds.

Scanning in black-and-white to PDF format was the one chore that took the XP-640 longer than average. It made a grayscale PDF in xvi.1 seconds, the slowest time we've seen amidst inkjets and five seconds slower than the category average.

Print Quality

This Epson all-in-1 produces acceptable-quality text documents, but the alphabetic character forms are not razor-sharp. Text looks heavier and a little rough effectually the edges, compared with many competing models. Even on high-quality inkjet paper, where some models reach an near laser-printer quality, the XP-640 showed little improvement, yet printing thicker, fuzzier forms than its competitors.

This issue was more pronounced in prints of PDF documents, where the text looked heavy and fuzzy around the edges. Past comparing, the Canon TS6020 printed the same certificate with sleeker, sharper text.

On the other hand, the XP-640 makes high-quality graphics prints, both on evidently paper and glossy photo newspaper. Colors were well-saturated, textures were smooth, and there was a lot of fine detail. Colors tended to be warm, including skin tones. The only disappointment was that in ane of our test photos, some very nighttime shadow areas lacked subtle details, and ended upwards looking flat. Despite this imperfection, the XP-640 is one of the best photo printers we've reviewed.

Scan quality was as impressive, with a skilful corporeality of detail in shadow areas of color photos. Colors looked accurate, and the scanner captured plenty of fine details. However, grayscale scans to PDF format sometimes suffered from some bumpy edges on the text. When the original was placed at a slight slant on the scanner drinking glass, letter forms came out with jagged edges.

Ink/Toner Cost and Yield

The XP-640 keeps costs low. Text pages cost an estimated 5.8 cents (standard) and 3.1 cents (high-yield), chirapsia the category average by 2.1 cents and 3.1 cents, respectively. This price is based on full sets of ink cartridges, and would exist higher if you bought individual cartridges.

The XP-640 uses five ink cartridges: 3 colors (cyan, magenta, and xanthous) plus two black inks. The standard blackness ink is pigment-based, and by and large used for text and plain paper printing. The other is dye-based and by and large used for photos on sleeky paper. On ISO standardized prints, pigment black is rated to last 250 pages, while photo blackness for two,100 pages. The high-yield Forty cartridges have ratings of 530 and four,200 pages, respectively.

Colour press costs too are a deal compared with other models in the XP-640's class. Making a color print costs ten cents using the XP-640'southward high-yield cartridges, versus the boilerplate of 14.7 cents. Standard cartridges brand color prints for an estimated xviii.8 cents each, versus the average of 22.2 cents.

Setup and Startup Time

The XP-640 starts upward apace, illuminating the dwelling house screen in but 5.four seconds. (Only the Canon Pixma TS6020 was faster, with its four.5-2nd startup time.) Information technology takes the XP-640 well-nigh 10 boosted seconds to begin making a re-create, based on a full time of 27.6 seconds to practise so (it takes 11.8 seconds when warmed upward).

Setting up the XP-640 with a USB connexion to a PC was like shooting fish in a barrel, with relevant Windows drivers installed without a hitch. Putting the all-in-one on my wireless network was unproblematic using WPS way (where you press the WPS button on your wireless router).

In addition, direct Wi-Fi allows you to impress from an Android or iOS device running the Epson iPrint app, which performs printing, copying and scanning functions. Scanning can be done to the cloud and your Facebook account, after setting up an Epson Connect business relationship, which also allows you to print documents remotely from a PC or smart device.

Software

Epson includes basic printing and scanning software, plus a dedicated CD/DVD printing application. (You'll need specially coated disks for this feature.) A desktop shortcut to the online manual showed upwardly on my Windows PC, and you can download the PDF if y'all wish.

Bottom Line

You get plenty of features with the XP-640, including the novelty of CD/DVD disc press. Low ink costs and fast performance are the biggest attractions here. Graphics quality is high if you impress a lot of photos, although text quality leaves something to be desired. Even so, if you're looking for an all-in-one device that won't break the banking company while treatment virtually tasks you tin throw at it, Epson's XP-640 fits the bill.

Eric Butterfield is a freelance writer and musician from California. His work has appeared in PC World magazine, CNET, Taproot, and Alter Activity — plus Tom'south Guide, of course — while his music has appeared in more 260 Television set show episodes for major networks such equally NBC, Hulu, BBC America, and more than. You can bank check out his piece of work on Spotify.