Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Just got the printer, but here's a short list of what I like so far: hard-wired LAN hookup, excellent grayscale ADF scanning experience, excellent photo printing, manual rear paper feed in addition to front trays, ability to scan over the hard-wired LAN, Epson setup software excellent, Epson scanning software very good (one minor thing I didn't like), and the XP-800 (not 810) got high marks from Consumer Reports. Some details... * Unit was nicely packaged, easy to physically setup. * It's much smaller than my prior all-in-one, and relatively small given its capabilities, so fits more easily into an area with limited space. * Software setup was exceptionally easy, well-designed. When you start setup, it automatically gets updates before installing (not typical in my printer setup experience). It then automatically detected the printer on the hard-wired LAN (this has been painful with other printer setups). At the end of setup, it automatically obtains and installs the latest printer firmware (not typical in my printer setup experience). This had to be one of the easiest, most thorough of LAN-printer setups I've ever experienced. * Its software updater was very easy to use as well. Detected several apps which required updating, but let me click which ones to update, and updated them without issue and without the need to reboot. * Minor blemish (but not a deal breaker): After setup, when updating to the latest printer driver, it prompted me with three confusing choices. I don't remember what they were exactly but trust me they were confusing. Something like the following: a) Update the driver and add the printer, b) Update the driver but do not add the printer, c) Do not update the driver. I'm a technical person and could determine the right choice, but I wouldn't expect a normal non-tech user to feel comfortable. Basically, there's an updated driver available, and the printer has already been setup, so `b' is the right choice because it will update the driver for already installed ("added") printer. * The printer supports hard-wired LAN hookup as well as WiFi. I like hard-wired because it's available in my home, and it's easier to setup... just connect the printer to the router and Epson's software finds it right away during setup. * I scanned a bunch of documents using the ADF, very easy: I have only scanned as grayscale, but had to do about 200 pages. It went extremely well. No ADF issues/jams, and it supported scan-to-PDF. It also allows changing between scanning on the flatbed and ADF within a single scan session, all pages going to a single PDF. * Scanning single-sided grayscale via ADF took about 10 seconds per page, while double-sided grayscale via ADF took about 30 seconds per two-sided page (approximately 15 seconds per side or per page, the implication being that page flipping adds about 5 seconds per scanned page). I have not scanned color or in different modes so can only speak from my one grayscale scanning experience so far, which consisted of about 200 pages going to several PDFs (i.e., a few scanning sessions creating several PDFs from both the ADF and flatbed). Double-sided scanning worked exceptionally well, no jams. * Ouch, one scanning downside (not a deal-breaker): You cannot push the Scan button on the physical scanner to initiate a scan to the PC over the network. I was shocked at first because this led me to think the XP-810 did not have any support for scanning over the hard-wired LAN connection, but it does: you must initiate the scan from Epson's software on the PC. The reason I expected Scan button to work this way is because my older Canon MX860 supported this feature... you could push a button on it, and scan right to a PC PDF without touching the PC at all. Using Epson's software to initiate a scan over LAN from the PC is fine for me. NOTE: The Epson XP-810 includes a USB hookup as well. I believe it may support Scan button to scan to a PC connected via USB, but I have not tried it. I am only referring to the LAN hookup I'm using... when I pressed Scan, the only options presented where, I believe, a USB options and memory cards/devices. In any event, realize I'm speaking of my own particular usage/setup. * Ouch, another blemish (non-deal-breaker for me, but it may be for office/business users): During lengthy scanning of, say, 35 documents in a full ADF, one might like to continue to use his/her PC for other tasks such as email or the like. The Epson scanning software, while scanning, will show progress, which by itself is just fine, but it becomes problematic because Epson's software activates the progress dialog/window after each page or so, which means, while you're working within a different application during scanning, the Epson software makes itself active while you're trying to get work done. You might be typing in email, and all of a sudden the Epson software will be the active application, so your keystrokes stop going to the email or other application. I could easily see this being a deal-breaker for a secretary who might need to scan on the same PC upon which she writes letters, as just one example. For me, this issue is okay to deal with, though it is a pain. Since this issue is very easy to fix, Epson should address it. It's an unnecessary limitation. There may be a way around this by using other scanning software, but I tried one other application but it ends up using the Epson scan dialog and I see the same issue. * This unit has a front loading paper tray, but it also has a rear manual feed for photo paper, which I consider to be a big plus, very convenient compared to having to change out the tray paper all the time. The rear feed works well, but it was a little confusing at first since you can't just rest the paper there, you must actually insert it about 2 inches for the printer to recognize it's there. This is documented, which is how I figured it out, but only after experiencing a few printer error messages. This nuance differs from typical rear feed experience. * I have not used the front CD/DVD printing tray, but I noticed it is easy to insert it too far into the unit. You must carefully insert it until you see it is flush, and then stop. It also has a slight click and feel, where you know it's reached the right point, but this is untypical. Usually printer parts like this have a definite point where you cannot insert them further and that's the right point. This is a very minor issue, if an issue at all. Another review called this out, so I'm confirming it. * After installing the Epson software, I noticed the "Epson Ask IE toolbar" had gotten installed. I must have missed a checkbox somewhere during install, or they decided to install it anyway. Regardless, Epson really doesn't need to be installing stuff like this. I removed it. Not a biggie but I wish companies would default to installing the necessities and make other things optional by default. * I owned a Canon MX860 for several years. I worked well until one day, during scanning, it displayed a B200 error and the unit became inoperable. Despite having experienced that Canon issue, since the MX860 had worked well, I looked closely at the Canon PIXMA MX922 Wireless Color Photo Printer with Scanner, Copier and Fax as a replacement, instead of this Epson XP-810. The MX922, though, did not have any manual rear photo paper feed as did the MX860, and that was an MX922 deal-breaker for me. At that point, I went with this XP-810.