Epson SureColor P900 review: a photographer’s printer with poster-size prints

Epson gave the SureColor P900 a premium, black finish. It looks great but collects dust rapidly and scratches easily. I kept a micro-fiber cloth nearby for frequent cleaning of the surface panels.

The SureColor P900 is a printer large enough to accept poster-size paper up to 17 by 22 inches and an output bin that can hold such a large print. That means you need a sizable space to use this printer.

While the unopened footprint is just 24.2 by 14.5 inches, the output bin expands the length to as long as 35.6 inches for printing long sheets. Epson recommends 16 inches of clearance at the back when using the front feed. The SureColor P900 stands just 7.8 inches high when the main rear paper tray is closed. When it’s open for large prints, the height increases to 20 inches.

However, the benefits could be worth the space requirement. The manual front media tray can accept paper up to 1.5 mm thick. That means you can print on specialty papers heavier than most cardstock.

To manage this versatile printer, Epson added an adjustable 4.3-inch color touchscreen that tilts up from horizontal 50 degrees for easy viewing while seated or standing.

This is a photographer’s printer, designed for lab-quality prints in the convenience of your own home or office. It can print on a variety of media ranging from popular small photo sizes like 3.5 x 5, 4 x 6, 5 x7, and 8 x 10, to borderless 8.5 x 11 and 11 x 14 standard paper, all the way up to poster-size sheets at 11 x 17, 13 x 19, 16 x 20, and 17 x 22 inches.

The quality is phenomenal. Epson’s UltraChrome Pro10 pigment ink system goes fast beyond the standard four colors used by most inkjet printers. With cyan, light cyan, vivid magenta, vivid light magenta, yellow, gray, light gray, violet, photo black, and matte black, the SureColor P900 has a much more expressive palette of colors to choose from to faithfully recreate your favorite moments.

Skin tones, yellows, and purples are notoriously challenging for printers, but the SureColor P900 handles difficult tones and shades with ease. True black and subtle shadows can also be hard for many printers but Epson includes two blacks and two grays to expand the range.

The Epson SureColor P900 is quite versatile in terms of the media it supports. I didn’t test the optional $250 roll adapter but it holds 17-inch rolls with two- or three-inch cores up to 10 feet long. That means long banners are possible with this adapter.

The printer’s front media tray accepts very thick paper with a direct path that prevents curling. The front media tray pulls paper through the printer and out of the back in a manual process that proved to be finicky and error-prone.

The big color touchscreen guided me somewhat but it was still confusing. I pulled the front feeder out until it moved down and locked. Then I carefully aligned the paper with an etched line on the media tray.

The SureColor P900 instructed me to push the feeder back in, and this is where I first ran into problems. At the first click, the screen gives me instructions to proceed. When I did, the last inch didn’t feed correctly, leaving an overprint followed by an unprinted border.

I’m usually very tech-savvy and detail-oriented but I didn’t notice that the media tray should be flush with the front of the printer before proceeding with printing. With that mystery solved, the overprint and border were no longer a problem.

I also had to change printer settings to thick paper before using cardstock. When printing on expensive paper, it’s a good idea to triple-check settings to ensure everything works as expected.

When the paper successfully loads, the media tray is the best option for thick paper, accepting cardstock up to 1.5 mm thick while keeping it flat and smooth during the print.

For such a large, complex printer, setting up the Epson SureColor P900 was simple. The printer comes well-packed with plenty of padding, tape, and cling sheets to secure the parts and protect the shiny black surfaces.

The big color touchscreen guided me to install the 10 included ink cartridges, alerted me to the 15-minute ink priming time, and helped me connect to Wi-Fi with no issues.

Epson’s mobile Print Layout app found the printer quickly and I was ready for my first print in less than half an hour. I started with a full-page borderless photo, but the mobile app works with many paper sizes and types.

I loaded a 17 x 22 sheet and tried a poster print that came out great. I used an iPad, iPhone, and Android phone with no issues. Epson’s desktop software works with Windows and macOS to provide even more controls and custom media types.

At $1,349, the Epson SureColor P900 is expensive enough that it might only appeal to photography enthusiasts or businesses that need large format prints. Epson offers a $200 rebate, effectively lowering the price to $1,149.

Each ink cartridge costs $44, so a complete set is a $440 investment. The good news is the ink supply lasts a long time. While many inkjet printer cartridges hold 10 ml of ink or less, UltraChrome Pro10 cartridges hold 50 ml of ink. The SureColor P900 comes with 10 full cartridges supplying half a liter (about a quart) of ink.

I was impressed by how many photos I could print. After priming the ink, the cartridges showed about a third of the total capacity left. I expected to see low ink warnings after a few 17 x 22-inch prints. However, I printed the equivalent of 44 letter-size pages with 100% coverage before light gray was noticeably low, reaching 7%. Standard gray dropped to 10%. The six colors and two blacks barely moved, showing 25% to 30% remaining.

Since cartridges can be purchased individually, I only need to replenish what’s low, so ink costs aren’t the biggest concern. Fine art paper in large sheets can cost several dollars per sheet.

The SureColor P900 uses durable UltraChrome Pro10 ink that Epson estimates to last for hundreds of years in ideal conditions. Color prints are rated at up to 200 years while black-and-white can last for as long as 400 years in accelerated aging tests.

As a unique professional tool that makes photos into showpieces, the Epson SureColor P900 offers great value for photographers. I can’t overstate how important on-demand prints are without waiting days for a print shop or photo lab to see the results. If there’s an error, the print job is delayed again.