Until October 10, 2026, Epson’s own store is selling the Expression Home XP-5200 for $70 less than the XP-5250 that replaces it, $79.99 against $149.99, though the older model shows as out of stock. Epson announced the XP-5250 on October 1 with seven other printers, and its product page calls it “Our Fastest Expression Home Printer.” The XP-5200’s page still carries that line too. The two take the same Claria 222 cartridges, have the same 150-sheet tray and 2.4-inch color screen, and differ on Epson’s spec sheets by one and a half pages a minute. Where a store still has the XP-5200 at $79.99, it is the better buy. At the regular $149.99 both cost the same, and the XP-5250 is the one to buy.
What the faster model buys
The XP-5250 is rated at 15.5 ISO pages per minute in black and 8.5 in color. The XP-5200 is rated at 14.0 and 7.5. ISO speeds come from a standard test document set, so the two figures compare fairly, and they still describe printing after the first page is under way.
Turned into a job you would actually print, the gap is small. A 20-page black document takes about 77 seconds at the XP-5250’s rate and about 86 seconds at the XP-5200’s, a difference of eight or nine seconds. Ten pages of color take about 71 seconds against 80. Neither saving is noticeable on a printer that sits in a hallway and wakes up a few times a week.
Epson’s announcement and product page name no feature the XP-5200 lacks. Both models print, copy and scan, print on both sides of the page automatically and connect over Wi-Fi, with Wi-Fi Direct for printing without a router. The XP-5200 has no document feeder, so a multi-page scan means lifting the lid for every sheet, and the XP-5250’s page lists no feeder either.
Identical ink costs
Both printers appear on the same cartridge listings in Epson’s ink pages. The black 222 cartridge costs $22.99 and the three-color 222 pack $32.95, and the XP-5200 page gives the yields: 210 ISO pages for black, 185 for each color. The 222XL black costs $39.99 and is rated for 550 pages.
That works out to about 11 cents per black page with the standard cartridge, or 7.3 cents with the XL. A full-color page uses all four cartridges and costs about 28.8 cents. The XP-5250’s page does not print yields, but it takes the same cartridges, so the cost per page should carry over unchanged.
One listing looks odd at first. The single 222XL black cartridge names the XP-5250 among its printers and leaves out the XP-5200, while the 222XL combo pack names both. The XP-5200’s yield line includes 222XL, so the high-capacity cartridge fits the older printer too.
What the October discount buys
While the offer runs, the $70 gap buys three standard black 222 cartridges at Epson’s list price, with change left over. That is about 630 ISO pages of black text, more than a year of printing at ten pages a week.
During the offer, the XP-5250 asks $70 more for about eight seconds saved on every 20 pages, on a printer whose ink costs the same either way.
XP-4250 and XP-4200, a smaller copy of the gap
The smaller XP-4250 lists at $99.99 and is rated at 10 ISO pages per minute in black and 5 in color, with a 100-sheet tray. Until October 10, 2026, Epson’s store lists its predecessor, the XP-4200, at $59.99, $40 off, though it shows as out of stock. Both use Claria 232 cartridges, which the XP-4200’s page rates at 150 pages for black and 140 for each color, against 210 and 185 for the 222 cartridges in the 5000 series. A household that prints every week replaces them more often.
Same cartridges, plus a document feeder
Epson’s October release puts a third printer on the 222 cartridges, the WorkForce WF-2990 at $179.99. It adds what the two Expression Home models lack: an automatic document feeder, fax and a 2.4-inch color touchscreen, with the same 150-sheet tray. That is $30 above the XP-5250’s list price and $100 above the discounted XP-5200.
For a home that scans a lease, a tax return or a stack of school forms a few times a year, the feeder is worth more than either printer’s extra speed, and the ink bill stays the same across all three. Epson calls the WF-2990 its fastest WorkForce home office printer, and its release rates it at 15.5 ISO pages per minute in black and 8.5 in color, the same as the XP-5250.
When the discount ends
Epson presents the XP-5200’s price as “Save $70 Today,” and the page’s offer text dates it from October 4 to October 10, 2026, while supplies last. On October 9, 2026 the page showed a Notify Me button where the cart should be. Once the older model sells out or goes back to $149.99, the XP-5250 costs the same, prints slightly faster and takes the same ink, and it becomes the obvious pick.
