Lexmark Z 45 Color Jetprinter > Reviews > A lean mean good value printing machine

Author's product rating:   

Picture quality	Excellent
Printing speed	Very fast
Colour sensitivity	Excellent
Ease of use	Very easy
Value For Money	Excellent

Advantages:	Reasonably priced; Up 15 pages per minute; Good print quality; Useful instructions
Disadvantages:	No USB cable supplied

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Although I only purchased this printer as part of a bundle with my laptop, I have been pleasantly surprised by its performance. It is almost as good value at its £80 RRP as at its bundled price of £1.

1.Setup
On opening the printer box, I found very clear pictoral instructions: although I have some experience with computers, I would describe them as beginner-friendly. These covered connecting the printer to its power supply and the computer, inserting the cartridges and paper, and then instructed you to insert the printer software CD supplied.

The paper guides are sturdier than on some printers, and the paper loaded easily. Loading cartidges was also very straightforward, unlike on my previous Epson Stylus: the cartridges are inserted vertically, and then pressed back until they 'click in', Lego-style.

However, in the process of connection to my laptop, I did encounter a slight problem, which might have been more serious for an inexperienced computer user: step 4 in the instructions required USB connection of the printer and computer. No USB cable was supplied. I happened to have a spare, but for a beginner this might have been a greater problem. I have been informed that some companies, such as Dell, will include a USB cable with a printer bundle.
After the software CD was inserted, it was a straightforward matter to follow the onscreen prompts to complete installation.

2.Print Speed
This is very competitive: the manufacturer quotes 15 pages a minute maximum. This does refer to monochrome printing, but printing in colour is almost as fast: about 10 pages a minute.

3.Print quality
After installation, I printed out a test page: the lexmark logo with a photograph of a peacock. Especially given the speedy print, the quality was excellent. The 2400 x 1200 dpi really showed.

4.Additional features
The printer software also features the option to adjust the mode of printing to collate copies of a document, reverse the page order and do double-sided printing etc.

5.Support
Lexmark provides a 1 year warranty offering repairs or replacement of faulty goods. There is free technical support on the Lexmark website, an automated fax-back system for information and troubleshooting documents, and telephone assistance. However, the telephone assistance is subject to fees - call charges, and, more notably, a £7 fee after satisfactory resolution of the request.

I would recommend this as a value for money printer with excellent performance and usability. However, as with many printers, the cost of the cartridge replacements is high - this is where the manufacturers of printers make their real money. A Lexmark black cartridge is £27.99, a colour cartridge £31.99. Ouch! Whilst this is comparable with some manufacturers, notably Hewlett Packard, it is substantially more than Epson or Canon cartridges. (This seems to correspond with the fact that I have found HP and Lexmark printers to outperform and be more reliable than Epson and Canon ones.) Great savings can be made by using non-branded Lexmark compatible cartridges, or using DIY refill kits. The latter is a very attractive option in terms of cost, and this is how I plan to refill my printer.