I bought his printer because my old printer had finally decided not to take cartridges any more, and I needed to print urgently.
I decided that I wanted a laser printer, as the bulk of the printing that I did was black and white, and mostly text. This is the kind of thing best suited to a laser printer. I also wanted to be able to network my printer quite easily, as my house-mate also uses it for printing. I had tried using a print server in the past, but had problems getting it to support Linux properly.
Since my computer runs exclusively on Linux, this was a major factor for me in my choice of printer. I had a quick look through the selection of printers available locally, and this was the only one that I could find that met these criteria.
I gave Cartridge World a ring, to see if they could refill the toner cartridges for this printer. When I spoke to them, they didn't think they could, but they may be able to in the future. This was at first a major problem for me, as Lexmark consumables are notoriously expensive. However, after reading up on it a bit, I find that Lexmark offer a 'Returns Program' toner, which is priced at a reasonable level, with the condition that the toner be sent back to them after use, presumably to compete with the likes of Cartridge World.
As I have mentioned, the main requirement for me was that the printer supported Linux, and this one does. It also supports: - Windows 98SE,ME,2000,XP,XP64,Server 2003 - Mac OS 9,10.2,10.3,10.4 - Linux (as mentioned)
The final requirement for me was that the printer support easy networking. This printer does indeed support networking, and supports it well. I just plugged the printer into my network, and it obtained itself an IP address from the DHCP server, and was easy to detect on my (Kubuntu) Linux machine. I didn't even have to use the supplied driver disk.
I walked 2 miles down to the shop to buy this printer, carried it all the way home, and then realised that there were no data cables supplied. If I had read the box more carefully, then I would have known this. A little tip for other potential buyers is to arrange transport back from the shop - it's not heavy, but 2 miles is a long way to carry anything in a large box.
If I had read the contents list more carefully, I would have noticed the bottom line. Still, here's the whole list: - Printer - Starter Cartridge (Return program) - only does 500 or so pages - Long life photoconductor kit - Set up sheet - Driver CD and (online) Documentation - Power cord - PURCHASE ETHERNET OR USB CABLES SEPARATELY
Fortunately, I had a spare cable, so I was able to start setting up.
The installation on my house-mate's Windows XP machine was a little more complicated than I would have expected, but was not impossible. There are instructions given for installation, but they didn't seem to work for me, I had to set up the TCP/IP port manually, though this was quite easy, using the Lexmark provided utility.
Once I had it running, it was impressive to behold. Having had a reasonably fast inkjet printer before, I was expecting it to be fast, but this thing blinded me with its speed. It is rated at 19ppm (A4), 20ppm (Letter), and I would believe it too. The specification says that the printout of the first page should be within 8 seconds, and this could reasonably be said to be true.
Image quality, according to the specification is 1200, 600x600dpi. I don't have the ability to count dpi using just my eyes, but the pictures are presentable for a black and white printer, and the text is very crisp and clear.
All in all, I am quite happy with this printer, and would recommend it to anyone who wants a reasonably priced, but effective networked laser printer.
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