Cheap, Decent Print Quality, Relatively Fast, General Good Budget Printer
Disadvantages:
Ink Catridge costs, Lack of USB cable
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
(Updates are at the end of the opinion)
Printers. OK they’re not the most exciting things to write about but when there is a bargain to be had, I’ve got to let everyone know! The cost of my Lexmark Z13? £24.99! Yes that was the cost of my new printer! Plus a £2.99 P+P charge but still it was under £30! I bought it from Dixons Online but you can buy it from any of your local Currys, Dixons or PC World for £29.99 (which is only a few pounds more) at the moment. Apart from an Apollo branded printer at £39.99, I couldn’t recall a printer being this cheap! This model was originally £50 RRP, so yes, it has been reduced to around half price! What a bargain!
I’ve been looking a printer since I sold my last one along with my computer to a friend of mine, but being skint due to the event called Christmas, I was going to hold it off to the new year. Then an op on Ciao by Broksababie drew my attention to this budget model printer. So thanks to her, I bought one!
It must be crap, you must be all thinking? Well let’s face it, if you expecting the best printer for under £30, then you’d be disappointed. But if you just want a good value budget printer and like me, you’re not fussed about having high quality or you don’t need to use it much, then this is definitely a good choice.
Installing ========== OK onto the printer. I never used a Lexmark printer before so this is my first one from them. After taking out of the box, I couldn’t believe how easy it was to install. Just plug in all the wires, open lid, pop in ink cartridge, install the software from the CD and follow on screen instructions. Done in less than 10 minutes!
The only thing I did notice is that it uses a USB interface, which means its not the usual Printer (Parallel) port that you may have used previously so check that your PC supports USB before buying this printer as I believe it wont work using a parallel port. If you have USB ports, they are usually located at the back of your PC next to your keyboard and mouse sockets and are thin rectangular slots. If your PC is relatively new (i.e. around 2 years old) then yours should have USB ports. You have to buy the USB cable separately as well, which in my opinion should have come with the printer. Just pop down your local Sainsbury’s as they will sell USB cables (branded Vianco) for £4.99 which is a darn site cheaper than buying it from PC World and the like.
The plus side of using a USB interface is the printer will talk faster to your PC. The downside is USB will only work on Windows 98 or better as Windows 95 and other previous version does not support USB. So make sure your computer is USB compatible before thinking about buying this printer.
Software ======== The software that comes on the CD is Lexmark Solution Centre, which guides you in different printing tasks, allowing you to optimise the printer for different print jobs. It also shows printing status information and how much ink you have left in the printer. It also has an Audio Feedback feature, which has a female voice telling you if you are printing or out of ink or paper! I didn’t realise this at first and it scared the hell out of me, when my printer started telling me it began printing! I looked around to see if someone was playing around with me! Anyway you can imagine it being annoying having it on all the time though, so thankfully you can turn Miss Printers voice off via the software.
Print Quality ============= I’m very impressed with the print quality of this printer especially when you consider the price. Most printers are quite good for normal text outputs and the Lexmark is no exception. What did surprise me was the clarity in which colour images/photos came out. I know I cheated in using Photo Quality paper, but it was certainly a match for some HPs and Epsons I have used in the past and those printers were more expensive! The colours are vivid and are pretty close to the original. I did not expect the Lexmark to be much good at printing colour photos but it proved me wrong. The print speeds stated are a bit misleading though as printing a half decent colour image/photo takes about 4-7 minutes depending on the size and quality. The print speeds quoted on the box were for draft colour, which would mean the quality isn’t that great.
Ink Catridges ============= Onto the Ink, this is one of the down points of this printer. It can print using only one ink cartridge at a time so you can’t use both black and colour ink cartridges simultaneously. So for normal printing, you use the black ink cartridge and for the photos and colour images, the colour ink cartridge, but you will have to keep on swapping the ink cartridges over.
Now the Z13 only comes with a colour cartridge and you have to buy the black one separately. This is advisable considering that most of us only use our printers to print out black text documents. If you use the colour ink cartridge to print normal black text, it has to mix the colours in the colour cartridge to produce the black. This is the fastest way of using up your colour ink! So it’s advisable to get a Black ink cartridge for everyday use and save the colour for when you want to print those precious colour pictures.
The ink cartridges can be a bit expensive to buy, especially if you are buying from PC World, Dixons or any high street retailers. The cost of the colour cartridge is about £27 and for the black one £22. Expensive, I’m sure you will all agree, but the printer only cost £25! Lexmark seems to be the underdog in terms of cartridges though, as no one seems make cheaper versions like they do with Epson, HP and Canons. But the best place to buy cartridges for the Lexmark would be at your monthly town computer fair or through the good old mail order or Internet as they sell cartridges for much cheaper than the high street. I will update this op at a later date to inform of good places to get these catridges.
Specifications and Requirements ========================= (The boring but essential bits!)
Dimensions 196.3mm (Depth) x 124.8mm (Height) x 386.5mm (Width) Printing at 1200dpi x 1200dpi Up to 7 pages per minute in Black Up to 4 pages per minute in Colour Paper Tray holds 100 sheets (input) and 50 sheets (output)
Compatible with PCs running Windows 98/ME/2000/XP or Linux Compatible with PCs running Apple Macs with iMac OS 8.6 or higher. Ram (Memory) required 32Mb – 128Mb depending on Operating System (OS) used Requires USB port
For more details check out the official website at http://www.lexmark.co.uk/
Conclusion ========== Im very happy I made this purchase (even though it meant I had to shop at Dixons!) and think it’s a real bargain; £25 for a printer! I was dying to buy it for someone for Christmas as I thought it would be quite a cheap and useful present but alas I couldn’t think of anyone! Would I recommend it?
Yes – If you need low-usage printing and want decent but not the fastest/best quality from a budget printer. The only thing you have to watch out for is the ink cartridge costs.
No – If you need to use your printer heavily, it needs to be fast and produce best photo quality possible. Im afraid you going to have to spend a bit more.
Comments welcome! If I forgotten anything or you would like to know more, let me know and I will update this Op! Regards, Ray
UPDATE - 1 Year On (Start)
Although the Lexmark Z13 is no longer a current range model, I have seen it still on sale at computer fairs and on Ebay.
I've used it for a year now and feel that it is time to upgrade to a better printer, for the very same reasons stated in my opinion when I first wrote it last year. The printer may print out surprisingly good photos considering the cost, but speed really is an issue and at times, I have actually wanted it to be faster. Using it as occasional printer, it was sufficient, but my requirments have changed now and I print a lot more photo images, hence I now need a dedicated Photo printer which will print at speed, and the Lexmark just doesnt cut the mustard.
I still highly recommend the product if you are an occasional user especially now that you can get them for around £15 brand new, but just bear in mind the print speed (not so much the quality) and the cost of ink cartridges. Lexmark compatible ink catridges are still very much non-existant. For cheaper 3rd Party cartridges though, I don't think you can beat HP and Epson.
UPDATE - 1 Year On (End)
More details
Reliability
Good
Design
Excellent
Range of extra features / functions
Excellent
Instruction manual
Satisfactory
Manufacturer Support
Good
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