Pretty Price For A Proficient Printer
Written: Jan 08 '01 (Updated Jan 08 '01)
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Pros: Light, Small, Inexpensive
Cons: Expensive Consumables
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| lap0530's Full Review: Lexmark Color JetPrinter Z32 Inkjet Printer |
Lexmark Z32
Attracted by the $89 price tag at Wal-Mart, I purchased the Lexmark™ Z32 Color Jetprinter™ for my son to use at college. The printer’s light weight (nine pounds in the box) and its small footprint (6.7"H x 17.6"W x 8.3"D with the paper tray retracted) were welcome features as we carried it up the stairs and placed it in his tiny dorm room.
Setup for the Z32 was truly a one-click experience. The supplied CD installed the driver and the interface software in Windows 98 without a hitch. The printer test page attested to both the excellent print quality and speed. My son has had no problems with the printer in the course of using it daily.
Description
The Z32 is a thermal inkjet printer with excellent performance characteristics for the purchase price, including a true four-color print capability, which is often missing from inexpensive printers. The 1200 dpi resolution is quite good, and the colors are bright. The black text is nearly laser quality.
The unit’s average duty cycle is rated at 1,500 pages per month. Printing speed is acceptable, in fact quite remarkable for such an inexpensive unit. The “Accu-Feed” paper handing coupled with a very simple paper path virtually eliminates jams. The printer sports both parallel and USB port interfaces. On paper, the printer looks almost too good to be true. While Lexmark’s positive evaluation of the Z32 is to be expected, consumer reviews are mostly positive as well.
It Tells You What It Needs
The Z32 requires a bi-directional parallel cable or a USB cable to communicate with the computer, neither of which comes with the unit. One should expect to pay upwards of $25 for a bi-directional parallel cable or $20 for the USB cable. The custom interface provides information on ink levels and cartridge condition, paper supply, and current printer configuration. Several preprogrammed voice messages are included as well. My son and I found these annoying and quickly disabled the voice feature.
Do the Math
This five-pound printer is very effective and inexpensive. Although Lexmark is probably not losing any money selling the Z32 for far less than $100, they probably are not making much money either. The real profit is apparently in the consumables and warranties. Ink cartridges are very expensive, and the Z32 is quite a thirsty little printer. Replacing the original cartridges with high-yield black and color cartridges only once is more expensive than purchasing a brand-new Z32. All the more remarkable is the fact that with the unit one gets nearly $60 worth of ink.
In addition to the standard one-year warranty, the user may purchase an additional one-year extended warranty for $39. This hardly seems like a bargain for two reasons. First, the printer is very reliable so one could argue that the extended warranty is unnecessary. Second, and even more important, the printer is so inexpensive that a warranty costing half again as much as the printer itself seems quite uneconomical.
Product Specifications:
Price: Retail $99 (Street price $75 or less. Available direct from Lexmark for $69.99 plus shipping.)
Warranty: One-year on-site repair or product replacement service.
Print Resolution: Up to 1200 x 1200 dpi
Rated Speed: Up to 7.5 ppm black, up to 3.5 ppm color. (As with all inkjet printers, the higher the print quality and the more complex the images, the lower the print speed will be.)
Paper Feeder: 100-sheet capacity
Media Supported: plain paper, photographic paper, transparencies, envelopes, labels, card stock
Consumables (prices quoted on Lexmark web site):
• $29 standard black cartridge ($45 high yield black cartridge)
• $29 four-color standard cartridge ($45 high yield four-color cartridge)
• $37 six-color photo cartridge
Lexmark Z32: The Bottom Line
For users with light volume printing needs, the Z32 may be very close to the perfect printer. It is quiet, trouble-free, and very effective. However, users who do high-volume printing with this unit will quickly realize that the bargain was a good one only for the purchase price, and the consumables cost will quickly outstrip the savings from the initial buy.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 89
Operating System: Windows
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lap0530
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Location: Anderson, SC
Reviews written: 122
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Psychology and management professor and business consultant
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