Great workhorse, but beware the cartridge price
Written: Jan 13 '00
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Pros: compact; easy-to-install; pretty decent quality
Cons: Expensive cartridges; software sometimes forgets where printer is
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| Pyanfar's Full Review: Lexmark Color JetPrinter 1100 InkJet Printer |
I'm pretty pleased with this printer. After the rebate, I only paid about $40 for it, but it's one Achilles Heel is that I quickly made that up in cartridge prices.
The Lexmark 1100 installed very easily, and the Printing control panel Lexmark wrote slipped seamlessly into Windows, despite its wide range of settings choices (you can specify exact DOS-based printing settings, for example, just in case you really need to print DOS screens while editing batch files in qedit). The weird part is, every once in a while (maybe twice a year), it acts a little funny, and says things like, "Printer not found". However, a quick reinstall remedies this problem. Sometimes, when I switch from regular paper to glossy photo paper, and I KNOW I changed the settings back to normal paper when I was finished, it comes up on glossy again. Weird, but as long as I double-check before the first time I print, I'm okay.
Like I said, though, the big disadvantage is the cost of the cartridges. In an average store, a color cartridge may go for US$40-50 (drop US$10 off that for the Black-and-White price). If you belong to Sam's Wholesale Club, color cartridges go in 2-packs for about US$60. I accepted that because I don't do a ton of printing - just when I absolutely need hardcopy.
Then my wife & I had our first baby. Printing out 600dpi baby pictures sucked down ink like Van Gogh on a Tempra-and-Absinthe bender. The quality is not up to my high standards - if you look closely you can see the dots. This printer would do well cranking out magazine-style glossies but don't expect it to reproduce photos as well as the underpaid schmuck at the Fotomat. I've played around with the settings both on the printer and the scanner, but in the end the photos I printed on the 1100 went to the old people in the family, who all marveled at their clarity.
Still, the Lexmark 1100 is a sturdy piece of hardware and reasonably priced. I would bet the next model up would do a great job on photos.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 40 (after rebate)
Operating System: Windows
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Epinions.com ID:
Pyanfar
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Location: Frankfort, KY
Reviews written: 168
Trusted by: 81 members
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