Lexmark X83 Printer – A Good Albeit Limited Printer
Written: Oct 03 '01
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Pros: Color Printing and Copying and a Scanner to boot
Cons: Questions about sturdiness
The Bottom Line: I would recommend it to anyone looking for a lightweight, low to moderate use multi-function device.
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| OpalMan's Full Review: Lexmark X83 Inkjet Printer |
We were recently in need of a photo-quality printer at the credit union. Trying to conserve funds in the current environment we also wanted a machine that could serve as a copier at our car sales without weighing a ton. After testing a few printers we ended up with the Lexmark X83. It performs all the functions we require of it at a very reasonable price.
What Can it Do?
The Lexmark X83 is what is called a multi-function machine. It is capable of printing in both black and white and in color, it can copy in both too, and to top it all off, it can serve as a 48-bit scanner. It can also serve as the input for PC faxing. Each will be covered in a little greater detail further along. For our needs the color printer aspect combined with the light weight and the copying capability made this the ideal printer for our needs.
The Specs
One of the key specifications for us in this printer is the weight. We had been taking a HP 4050 to Car Sales but this proved extremely burdensome as it weighs in at approximately 40 lbs. The Lexmark X83 weighs in at a mere 15 lbs. and can perform more functions. It is also much smaller at approximately 10”high x 18”wide x 14”deep. A rather small footprint for the functions it can perform.
The Interface and Drivers
This is one place that the X83 shows its limitations. It is a USB and USB only printer. This prevents it from being used with any Windows NT 4.0 machine. Lexmark also limits it further by not providing or making available drivers for the Windows 95 version C with USB support. So Win 95 machines are also not able to use this printer. The USB interface does improve the speed of the printer though. Drivers are available for Windows 98 SE (yes, they even leave out early Win98 users!), Windows ME, Windows 2000 Professional, Windows 2000 Server and Windows 2000 Advanced Server.
The X83 as a Printer
The X83 is a marvelous color photo printer. It offers numerous features to make it extremely useful as a printer. Print resolution in both color and black and white is 2400 x 1200 dpi (dots per inch). Lexmark claims that you can get up to 12 pages per minute in black and white and up to 6 pages per minute in color. These speeds vary directly with your settings on some of the Advanced printing options available. I have seen this printer hit the expected speed in black and white but have not seen it very close in color.
The X83 as a printer offers advanced printing options that allow the user to tailor the printer to their needs. One such option is the Media Type option. You have your choice of: Plain Paper, Coated Paper, Glossy/Photo Paper, Transparency, Iron on Transfer, and Greeting Card Stock. This option primarily allows you to adjust the thickness of the paper you are using and supposedly affects how the ink is put on the page. The option that has the greatest impact on speed seems to be the Print Quality. Your options, Quick, Normal, Photo and Max Photo will directly impact the speed you get. I have tried these out and 'Quick' will get you a couple to three pages in a minute, depending on your page. Normal will get you a near full-page photo in about 2 minutes. The Max Photo option will slow you down considerably. Using this option with the Glossy/Photo Paper option will get you a better looking photo than Normal, however, unless you need the better quality, the 18 – 20 minutes per page for a photo is not really worth the difference in images. The last advanced printing option that I will mention is the Cartridge Maintenance. This feature actually monitors the level of ink in your cartridges so that you know when you are running low. It also allows you to agitate the ink in a cartridge to prevent it from drying. I have not used this aspect of the option but it is there.
The X83 as a copier
The second key feature we purchased this printer for was the fact that it can serve as a copier. The best thing is that it can serve not only as a black and white copier but as a color copier as well. The specs say that you should expect up to 10 pages per minute on black and white and up to 3 in color. I have yet to see anywhere near these speeds. We regularly get about 7 – 8 pages per minute on black and white copying and 1 ˝ to 2 pages in color. It’s not much below what is expected but enough to mention.
The X83 as a Scanner
The X83 also has a built in scanner with a resolution of 600 x 1200 dpi. We have not used this feature extensively but have tried it out. It produces respectable images although not on a par with some of the higher end scanners. I haven’t seen any specs on what kind of speed you should expect on a scan but it does take a couple of minutes.
What do you Get?
The Lexmark X83 comes pretty complete. You get just about everything you need in the box with the exception of the USB cable. It comes with a full cartridge of both color and black and white. This is a full heavy use cartridge of each, not the light use, half-empty cartridges you see with some printers. It also includes all the software you need. These include; the drivers, MGI PhotoSuite 8.1, Black Ice Impact ColorFax Lite, and ABBYY FineReader 4.0 OCR software. This gives you a pretty complete package.
Concerns
As happy as I am with this device I do have my concerns. The printer is very lightweight and seems to slide rather easily. The construction is so light I tend to wonder how much wear it can handle. The replacement cartridges are also a bit high. The HP cartridges I have seen for most of their inkjets run in the neighborhood of $30 to $35. The X83 replacement cartridges run $37 for a high-yield black cartridge and $50 for a high-yield, high-resolution color cartridge. These costs can become rather significant over time.
The Bottom Line
While there are minor concerns about this device, you can’t beat the $200 price tag. We actually were able to get ours for a mere $179. As well as it fits our needs, this was a steal. I would recommend it to anyone looking for a lightweight, low to moderate use multi-function device. If you have small children or animals that get too close to your equipment I would find a way to secure the printer to prevent accidents. It lives up to or comes close to all of the claims it makes.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 179
Operating System: Windows
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