Z53: Stomps Competition a New Mud Hole
Written: Nov 05 '01 (Updated Feb 13 '07)
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Pros: High Quality Photo Printer.
Cons: Ink(Cost) Not a Fan
The Bottom Line: Best Quality Printer Available is 2400 x 1200 Dpi... Save your money get this printer.
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| DeRango's Full Review: Lexmark Color JetPrinter Z53 Inkjet |
Printers the final piece to the package! The hottest selling items around are photo printers and new digital products. This printer is an excellent buy for any user that wishes for high quality photo output, inexpensive cost, easy installation, great service backed by a great warranty plan, and fast printer speeds. I know I just said a mouth full, but I shall explain as we venture on.
Expectations when buying a printer
- It will work with my system
- It's got to be easy to setup
- It's got to be easy to maintain
- It fixes the problems(s) I've had before
- If I have a problem with this one, FIX IT!!!
- *(Smart Sales Rep) ... Yeah Right!
Lexmark seems to fix these issues with the most recent line of printers they came out with.
Features that make the printer great
- USB & Mac Compatibility
- One-click driver install
- Ink level indicators
- Accu-Feed paper handling system
- High Resolution printing
- LexExpress 1 Year Warranty
Features of the Z53
- 2400 x 1200 dpi (Dots per Inch). Approximately 38% higher than 2880 x 720
- *16 ppm (Pages per Minute) black (at 5% coverage)
- *8 ppm at 15% coverage
*These numbers can be deceiving, for example these numbers are taken as a test using a USB port (Universal Serial Bus) 5% coverage of the sheet of paper, at the fastest setting/lowest quality (Economy). 5% coverage refers to the ink on the paper, if I took all the black ink on the paper crunched it up and put it in the corner of the paper it would cover 5% of the page. 5% coverage is about a page of text double spaced at 12 font. In summary, don’t expect the printer to print out an 8-1/2 by 11 picture in 7.5 seconds.
- Compatibility: Windows 95/98, NT 4.0, Win 2000, Win Me, Mac OS 8.6 or higher, Mac OS X & Linux. Also new drivers available for XP, this is important because some printers are not Mac or Linux compatible.
- Input Tray: Holds 100 sheets standard paper; or 50 transparencies; or 10 envelopes at a time. Handles letter, legal, A4, A5, A6, B5, Exec, Index (3” X 5”), Postcard (4” X 6”), and multiple envelop sizes. Handles up to 150lb paper, (not 150 lbs literally just the thickness of card stock and envelope papers.
- LexExpress one year exchange: great thing about the Lexmark warranty is that they don’t repair the units, they are simply replaced. If you call and they can’t fix the problem over the phone, they FedEx you a new printer with overnight shipping! You keep the old one too (Paper weight, Door stop, Boat anchor, ect). No hidden charges or shipping dues.
- Unit can handle 5000pages/month, not all people with do this, but it’s geared for higher volumes, thus lasting longer.
Ink consumption is major issue with me, I don’t want to purchase a printer that needs a new ink cartridge every time I turn around. The black ink tank gets 800-1000 pages yield at 5% coverage & the color gets about 600-800 pages yield at 15% coverage. You can get about 78 full 8-1/2 by 11 photos at the highest settings. So the ink may be more expensive than others, but you get more pagers per cartridge… To compare the 45A Black ink cartridge off Hewlett Packard’s website shows 512 copies at 5% coverage, and 200-300 at 15% on the color cartridge. HP will give you about 40 copies at the highest setting on 8-1/2 by 11 pages.
When you replace an Lexmark cartridge you also replace the printer head. The head contains the nozzle used to spray the ink onto the paper. Paper is abrasive to the head thus causing it to “wear down” eventually not to work at all or very poorly. So by replacing both the head and ink, you insure high quality prints with no streaking. Canon printers and Epson printers have the heads built in/onto the units or separate from the ink cartridge itself. This can be costly to replace or repair!
The printer itself works on both USB & Parallel ports. I suggest USB because it’s about 20 times faster than a regular printer port and much easier to install. The printer doesn’t come with the USB or Parallel cable, so be sure to purchase that! If you’re not sure about your computer having USB ports check your computer manuals, most computers that have Pentium II processors or better have it.
Ok my brain is full!
The quality of prints is absolutely fabulously on photo paper made by Kodak. Keep in mind that you don’t need to purchase a (Photo Cartridge) but they do make one. You can still get 2400 x 1200 dpi on any paper plain to photo. That my friends you can’t do on HP, Epson, or Canon without a special paper.
Good luck finding a printer that suits your needs!!
Related Links & Details
Lexmark Z645 InkJet Printer
Lexmark PhotoJet Z705 InkJet Printer
Lexmark X5470 All-In-One InkJet Printer
Lexmark JetPrinter X1185 All-In-One InkJet
Hewlett Packard LaserJet 3055 All-In-One Printer
http://www.lexmark.com for more info
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 129.99
Operating System: Windows
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