This Tortoise leaves a lot to be desired
Written: Apr 25 '01
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Pros: The price was right, bright brilliant colors
Cons: Speed and clarity leave quite a bit to be desired
The Bottom Line: The brilliant and vibrant colors from this printer don't shine so bright if at all after all the problems and slow performance it delivers
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| bermudabum's Full Review: Lexmark Jet 5000 InkJet Printer |
Where as I will not complain about the cost of my Lexmark 5000 color printer since it was received as a gift, thanks mom, I will not however recommend you part with any of your hard earned income if you plan on this printer performing anything faster than the time it takes for me to split a cord of wood and catch a shower.
Actually it is a bit faster than that but the speed of this printer is surely something to be concerned about especially in an office environment. With 2 pages per minute output in color and 5 in low resolution black and white this is one slow printer. And to top it off I have had some configuration problems as well.
My Lexmark was received two Christmas's ago and I have been steadily watching it's performance plummet to the earth like an aircraft dumping its bio-wastes from 30,000 ft.
Upon initial set-up which itself was rather painless the printer functioned exceptionally well, except of course for being rather slow. The color output in prints was not photo quality since I did not have a photo ink cartridge, but was very brilliant and I was very pleased. I even considered investing in photo paper and ink because of the exceptional quality. I initially was able to get a fair amount of quality color prints from my ink cartridge, I would guess about 45 full page color prints. Now I am lucky to get any color out of my printer after say as few as 5 pages and this is with a new ink cartridge.
I initially thought that this was a problem with the ink cartridges but I have replaced them numerous times now and each in turn seems to last even less time than the one before it. The Black ink cartridge suffers the same fate and becomes so difficult to read after about the first 20 pages the only way it is readily visible is on max resolution of 1200x600 dpi which seems to take just as long as color printing.
Between school science projects and soccer schedules this printer just isn't cutting it I am afraid. Yeah it's nice that it tells me when my printing has started or is complete, but if it didn't take so long I would simply just wait on the page to finish, rather than to finish dinner. Top that off with black ink cartridges running around $10 a piece and color ones at $16 it is expensive too.
Additional problems have been encountered since first installing this printer on my Pentium II system. As I add content and programs I often find that my printer settings become confused and in fact when sending information to the printer it is placed into a printing Que. I understand this function and why it is there but for some reason I can not even direct the printer to start printing. I often have had to completely shut down my entire computer and restart to get the printer to actually print out items in the print Que. yeah I know confusing, my best guess is that there is some type of compatibility conflict between programs on my PC and since they all seem to be working fine I believe I shall be seeking a new printer for my house.
I guess my review on my work printer has really got me feeling down about my Lexmark here at home. The differences in performance are like night and day. The fact this printer was able to produce color and even photo quality prints was a big draw but the black and white HP LaserJet at work has so much nicer crisp clear images that the shades of gray it delivers out performs this tortoise at every turn.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): Gift
Operating System: Windows
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Epinions.com ID:
bermudabum
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Member: Dave
Location: Tidewater, VA
Reviews written: 42
Trusted by: 25 members
About Me:
Grab a rum swizzle and hear what this Bermuda*Beach*Bum and single dad has to say.
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