Lexmark X83 Review

by John - allprinterreview.com Expert Reviewer

Lexmark X83 All-In-One, priced at $199 is the answer for bargain hunters looking for a printer that has a color inkjet-based multifunction that comes along with a flatbed scanner, a printer, and a photocopier all in one machine. For a relatively low price, this machine is capable of producing quality looking text and graphics using plain or coated paper, all at a remarkable speed.

It is very user friendly even from point of installation up to actual hands-on operation. However, if we are to match Lexmark X83 All-In-One positive features against its negative points, you may want to weigh which aspects are good enough for you at the price of $199.

Advantages of the X83:

1. Ease of installation-- Through the use of the comprehensive and easy to understand illustration of the Getting Started guide, easy installation was over in minutes. One minor setback here is that the shipment did not include the USB cable, considering that the device operates with the PC via USB.

2. Easy to Use-- It has a top-loading input tray that fully extends and can accommodate all types of paper for a max of 100 sheets or 10 envelops. You can find the output tray right in front of the apparatus making it easy for you to view your outputs.

3. User Friendly navigation Features-- Using the printer itself is quite easy. All you have to do is feed the paper, click print and voila, printed materials go to the output tray in front. Scanning or copying does no need much imagination either because all you have to do is place the document on the photocopier-style scanning window, press all the necessary buttons on the console and work is all too easily done. If you need to lighten, darken, enlarge, or create multiple copies, all the respective buttons are easy to discern.

4. Availability of several printing options-- Choosing is not too hard either, since there is a separate button for color prints or monochrome prints. An added option is the copy quality of the task: normal, photo or quick. If you desire a more complicated printed version of filling out a single page with multiple copies in smaller images, all you need to do is press the clone button. Another choice is printing a blown up image in multiple copies, a task you can perform by pressing the poster button.

5. Speed and quality of prints-- Text prints are produced at the rate of 4.2ppm, which is a bit faster than the capability of the HP PSC 750 by .5ppm and Xerox WorkCentre M940 . The bit of disappointment comes in when printing pages with a mixture of text and graphics. You can expect the process to slow down at a sluggish pace of 0.75ppm, which is even lower than PSC 750's printing speed of 1ppm. However, text and graphics quality are superb especially the images because the prints matched the actual color and details. On plain paper, you may find the text print good but with some hint of difference against those produced on coated paper.

6. Good scanning capabilities-- You can find the controls for this using the little icons found in the systems tray. The software allows you to scan and send it directly to e-mail or any intended application. The machine lacks fax features but scanning options can act in its place.

7. The X83 distinguishes itself from other scanners because the scanning operation does not have to be performed from the hardware. Instead, there is a Scan and a Scan To buttons. The Scan button is a sort of warm up for the Lexmark software while pressing Scan To will open up your options on where to send the scanned output in your PC and everything else will operate automatically. Although colors are acceptable, the discriminate user may find some fault in this so we reserve this part under disadvantages.

8. Can function well as a stand alone copier-- It can produce text and graphic copies at around 2ppm and 4ppm if your copying plain text. It may drag for about 30 seconds though, if you?re coming from a power-saver mode, with LCD showing a countdown to get you ready. Again, there is a slight waning of quality when it comes to using plain paper but overall, the copies are good, in fact, even better than those produced by other printers.

Disadvantages

1. Lexmark X83 All-In-One, may be a bargain at $199 for an all in one printer, but the cost on ink replacements are way too high when buying it at retail. My calculations revealed that cost per print can cost as much as 11 cents per text page and 73 cents per color graphic page if I will not be able to find a good deal for the ink cartridges.

2. The software supports Windows 98 and is not compatible for Windows 95 support. You have to get the drivers for Mac OS 8.6 from the Lexmark site.

3. Color of scanned documents is not impressive since the outputs if compared to the original are obviously off color , e.g. the red hue can stand improvement from looking muddy while the grayscale scan can use more improvement in order to produce vivid and sharp details.

4. I tested their claim of 600 dpi and the lab shows it can capture color only at 48 bits while actual optical resolution is only 150dpi.

5. The machine cannot stand alone as a fax tool. You need to rely on the PC modem to operate.

Lexmark X83 $199 price is a bargain and its setbacks would come normal for a low budgeted machine. However, the price of the ink cartridges may very well eat up whatever you saved on initial costs. It has the regular one-year warranty and toll-free lines from 9:00 a.m. to 9 p.m. during weekdays for any technical problems you may encounter. In addition, the Lexmark Website can provide you user guides, FAQs, e-mail support as well as offers for driver downloads.