Lexmark Interact S605 Review – Stand-Out Printer In Its Price Range

Pros

Lexmark Interact S605 has got a user-friendly touch screen LCD with suitable “SmartSolution” shortcuts, simple wireless setup and fast print output to match every requirement of modern consumers. It also has got the auto-duplexer.

Cons

The image quality improvement is must for the photo quality of Lexmark Interact S605.

Introduction

It might not be completely convincing that touch screens are meant for printers, but the Lexmark Interact S605 is one printer which has convinced us, up to a great extent with its practical and user-friendly interactive LCD. Apart from this one another thing that we appreciate about Lexmark Interact S605 is it ability to churn out professional quality text and graphic document at a speed rivaling several other pro laser printers in the market that are priced $200 more than our Interact. So, as long as you don’t expect immensely high quality photo prints from the Lexmark Interact S605, it definitely is a worth buying product.

The Lexmark Interact S605 is capable of producing prints at significant speed and without compromising with the quality seriously. So if you want quality prints for your documents and photos at quirk pace and without even loosing the quality then the Lexmark Interact S605 is a nice option to go with.

Design

The Lexmark Interact S605 belongs to the latest line of Lexmark printers, featuring a simpler taxonomy and getting an absolute revamp. The chassis of Interact S605 is identical to its less expensive brother, Lexmark Impact S305. Lexmark Interact S605 comes with a pierced scanner cover and an ordinary outline, which adds a little bit of style to Interact’s otherwise straightforward structure.

The printing paper is fed by a folding paper tray located at the rear end of the printer and is collected in an extendable tray located at the bottom lip. The input paper tray has the capacity of holding about, 100 pages and can feed a wide assortment of paper to the printer. From a legal document to letter to envelope every media type gets proper treatment from an adjustable arm which rounds up incoming sheets before entering the printer.

The most apparent difference in between the two Lexmarks’ is the enormous 4.3 inch LCD screen of S605. Apart from a PictBridge USB port and small media card reader, located at the right side of the printer the LCD occupies most of its space. It should also be noted that the display has got only one physical button and all the other controls, appears virtually on the LCD and appears only in order of their usage.

Located at the right side of the screen are a function button for copy/print/scan and a “Stop” button which cancels any job in progress. The printer can be connected to internet directly through the Ethernet Cable, but you will have to register a username and password first. You also can connect the printer wirelessly to the internet through the Setup Utility built into driver.

Interact S605 also features Lexmark’s latest Vizix individual ink cartridges which contains one color black for text and dye-based cyan, magenta and yellow for color printing.

System Configuration

Manufacturer: Lexmark
Weight: 16.5 lbs
Dimensions (W x D x H): 20.2 x 14.1 x 7 in
Inkjet Technology: Lexmark Thermal Inkjet

Direct Printing Specifications: PictBridge
Ink Palette (Colors): 4-ink – magenta, Cyan, black, yellow
Ink Cartridges: Lexmark’s Vizix Individual Ink Cartridges
Interface: Memory-card reader, USB 2.0, USB/PictBridge port
Automatic Document Feeder
(ADF) Included: No
OS Required: Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Mac OS X
Scan Resolution: 1200 x 2400 dpi
Maximum Paper Size: 8.5 x 17 inches

Performance

Although, the Lexmark Interact S605 failed to triumph over the reigning victor of our speed tests, the Epson WorkForce 610, but it did excelled in all the four printing tests it was subjected to. So we won’t say that it is the fastest printer you can get in the market, but certainly is next to Epson WorkForce 610. Lexmark came second after Epson in graphics, presentation documents and text speeds, but succeeded in overpowering Epson in single photo speed tests with 2.07 pages per minute, that too at its default “Normal” setting.

If you keep the printing speed aside and concentrate on the print quality you will find it sternly lacking. Just as the Pro905 which uses Vizix ink, the Interact S605 also delivers immense quality black text prints which rival a lot of monochrome printers that we’ve tested in our labs, but still the color graphic documents and emerging photo snapshot are significantly low in quality. So one thing becomes apparent from all the performance tests that we did on Lexmark Interact S605 which is that S605 is a nice worthy printer as long as you aren’t expecting immense quality prints and if speed is your requirement then this is the perfect choice for you.

Support

Lexmark Interact S605 comes with Lexmark’s generous three-year warranty which includes lifetime telephonic support. If you try to sell the printer within five years then the warranty will move the ownership. Apart from this there also are the FAQs, dockets with device specifications, how-tos, driver updates and warranty extension information available at Lexmark’s website for the consumers and if at any point you decide to troubleshoot on your own, you must make use of this.

The tech support can also be reached through e-mail or live chat from 5 a.m. to 8 p.m. PT on weekdays and from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturdays. Lexmark claims of responding to emails within one business day. Also you can get professional training in printers and general computing on Lexmark’s authorized stations and website.

Word from the Experts

The Lexmark Interact S605 is just the perfect printer for small business and homes and with its great speed and comparatively satisfactory quality, it thoroughly deserves our recommendation. So if you are not looking for high-end quality and are looking for just the basic printing at quirk pace, then go for Lexmark Interact S605.