Lexmark X7550 – Unimpressive All-In-One

Pros

The Lexmark X7550 has a rather small footprint, comes with well-situated display facilitating document editing without computer and the Lexmark X7550 comes with really easy networking with very easy wireless networking setup.

Cons

The Lexmark X7550’s print quality and speed, both are severely hurting, and to add to it there is recurrent paper jams  during the paper feed through copier and the single paper tray can only hold 100 sheets.

Introduction

The Lexmark x7550 is yet another attempt from the printer manufacturers to deliver as much as possible to their consumers, but sadly this again is an unsuccessful attempt. Priced at $200 the Lexmark x7550 tries to bring a lot of its targeted audiences and in this attempt the printer looses functionality of several individual parts. The print quality offered by Lexmark x7550 is so poor that even many of the entry-level inkjet printers could triumph it, then the fax machine here also is ordinary because of the lower than average paper feed count and if you haven’t placed the documents precisely the copier will destroy them.

The only good thing that we found here was the integrated wireless facility, which eliminates the need of a separate print server, but still it isn’t a revolutionary feature. As a matter of fact in case of Lexmark x7550 it’s like a delicious desert after a really poor meal. On a whole, instead of getting Lexmark x7550, we will save the space and will get three potent machines.

Design

The Lexmark x7550 has an unremarkable shape and a metal plastic finish. The good thing here is that unlike the conventional all-in-one printers that have huge footprints, the Lexmark x7550 has a really small footprint and measures 7.95 x 17.9 x 13.8 inches (H x W x D). The overall structure of Lexmark x7550 is pretty decent and the entire paper tray guide, the display console and feeder all folded flushed against the printer’s body, this makes the printer easy to relocate. Differentiating x7550 from the other printers is the flip out display located on the fascia of the printer. The 2.4 inch color LCD of the printer is located besides a row of action switches and the four-way navigational pad. The screen of the printer can be used for small photo editing and basic protection and task management. The inclusion of screen clearly helps here by increasing the productivity and helps when you are printing directly from an external memory card and the PictBridge camera. But still there should be more settings apart from tilting and position.

The input and output tray of the system folds out of the printer to hold the loose paper and the paper rollers of x7550 gets a top loading access and you will have to pop open it to free any paper jams. Some of the decent features that x7550 has includes, color photo printing, fax capability and duplex copying. Also the Lexmark x7550 is one of recently released three models to have a fitted 802.11g wireless print station.

System Configuration

Starting price: $174.50
Manufacturer: Lexmark
Part Number: 0016Y1000
Printer Type: Digital photo, Thermal inkjet – Color laser paper
Operating System: Microsoft Windows XP , Microsoft Windows 2000 , Microsoft Windows Vista , Microsoft Windows XP Professional , Apple Mac OS X 10.3.x-10.4.x

Dimensions (W x D x H): 17.9 x 13.8 x 8 in
System weight: 17.6 lbs
Inkjet Technology: Lexmark Thermal Inkjet
Media Type Supported: Cards,   Envelopes,   Labels,   Coated paper,   Banners,   Plain paper,   Iron-on transfers,   Hagaki card,   Index card and Photo paper
Software Included: Drivers & Utilities
Ink Type: Lexmark evercolor2 Ink
Ink Palette (Colors): 4 or 6-ink Cyan, yellow, magenta and black

Performance

The Lexmark X7550 performs below standard in all our tests and that is something really disappointing here. The worst results were obtained in the text and photo quality tests, especially considering the fact that the Lexmark X7550 is a mid-priced all in one printer and is expected to deliver at least satisfactory photo quality that should please at least the amateur enthusiasts and for the text prints at least the quick prints. For the text printing the X7550 prints 5.41 black and white pages per minute.

Like the speed tests were not sufficiently disappointing that the quality tests disappointed us even more. The best quality that we got was for text printing, but that too wasn’t good enough, the picture quality delivered by the printer was hardly any good and merely good enough for the very basic Snapshooters.

Support

The Lexmark X7550 gets a one year defect-free warranty program from Lexmark, but in order to avail this service you will have to present the purchase proof. Apart from this Lexmark also offers an extensive one year warranty, which includes exchange, on site repair, installation and renewal for $799.

Word from the Experts

The Lexmark x7550 is an unsuccessful attempt made by Lexmark to offer a potent all-in-one printer to its consumers. In attempt to offer a wide range of features in one single printer, quality has been affected and the printer also has got several mechanical snags.