Printer Reviews

The print quality on this little printer is fantastic....you would not be able to distinguish it from proffessional digital photo lab grade I'm sure. It can be used by itself and a Memory Stick (or other media card via a 'PC card'), plugged into a tv monitor or via a computer. To utilise it's built in effects options (such as gretting card and other visual effects) it must be connected to a tv set. Unfortunately you can not do this with the computer (which seems strange and unnessessary).

Loading paper is very simple. 25 quantity paper packs come with printer cartridges that last for 25 prints.
Print speed is very fast (90 secs) and watching the printing is rather satisfying to watch!
It will only print 4x6 or 3x4.

This printer should get a hands down 5 stars but it doesn't....

The red colour output is oversaturated. You will notice this particulary when you snap people. The skin tones come out way too warm (red) and really are not acceptable unless you touch up the image first via a program. However, by reducing the red tint, you sacrifice the rest of the colours in the image to an extent. The picture you are getting still is better than a dot matrix or lazer print image but you think what could have been if they had addressed this problem when they made it!

Bottom line. If you can pick one up cheap (like I did) and are prepared for the 'red issue', this is still much better than basic printers, otherwise, best to see what the newer models are like.

I had done a lot of research on the Sony digital photo printer, and some others, online and decided to go with the Sony DPP-SV55. I was excited to try it out because the reviews online raved about it, but I was totally blown away when I saw the quality of the first few prints I made. The glossy finish, dye sublimation richness, sharp color, and 4x6 borderless prints make them indistinguishable from prints you get from a Photo Lab. We have young kids and do a lot of scrapbooking, so the glossy finish images were essential, since ink jet images will fade after only two years.

Setup was very easy. In a matter of 10 minutes, I was plugged in and making prints. The paper packs make the process even easier because each pack comes with the film cartridge to print all the sheets from the pack. Loading the paper and cartridges is also very easy. The prints come out fast, and you don't have to wait for them to dry.

The software setup is easy, one quick installation from the included CD. It basically installs the print drivers for the printer. Once the printer is connected with a USB cable (not included), I was immediately able to print directly from the imaging software that came with my Sony D50 Cybershot camera. It also has a built in Creative Print lab program, but you have to hook up the printer to a TV to view and work with it. But the images are nice and you can do some cool things like print photo greeting cards and calendars.

There was no graininess in the prints at all, and the images came from my above mentioned camera (2.1 megapixels). All of the prints we have made turned out wonderful.

I suppose I should mention a couple of cons, but their really not a big deal: The unit does not come with a USB cable for some reason, even though it is required to print from a PC (It does include the video cable). Second, some of the colors on our prints (particularily reds) we a little off and overly bright, but all-in-all, we are very thrilled with the prints it makes.

Impressive. VERY close to photo-lab quality, you'd need a magnifying glass to tell the difference at 4x6. Even then I don't know if you could tell the difference. I'm using a 3.2 Megapixel Sony P7 and the results are phenomenal. Hard to believe given the relatively low price of the unit.

My only complaint is that the instructions are a little weak. Also, even though my computer (running XP) recognized the printer when I plugged it into the USB port, I still had to install the CD Rom. No big deal, once I installed I was up and running.

Overall-- highly recommended!

Have had the XK35c for about two years and using it only occasionally. Printer cartridges are expensive and very hard to find. Printer part of this multifunction device works fine. After one year of very little use of the copying and scanning features, the corresponding module started failing. Ridiculous. I called XEROX and they referred to a third-party company that provides service support. This company immediately tried to replace my printer for a refurbished one...

I've had this THING for about 6 months. I have yet to get it to scan anything without crashing. Sometimes it prints, sometimes it doesn't. Mostly it crashes. When it does print, the quality is lousy. The printer drivers stink. I've got Windows 2000 and I keep getting errors. Because of these drivers and their quirks, I have lost all my printer set ups (and I generally have 4 or 5 printers set up at time) at least 3 times which has required my office's IT staff to rebuild them. I am not some casual computer user either. While I am not the biggest geek on the block, I'm a pretty sophisticated computer user who can get himself out of most trouble. This thing has completely defied all my efforts. Don't bother even considering it. Its not worth the trouble.

This unit requires a bit more set up effort, including the software, than most other printers I have purchased. But once you are done, it works well and is very quiet. Although it is much slower printing and scanning than my HP 4p scanjet and epson 600 inkjet which it is replacing. But, it does have much improved resolution and it is a great space saver on your desk. The stand alone copy function is helpful. You can copy, even in color, without booting up the whole computer system. On the downside,however, the machine is prone to make my windows 98 operating system freeze up, when I try multiple tasks or "fax from printer" with it or give it too many printing tasks, too rapidly. The pagis pro software is very helpful and has some unexpected functions such as " filling in forms" capability and great "OCR". The print cartridges are a bit spendy...but they look like they should print more documents per cartridge than most other inkjets. All in all this machine should be well worth the money at...and don't plan to go to windows 2000 operating system which this machine will not handle.

This printer has printhead problems. My first S530D couldn't even pass the first print test page diagnostic procedure. The black text printed fine at the beginning but faded to nothing by the end of the page. Doing a printhead cleaning solved the problem but only for that session. After a few hours of inactivity, the problem appeared again. This printer was brand new and right out of the box. Exchanging the printer for another brand new one did not solve the problem completely. The new printer passed the print test but the faded black ink problem resurfaced after several weeks of inactivity. Again, a printhead cleaning solved the problem but a user shouldn't have to do this before each print job. Inks shouldn't dry out and clog the printheads in that short a time (if that's what the problem is). When it works, it works great but it's a pain the do a printhead cleaning almost all the time in order to get good text output. The problem seems to be only with the black ink. Canon support is useless BTW.

I bought my sister a Kodak Easyshare CX4230 digital camera for the holidays, so mom thought a good photo printer to accompany it was a good idea. Since my mom isn't that computer literate, she relied on my judgement over which to buy. After LOTS of research, I decided to recommend this printer for several reasons:

Being on a budget, the price of this printer was very attractive. I had planned to recommend the more advanced S830, but it was out of range. Also, this printer, like the 830, has the ability to accept mutiple memory card types with the included Dazzle! 4 in 1 card adapter, giving you the ability to print photos straight from through the printer on the LCD screen, without having to even touch the PC. Another thing I liked was the multiple ink tanks. Since this printer would also function as a replacement to an older inkjet, I felt that was a key feature since the old printer had just one cartridge for the colors, while this printer has 3 separate color cartridges. Did I also mention this printer is FAST? It managed to print 2 full color 4x6 photos on 8.5x11 paper in less than 2 minutes, and can print web pages and full color charts in less than 15 seconds.

As for the photo printing, the pictures came out looking absolutely beautiful, as far as I was concerned. The qaulity may not be up to par if you're a serious photo enthusiast, but for as far as my family's needs are concerned, they looked just great.

Setup was a bit more complicated than any other printer I've had to install, but was problem free. Be warned, though. There's no USB cable included to connect it to the PC. Overall, this is a fabulous printer and I highly recommend it to anyone who's just plunged into digital photography.

I purchased this printer with the intent to use it for both photo printing and regular text printing. Photos look great and print relatively quickly, but I had a problem with white streaks when printing text. I ended up calling Canon support and they sent me a new printer head for free since the printer is still under warranty. I've had no problems since. I give the printer a high rating mainly because I was very satisified with their tech support.

I got this printer a while back so i've definatly had enough time to test it. It prints pictures VERY VERY slow and when it finally comes out after what seems like years there are tiny little lines that run across the picture, plus it is very loud. When i printed out a picture of Yosemite that i took there was snow on the mountains and when it came out there were tiny spots of red that the printer had added that weren't part of my origanal.

recommend: people who are desprate for a printer.

rating out of ten: 4 1/2

I'm a University student, and I do alot of term papers. With so many papers to print during the school year, investing on a durable and well performing at a budget price is certainly what I look for. The Lexmark Z12 fits that criteria. One important consideration when investing on a printer is the price for a replacement ink cartridge. The ink cartridges for the Z12 are much cheaper on the average. The Lexmark z12 may not be as fast as some of the other more expensive printers out there, but its durability, quality and performance sure makes up for it. I highly recommend this printer for students and home use.

I thought it would be a cheap printer, because of some reviewers ratings shown here. I bought it and guess what, this little printer kicks! Is fast, does print black very sharp and the photos come out great. Dont understand why it has some mediocre reviews, its great! and according to the literature, they replace it free if you have a problem during the warranty. The Lexmark company will send you a replacement. need any better service than this? trust me on this one, save your money, spend [it] on this one and you will be happy you did.

The Linksys EPSX3 EtherFast 10/100 PrintServer3 is used for making your printer independent on the 10BaseT and 100 Mbps networks. You hook up your printer/printer cable to the Linksys EPSX3 EtherFast 10/100 PrintServer3 and your network cable to the RJ-45 port.

It comes with it's owm AC plug-in power supply, Status and Error Lights.

Hookup is easy but when it comes to software, you need to install the driver for the printserver on each PC that need to use it. You also need to select SC811326_p1 Printserver port and install your printer driver on each PC. Remember to select "LOCAL" printer port because the instructions tell you to do it.

Overall, after the software is install the right way, this Printer Server is the best thing that I bought because it makes the printer independent. Any PC can now print reguardless of other PC's.

This print server took less than 10 minutes to set up, and it works like a charm. There's only 4 steps to the whole process:
1. Connect the print server to your network.
2. Connect the printer to the print server and turn the printer on.
3. Connect the power cord to the print server.
4. Install the software on your computer.

It worked right out of the box for me. It detected my Epson Stylus color 600 printer correctly immediately, and setting it up to print on my computer was very straight-forward. I did make some changes to the configuration although that is not necessary. I just like to run a thight ship, so I gave it a static IP address (by default, the DHCP client is enabled), and disabled the protocols that I don't need.

The print server supports AppleTalk, so it should work with Macs as well as Windows computers. However, there are no drivers for Linux, but it supports IPP, so it should be possible to print to it from Linux boxes as well.

Update: Here's one minor issue I've found: I'm printing out pictures that I've taken with my digital camera. These pictures are fairly large, and when printing out several images at the same time, you'll get a warning saying the print server is busy. The message does go away, and the image will print... As I said, minor nuisance.

After reading the reviews posted by other users I was a little nervous about whether or not this would work OK with Windows XP, so I called Linksys prior to purchasing to find out if my three printers would work. They confirmed they would, although they didn't sound too sure about it. I have the following printers:
1. HP LaserJet 6P
2. HP LaserJet 5P
3. HP DeskJet 722C.

I connected the hardware, as per the Quick Set-up guide, and then ran the Configuration Wizard from the CD on my three machines:
1. Server running Windows Server 2000
2. Desktop running Windows 2000 Pro
3. Desktop running Windows XP Pro

The print server was quickly detected on my PC running Windows Server and the printers were added quickly and easily. On the other two PC's I had to install the three printers I wished to use as local printers, but this is also covered in the Quick Set-up guide.

All-in-all it was a quick and easy set-up, probably about forty minutes from start-to-finish. One thing I must mention though is that I do not have Windows XP's Internet Connection Firewall enabled as I am using a Linksys WRT54G Wireless router as a firewall. Once I had the system up and running I turned on the Internet Connection Firewall and could no longer connect to my printers. So if you are a Windows XP user you MUST turn off the Internet Connection Firewall in order to use this product.

Your Mac computer might freeze after you have installed the software and push the restart button. HP customer service told me that the printer software is not compatable with all Mac computers. There is a problem with the engine or driver. I never used the printer and so cannot comment on its quality. By the way, I have a Mac Powerbook G3 running MacOS 9.2.1.

This is a great printer. Its speed and quality is just as good as that of my office's laser printer. Its sooo easy to install with Windows XP. (I have XP Pro SP1.) It looks nice and the X cancel button on it is great. Just press the button to cancel a job, and without wasting that piece of paper like some do when you have to go into the print que on your computer. I only have three minor issues: 1. Came without USB cord, just a bit of a hassle. 2. The power plug is twice the size of a normal one. 3. Eats ink. (Ink cartrages are relatively well priced.) This printer is great! These few problems are far outwieghed by the benefits! Good luck with your search!

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About the printer: setup was easy. Software installation went ok, but there was a little confusion on the print quality test pages. I got several test pages spit out at me before I realized what I was supposed to click. A note on my choice: I was not going to buy another ink jet printer period! The price and print quality changed my mind. It looks like laser quality output with decent print speed (I use typing paper and the color printing looks good). My only minor complaint is that the power pack is too large to fit on most surge power strips without covering the adjacent socket. I wish HP would take this into consideration. You cannot go wrong for the money on this one. I really like this printer a lot. I'll update this review after I use the printer more.

I run a small network and home using both PC/Mac hardware platforms with multiple operating systems. The software was a big limiting factor for this product because of this. If you use a stadalone windows 9x/2000 computer and plan to set this up as a local device either parallel or usb, you're fine. However, if you plan to use a Jetdirect print server then think twice. Check HP's site for the very limited list of supported Jetdirect boxes. The software, inbox documentation, or the reseller does not provide you with that information. Also, the software is not provided in a mac version and any attempt to print to the beast as a direct IP printer with generic printing drivers fails miserably producing garbage and massive paper waste.

On a more favorable note: if you use the machine as a local device on a windows box you're going to be pretty happy. The quality is nice for both scanning and printing. I've setup some of these units at work and they are easy to use for faxing. They integrate themselves into MS Word and such so they enable fast and almost effortless faxing. The software, when working properly, is simple enough for my mother to figure out.

I've used the K80 with windows 98 for 3 years and have been extremely happy with all features. When I upgraded to XP it was a nightmare. XP along with the HP website turns your printer into a G model and it only prints. Don't try to download the XP drivers from the HP website. Finally I ordered the drivers from the HP website and they sent (the invoice was correct) drivers for a HP C20 camera. Thats when my real problem began, HP has terrible support, I was passed around 12 times in 2 hours, disconnected and just about called a liar when i tried to explain all I wanted was what I ordered (cdrom c6750-10002)and had received a camera driver cd. Some asked me my 'serial number' only to be told that my serial number didn't exist. Each area of support is independant of the other. I somehow ended up speaking with a tech located in Canada and she was the only person that sounded professional, told me my serial number was correct and sent me the correct cd. She was not able to get thru to anyone who could refund my $10 for the incorrect cdrom. I then spent another hour with sales, they have website sales, which is different than support web sales, which has hardware sales and then software sales, and they all have incompetent workers and one supervisor. They have yet to email me or phone to advise me of there decision to refund my purchase, since it would be a 24 hour decision. But my cd arrived, loaded perfectly and the k80 is again printing, scanning, faxing and copying perfectly. I will try never again to purchase a HP product until I can get through to someone in that company to ask them to call support themselves and experience a day on the phone.

I've had MFs for a number of years, most recently a Brother MFC7200. That unit offered all the same features as this HP K80, but at twice the price. Despite that, it was only mediocre at performing its tasks, save its poor performance as a scanner. The K80 on the other hand is an excellent printer, fast, clean and quiet. Its fax features are also topnotch, with the 33.6 faxmodem allowing for 3 seconds per page faxing. The scanning clarity and speed is the best of any sheetfed unit I've seen, and copying with and without enlargement is also pretty darned amazing at this price.
However, what really makes the whole pkg so nice is the software that runs quietly in the background and only pops up when needed. When it makes its appearance, it really simplifies whatever task you're working on and obviates the need for any kind of manual.

I bought this printer and it's working OK. The $200 rebate ISN'T. The rebate apppears to be a scam although quite official looking. It's administered by Parago Inc. who return my e-mails with a "we're looking into it" letter. First they denied my rebate saying I had already had receive a check. When I called their Customer service, they said they had no information about sending me a check but my rebate had been denied... And that they would look into it. Long story short, I'm on my 3rd Black Toner cartrige and still no rebate. I've sent the complaint to the Attorney Generals office in hopes they can help.

The printer is OK for light home office use, but not for photographs (matte ink) It is also loud when it runs and much slower than advertised.

Wow, this thing is a real piece of junk! It has ticks already within just a few months, including: refusing to print unless there is at least 2" worth of paper in the feeder (paper jam error), paper jams in every part of the printer, and poor color reproduction.

But the part you'll really hate is when the printer decides that you are out of toner, when everything is printing just fine, and refuses to work again until you pay for a brand new toner cartridge. Same with the drum unit. And today, to top it off, the toner waste bottle! How does it know that I haven't put a new toner waste bottle in? I don't know! But it knows! It's just a plastic bottle that gets full of powder, and I emptied it, but it won't print. "Waste toner box full" is all it will say. I wonder how much the waste toner bottle will cost. Probably way too much, just like all the consumables for this junky printer, none of which last very long. Meanwhile, I can't print, even though everything is completely functional. Not until I hand over some more money to Minolta.

The drivers are sketchy and the printer menu is obscure as well.

This printer is cheap for a reason. It's a raging P O S. You have been warned. :)

My deskjet 890c has seen better days, so I was looking for a fast printer with color capabilities and good quality print. For not much more than I paid for my last printer I got the speed, economy and quality of laser printing in my home office.

I have only had it for a few days, and have heard wildly different things about the last version of this printer that I thought I would share my experience with this printer after a few hundred pages.

I took advantage of the included network card and ran it into my siemens wireless router. I did have to call minolta to get it talking to the computer, but they answered after one menu and in one minute I was talking to a real live person. We reinstalled, synched up IP addresses and had it printing in about ten minutes. It prints beatifully, and you can print four full page photos in about the same time as my old inkjet. I think the page speed is accurate on this machine but with my old inkjet, it could take many times longer than the rated speed depending on what you are printing. The 2300 doesn't seem to differentiate on what its printing the pages just spit out.

If its in energy saver, it does take maybe a minute to get the first page out, but its still faster than the first page out of my inkjet when printing invoices from quickbooks, etc. After its warmed up its pretty instantaneous. It does produce fan noise even when idle which some people may find distracting. It is probably noisier than an inkjet when printing, but its over a lot sooner.

I can't speak for reliability, but I'm going to buy a 3 year onsite warranty plan that will run about 159.00 just in case.

I'm figuring that I will save money of consumables over my two tank inkjet, but I'm not really worried about that.

Monochrome print quality is as you would expect, awesome, no smudging, and a real professional look. Color is better than my old inkjet, but not significantly. Get a dedicated photo printer if that's what you want. Full page photos off of my 1 megapixel camera are very decent. There is not a photo paper listed in the reccommended media so the point is moot. But the color does not seem to bleed when it gets wet.

I am not experiencing any buyer's remorse with this purchase whatsoever. And thats after I practically begged the guy at staples business expo to sell me one.

My Z53 came free with my Macintosh. While this initially saved me the cost of buying a printer, I was deeply dissatisfied with it. The software that came with the printer didn't include an OS X driver, so I had to go onto Lexmark's site and download one. One of my main problems with this printer was the paper tray. Unlike, say, a HP printer, the paper loads at the top and in the back, which causes numerous problems. First of all, it's a pain to find a place on a small or crowded desk where you can place it and still be able to reach the paper tray. My brother (whose Compaq also came with a Z53) has a vertical desk, so every time he had to load the paper tray he had to both crouch down and lean far in to reach the tray. During the actual process of printing, the paper jams or prints crooked frequently because it doesn't always fall down properly. The paper also seems to vibrate too much: I have printed out many documents where the text had a double image in sections. The print quality itself is grainier than comparable HP printers, and the machine is noticeably louder while it prints. As far as cartridges are concerned, the Lexmark cartridges aren't much different in price than HP's and even cost more in some places. After about a year of frustration, my brother and I replaced our Lexmarks with the HP deskjet 5550. While they are a bit more expensive than the Z53, we have yet to experience any problems like the ones we encountered with our Lexmarks.

This printer was very easy to set up in Windows 98se, NT and 2000. It produces very good quality on documents right out of the box. To get the best photo output you'll need to invest in the photo ink cartridges. Photos that I've printed with the standard color cartridge have a blue tint. The photo ink resolves this issue and produces outstanding results with photo paper. One other note, when switching the inks you must use the printer's setup utility to ensure that the unit knows which type of ink is installed. Results of a mismatch are blurred photos and double printed documents with colors out of place.

While the price of the unit itself is very competitive, the ink cartridges are somewhat expensive. Unlike some other printers, the Lexmark does not have a separate printhead, it's part of the ink cartridge which is the reason for the higher price. Since I've had trouble with printheads on other inkjet printers, the printhead integration in the cartridge was appealing - even at a premium. Print heads can be more costly than a new printer.

This unit has been installed for about 4 months and is used daily by up to four people in a networked environment. Thus far there have been no problems and I continue to be extremely satisfied with the purchase.

We are extremely satisfied. We own a small private school, and use our Lexmark Z53 for printing our handbooks, fliers, and newsletters, some of which have color photos. It's fast, reliable, and prints even the photos fine enough to be proud to send out. (And we do not use actual photo grade paper or ink, which would improve the quality more.) I never tried to print banners or booklets with my XP operating system, so I can't comment about those jobs. The ink is pricey, but doesn't seem out of line with the industry, and it's a lot cheaper than going to a printer. One last note: we never run large jobs because we're a small school, so I can't comment on how it would hold up under heavy daily use.

The Z51 is an infuriating piece of garbage! Ink cartriges cannot be left unused for any portion of time or they dry out and become expensive paper weights -IF you glue some washers to them to add weight. Even with brand new cartriges the prints are lack luster and full of lines. Don't waste your money.

We like this printer using USB & W98SE. It is my first printer going outside of the HP models. After putting in second cartridges for both color and black, I'm beginning to have mixed feelings, because we are getting streaks and smudges in both black and color? Don't know why, but am looking forward to the third cartridges to see if it goes away. Maybe it is just two bad carts. I have done cartridge testing, aligning and cleaning. We'll see... don't let this change your mind, just keep it in mind for future reference. Other longer time users should review the Z51 if this is also their problem. RON in CA

I think the earlier reviews must have came from people with Win95 and not Win98SE which has better USB support. I plugged in the USB cable and it instantly recognized it and loaded the software. Print output is better than any color printer I've ever had (which is about all of them). My most recent one was an EpsonStylus 700 photo which junked out on me 1 month after the warranty was up. As far as speed goes, I've yet to come across any printer that is fast in full color, the rated speeds have never even been close. But, that is with any printer not just the Lexmark. I think people would rather have an honest review of the product itself and not the installation woes of people who probably have something wrong with their systems. Giving a printer one star because you can't figure out how to install drivers is not a fair review.