Lexmark PhotoJet Z705 Printer

• Vivid 4,800 x 1,200 dpi resolution on photo paper, 2,400 x 1,200 on other media
• Fast 17 ppm black, 10 ppm color document printing
• Prints a 4-by-6 inch photo prints in about 60 seconds
• USB interface, cable included; PC and Mac compatible
• Optional 6-color printing; optional Ethernet

This is a compact and fast little printer. I use Windows XP Pro, and the setup was practically instantaneous; I''ve never seen setup instructions with no words, just diagrams, before, but it worked flawlessly first time.

The construction is reasonably robust -not too plasticky. The footprint is about 18" by 9" with the feed racks pulled in, but realistically you need about 18" wide by at least 10-12" deep -the front rack, which gathers the paper, can stick off the table OK. The footprint is 18" by 18" with both racks pulled out. The cartridges snapped in perfectly; everything worked fine immediately. The paper feed is not finicky at all and aligned the paper perfectly.

The only criticism I have is simply that this is an inkjet and so without special paper (and even with) it''s just not as precise as a laser. I printed out a couple of text pages: the text looked solid and black until I got up fairly close. There was just a tiny hint of fuzz on the diagonals, when I squinted, and a magnifying glass confirmed what I thought I saw -the line is a little blurry.

The colour is strong and clear, and as precise as the black.

A couple of other points to note: the installation process will make this your default printer. That may well be what you want (it wasn''t, for me), but if not then don''t forget to go back and reset the system default via Start -> Printers. And secondly, note that Amazon also sells this without the USB cable for one less dollar; this model has the cable, so get the other one if you have a cable to hand. Search for Z705 if you can''t find the other one.

This is a great inkjet printer; for the price, this is as good as you''re going to get.

Buy Lexmark PhotoJet Z705 Printer Now

I got this printer free with a really cheap computer package. I already had a pretty nice HP printer but since that was almost out of ink I figured I would just use this one for awhile. The prints this produces are almost as good as the HP (930 series by the way) but not quite there. The biggest drawback to the print process is the speed. Printing an 8.5x11 at "best" quality takes about 25 minutes.. far cry from the 10 ppm its description states(ppm = pages per minute?!... no way... I seriously doubt it could even print 10 pages containing one wallet size photo per page in draft mode in 3 or 4 minutes). But its much faster in draft mode or when using black/white obviously.

Another disappointment is the life span of the color ink cartridges. Printing most stuff like web pages and other misc. documents doesn''t deplete the ink too much but those large "best" quality prints spray some serious ink. The driver for this printer comes with a little virtual ink gauge that keeps track of your ink levels. I printed 4 8.5x11 high quality prints tonight and the gauge dropped from 3/4 to about 1/3. That was disheartening. I suppose I have printed about 20 high quality 8.5x11 prints on these cartridges so far. Ink prices for this printer seem about average which means that a replacement set is going to cost about $55 bucks or so. Seeing as how most stores selling printers always have one for about $50 bucks I don''t see why people buy new ink when its cheaper to buy the printer.

Anyway, it''s a nice little printer that''s easy to setup with nice driver software but compared to my previous HPs its way slower, uses more ink, and doesn''t have as good of prints. If it was cheaper to feed I might give it a 3 star rating but it just doesn''t deserve it.

Read Best Reviews of Lexmark PhotoJet Z705 Printer Here

This printer comes with the easiest-to-use photo organizing and printing software we''ve ever seen. This is the first setup that my wife is actually willing to use. That''s no small statement since we bought our digital camera three years ago -which takes excellent photos -but it''s always been too complicated before installing the Lexmark software, which is a snap.

We printed about 100 borderless 4x6 photos before the ink ran out. Definitely we''ll buy the high-capacity ink next time. With the high capacity ink I think it will come to something between 20-30 cents per photo.

At high resolution, the printer is super-slow. That''s okay for us. Overall, it''s a great purchase, but time will tell if the cost of ownership is too high due to the ink consumption.

Update 12/23/2006 (after 2 years): This thing is way too expensive to maintain; the ink costs more than double the competition -even the "generic" ink is more expensive. Time to get a new printer.

Want Lexmark PhotoJet Z705 Printer Discount?

I''ve owned two Lexmark printers, and both of them did not last two years. One had problems after 3 months of usage--would not print in black ink. The other one lasted two years, and it also stopped printing in black ink. I''ve tried installing new cartridges, and I''ve tried their ink nozzle cleaning program on numerous occasions--it doesn''t help to fix the problem. I will never voluntarily buy a Lexmark product, ever again.

Don''t buy this yes, it''s cheap, but unless you like babysitting your printer by feeding each sheet in by hand, you''re better off spending a few more bucks and getting something that works.