Lexmark Z65p

Over the past couple of years, Lexmark inkjet printers have improved radically in print quality and price.

The all-new Z65p retains the familiar snail-shape design but also sports a lick of paint and four memory slots that support Compact-Flash, Secure Digital, Memory Stick and SmartMedia cards.

Unfortunately, you can't print directly from any of these memory cards and you'll need to fiddle around with software on the PC to select the images you wish to print.

Nevertheless, it's a great option for those with digital cameras and a feature we're glad to see appearing on home printers.

With its charcoal shell and fancy memory slots, the Z65p looks like a fabulous home printer. However, our first attempt at printing didn't produce great results. Prints suffered from severe 'banding' and a closer look revealed a very grainy print.

The 'p' in Z65p stands for photo, so we assumed it should be performing better than this. Thus, a quick tinker with the printer software and the Lexmark churned out some very good prints.

Here, we could see the full effect of the 4800 x 1200 dpi resolution and Lexmark's PrecisionPhoto technology: perfect differentiation between colours and a deep black.

Text isn't anywhere near laser-quality but still performs well with small text sizes.

The Z65p is designed with two paper trays that fold away into one compact unit. This allows you to have two paper sources at any one time, so you won't need to swap them for different printing duties.

For £150, the Lexmark Z65p isn't a bad bet. The inclusion of a memory card reader is a bonus, as are the two paper trays.

A USB 2 cable is included, as is a one-year, on-site exchange guarantee. Black and colour replacement cartridges cost £28 and £32 respectively.

DETAILS
Price: £150
Contact: Lexmark 0870 444 0044
www.lexmark.co.uk

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