Lexmark E232

Laser printers, previously regarded as office tools, are now affordable enough to attract home users. In fact, for some home users who print large amounts of text, a cheap laser printer could be the best solution.

What that means for manufacturers is that they now have to think about the styling and usability of their printers, to match the increasingly good-looking PCs to be found in homes. They also have to satisfy the needs of users who don't want to wade through reams of manuals just to print a letter.

Lexmark is attempting to make some headway with its E232 printer, which won't look out of place alongside your trendy new PC. The silver and black styling works well and although it is quite bulky, it is fairly light and can be moved around easily.

The design is not the only thing that stands out about this printer. It is also extremely fast. In our tests, it took just 35 seconds to print a 10-page text document. A 10-page PDF document took 41 seconds, as did 10 pages of mixed content (text and graphics). This puts the printer's actual speed very close to the quoted speed of 20 pages per minute.

The quality of the printouts was also high, with good levels of detail at normal text sizes - certainly good enough for home and small office use. The only problems came with pictures, which showed slight signs of shading problems, although turning on the specialist picture-printing mode certainly helped.

It has five LEDs on the front panel, making it easier to diagnose problems, as well as two buttons for controlling the printer.The printer comes with a 250-sheet paper tray, as well as a front-mounted paper feeder for special paper.

It is supplied with a 'starter cartridge' that is claimed to print up to 1,500 pages, although full cartridges can print more. Lexmark operates a recycling scheme whereby empty cartridges can be returned to the company for free - the cost of this is built into the sub-£50 price of the toner cartridges.

This is a very fast printer for a reasonable price, and the environmentally friendly cartridges offer the bonus of low prices to users. It is big and bulky, but nicely styled. If you have room for it, it's a great choice.

Contact: Lexmark 0870 444 0044
www.lexmark.co.uk