Best Lexmark Color Copiers

Lexmark's X125 is a compact, self-contained multifunction device for your printing, scanning, and faxing needs, and most of your copying needs as well. The scanner uses a feed-through device instead of a flat bed, so pages pass through one by one. You can scan them into your PC or make copies in black and white or color without a PC. The X125 looks much like an enlarged fax machine, and indeed provides full fax facilities, including speed dial and up to 70 number memories. Paper feeds from a near-vertical tray at the rear to a long pullout tray at the front. Above this is a second, clip-on tray which catches pages that have been scanned. The machine uses old-style, high-capacity cartridges which are easy to fit and clip into place. A two-line LCD display eases setup, by directing you, for example, to align the machine's print heads before installing the driving software. The software includes photo editing and OCR as well as facilities for faxing. It installs easily, but the driver isn't as user-friendly as those supplied with the more consumer-oriented printers, lower in Lexmark's price range. In our tests, printed output was generally good, with sharp black text and finely detailed color prints. Resolution is high at 2,400 dpi, but we could still see fine dots in areas of variable shading. The print times, particularly for text, were low, with a five-page text document printing in just over a minute. Photo printing, at the best quality, took nearly 3 minutes. Colour copies weren't that effective, losing definition and bleaching some colours, particularly magenta tones. While they would be OK for quick copies intended for personal use, they would probably not be appropriate for giving to customers. As a multifunction device, the X125 is functional and well-designed. It has some restrictions, most noticeably an inability to scan from books or magazines, but still provides printing, scanning, copying, and faxing in one compact device at a good price. --Simon Williams... [Read More]