Canon Puts Efficiency On Press
If you want to print photos on your PC's hard drive, you can print straight from your preferred photo editing program, or use Lexmark's Fast Pics utility, which helps you pick photos and make adjustments to them. Oddly enough, you get fewer photo tweaking options in Fast Pics than you do working straight on the P350. For example, you can reduce red-eye, crop, and "autofix" images, but you can't adjust brightness or add frames. The Epson PictureMate Pal has limited image-enhancement options in stand-alone mode as well, but at least the included imaging software gives you more control over your photos. Once you've connected the P350 to your PC, you can also transfer photos from a memory card to your PC via Fast Pics. By comparison, the Epson PictureMate Pal also lets you transfer photos in the reverse direction. Another alternative is to transfer photos from a memory card to a USB storage device, such as a flash thumbdrive. (The PictureMate Pal doesn't allow for this.)
Like Epson, Lexmark sells a photo kit that includes the single three-color ink cartridge and 100 sheets of 4x6 photo paper. We couldn't find the price on Lexmark's site, but a quick Google search turned up an average price of about $29, or about 29 cents per print. This is in line with the per-print cost for the Epson PictureMate Pal and the Canon Selphy DS810 (not counting the initial cost of the printer, of course).
The Lexmark P350 took nearly twice as long as either the Epson or Canon models to print photos. It printed borderless 4x6 images at a rate of 0.56 pages per minute; the PictureMate Pal managed 1.0ppm and the Canon gave us 1.11ppm. As far as quality goes, it's in the middle of the pack. The recommended paper is neither glossy nor matte like traditional photo paper (though it doesn't have the texture of traditional matte paper). It has a sort of flat look to it that reminds us of magazine prints or postcards; this is neither good nor bad, just different. Still, the images had a nice sharpness, and we liked the printer's color handling better than that of the Epson PictureMate Pal, though it suffered from some of the same graininess. Overall, the print quality should satisfy casual snapshot users.
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)
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Photo speed |
Lexmark backs the P350 with a one-year warranty. Free, toll-free phone support is available on weekdays from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. and on Saturdays from noon to 6 p.m. ET for the length of the warranty. Lexmark's Web site includes a knowledge base, downloadable drivers, and a resource center to help get you started on new printing projects.
What You'll Pay
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