Entered CNET Catalog: 10/12/2001
SKU: 0734646148009
Manufacturer: Lexmark International Inc.
Manufacturer description
With up to 2.88 million dots placed accurately per square inch, you can rely on perfect output every time. The Z53 is the ideal machine for printing everything from computer-generated images, to high-quality digital or analog photos. All your output will benefit from ultra-fine detail, flawless transitions, rich depth of colors and lifelike skin tones. With the highest resolution and Lexmark's exclusive new generation of infrared-readable, pigmented black ink, text documents are crisper, denser and sharper than ever before, even on plain paper. Furthermore, because the ink is pigmented, output is both fade resistant and waterproof, ensuring outstanding achievability for all your text documents. The Lexmark Z53 delivers the ultimate in high resolution printing, in both speed and professional photo quality output. Designed to boost business performance from day one, the Z53 will rival many laser printers with speed in black. And even in color, the Z53 keeps pace with your busy workplace with an impressive speed and a quality of output that is simply unrivaled in its class.Product summary
The good: Easy setup; fast print speeds; decent print quality; manual-duplex feature.
The bad: High cost per page.
The bottom line: This fast yet affordable inkjet delivers acceptable text and graphics output but at a high cost per page.
Editors' review
- Editors' Choice: No
- Reviewed on: 06/21/2001
Simple to a fault
The $139 Z53 represents the pinnacle of Lexmark's new Z-line printers. It features a gently sloping beige exterior that's accented by a dark-gray, pop-up input tray at the top and a slide-out output tray in the front.
Whether you run a Mac (OS 8.6 or later) or a Windows PC (Windows 95, 98, Me, NT or 2000), you'll get up to speed fast. The unit itself sets up in minutes, helped greatly by an illustrated poster. A side panel on the Z53 swings open to expose the USB and parallel ports, but you'll have to spring for the connection cables; they're not included in package. A small user guide explains printing basics, including maintenance and troubleshooting tips.
To install the print drivers, just insert the included CD-ROM; Lexmark's drivers come with convenient one-click installers. The printing software is nicely designed with clearly labeled settings for special papers and print quality. You can also choose between Natural Color and Vivid Color settings to provide the most pleasing graphics. Although the Z53 doesn't include a duplexing adapter, as does the HP DeskJet 932C, the manual-duplex function is a good second choice. The simple instructions in the printing software's dialogs tell you when and how to reinsert pages for printing on the reverse side. In addition to duplexing, the Z53 also supports booklet and poster printing. You can print on a variety of paper types, including envelopes, greeting cards, transparencies, and iron-on transfers. For maintaining the Z53, Lexmark's Control Program, which sits in your system tray, handles such chores as aligning the print cartridges, clearing cartridge nozzles, printing test pages, and monitoring ink levels.
At least it's fast
The Z53's print speeds were impressive for a printer in this price range. In CNET Labs' tests, the inkjet produced text at 5ppm at the default setting of 600x600dpi. Unfortunately, this speed falls far below Lexmark's claims of 16ppm--and plain text is where this printer should really rip--but it's still one of the fastest inkjets that CNET's tested. And by comparison, the far pricier Canon S600 ($199) was only a bit faster, printing 1,200x1,200dpi text at 6.3ppm.
We also tested the Z53's photo-printing speed. It took 4 minutes to print a full-page color photo on Kodak inkjet photo paper at 600x600dpi, which is relatively fast for an inexpensive, general-purpose printer. While the S600 only took 1.8 minutes to print the same image at 1,200x1,200dpi, it took the HP PhotoSmart 1215, a dedicated photo printer, 6.6 minutes at 2,400x1,200dpi.
Print speed, however, tells only half of the story. Usually, to get fast print speeds, printers must take a hit in quality, which is partly the case with the Z53. At the same default resolution, plain-paper text showed some smearing at the edges of the letters. Text also appeared a little crooked, as though the printheads weren't properly aligned (though we checked them before testing) or the paper wasn't advancing smoothly. You won't mistake the Z53's output for that of a laser, but compared to other inkjets we've tested, it looked good. Text improved on coated paper, with the letters practically jumping off the sheet, but the alignment problems persisted.
Graphics printouts also looked good, with decent color saturation and color accuracy. On coated paper, we saw some horizontal banding and noise effects, but images still looked acceptable. In our test photos, printed on Kodak inkjet photo paper at 1,200x1,200dpi, we got pleasing reproduction quality, but there was some fuzziness in picture sharpness, as well as visible dots. These two shortcomings put a real damper on our hopes for true photo quality.
But you'll end up paying and paying
The biggest problem with the Z53 won't arise until your first set of ink cartridges runs out. Replacing ink will cost you. By our estimates, it will cost you 11.1 cents per page of text and a whopping 80 cents per color print. The Z53 uses two cartridges, one black and one tricolor cartridge, which means you must replace the entire tank when even one color runs out. In contrast, the Canon S600 uses separate ink cartridges for each color and costs 2.9 cents for black text and 11 cents for color.
To its credit, Lexmark's support policies for the Z53 are good. The printer comes with a one-year limited warranty, par for the course as far as low-cost inkjets are concerned. Phone support is generous: It's toll-free and available Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. ET and Saturday/Sunday from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. ET. The Lexmark Web site offers many useful resources, including driver updates, user guides, e-mail support, FAQs, and a searchable knowledge base. We were also pleased to discover Linux drivers and a set of prerelease drivers for Mac OS X.
We liked the Lexmark Z53's comparatively fast print speeds and adequate print quality. But it slurps just too much ink compared to the competition, which means you'll be buying lots and lots of cartridges to keep it humming along. If Lexmark could bring down the price of consumables, perhaps we'd feel better about this printer.
User opinions
Select a User Opinion to view: 1 2 3 4out of 4 user reviews
Printer is as good as most in the same $ range
Pros: Installs easily. Up and running in almost no time. Suggest it for a kids computer if the kid has a refill kit.
Cons: Real bear to get working in a home networking environment when using different versions of windows.
out of 4 user reviews
Got a shed full of junked lexmarks
Pros: The only pro I find is they are cheap to buy, $40-$70 cdn. and will last thru at least one ink refill.
Cons: They pile up in a real hurry. I have been a Computer Tech for about five years, and I collect junk printers. I have a pile in the back yard under a tree. 90% are lexmark z-23 to z55's. 8% Cannons 2% other. If you need a printer for a short time, Electi
out of 4 user reviews
Disposable Printer
Pros: Photo quality is pretty good. Prints card stock very well.
Cons: Ink is rediculously expensive, so make sure you get the free ink when it is on sale. Printing is somewhat slow. Printer died after 18 months.
out of 4 user reviews
Stable, placid
Pros: Have had it for 2 years now, no problems. Recently got into digital photo printing, was doubtful that Z53 could handle it, but with glossy paper they were worthy of my mom's fridge. It's perfect for family use of Word documents and the sort, but don't buy
Cons: Not the sleakest printer on the market, and somewhat bulky. Ink cartridge life could be longer. A litty noisy, if that can be considered a con...
