Lexmark Platinum Pro 905 user reviews

Pros Black ink costs $4.99. I literally bought 10 of those black catridges for $49.99 and I get 5,000 pages???? WOW...the best HP cost me $70+ for just less than 5,000 pages. Plus, the Lexmark machine has apps I downloaded FOR FREE!

Cons I honestly see none. Anyone that doesn't take notice to this machine or any Lexmarks like it are crazy! Get off the HP bandwagon and look at who makes quality products THAT ARE BACKED UP BY 5 YEAR WARRANTIES.

Summary So, I can get black ink (which is what my home office typically consists of) for $5. Its about time some company comes down on price. Before, I was spending $70 on two HP cartridges that ran out after a month. Do the math and that is roughly $800 on ink in a year. Now I will probably spend $120 on black and very little on color in a whole year.

The apps you can download are awesome. I follow the local paper just outside of Oklahoma City (where I am from). The news comes on my printer screen. This is helpful because I don't have to waste time logging onto the internet at my computer. Also, I pre-programmed my Platinum to copy 2-sided and two copies of each job and black & white ALL into 1 button. This printer is extremely user friendly and it spits out some good prints (black and color). The sales associate that sold it to me showed me a picture from the Platinum and the same from the best HP photo printer. Needless to say the Lexmark was better.

Pros I have gone trhough a dozen printers in the past few years. The biggest frustration is the cost of ink. Lexmark figured it out. Great prints at low cost. The screen panel works well, eliminates buttons and allows applications direct access.

Cons Blue tooth. So my phones have to liink to the computer to print. It would be great to just walk in and print from the phone or device.

Summary Bottom line. --- Lexmark makes a great machine and now it is really great producing high quality low cost prints.
Of course the larger than normal print head helps make it fast. The individual print cartridges let me replace only the ink that is needed. The XL cartridges give me triple ink so I can put out an entire mailing without running out of ink. Finally, Lexmark is a quality office brand. The five year warrantee shows that it should be the last printer I buy in the next few years.

Pros Clean pix, very patient tech support that answers the phone quickly, Lexmark promptly replaced a printer, the Pro 901, that was not working

Cons My big issues:
1. My first printer from Lexmark was the pro 901, and it could not print from my computer. Lexmark promptly sent a replacement, the Pro 905. The difference between the Pro 905 and the Pro 901 is the 905 has 2 paper trays. They are the same

Summary 1. Automatic Document Feeder (ADF)--it has been working just fine. I have only used it for 8 1/2 X 11 inch documents, some folded, and having no problems. I saw a review from someone with ADF problems, so I was keen to check this out.
2. Printing from the computer has been crisp in B & W and in color. Photo printing onto regular paper is better than my last printer. I have no experience printing onto photo paper. I am physical therapist and I print pictures to look at my client's form, so I do not need to print onto photo paper. I did see a review where someone ranted about the white frame around the photo's. To my eye, the frame is just fine. I also saw a reference somewhere about color ink getting used for black and white printing, but I have not followed up on that. When the print button (it has a diamond shape) is pressed, the default is to print in color, so if one is printing b & w, one needs to go into the touch screen to specify b & w. It is an easy step on the touch screen, but it does require paying attention.
3. Copying is not as crisp with some graphics, but certainly adequate for my small office.
4. Faxing has been a challenge. Sending has been fine. Receiving has required many hours with tech support to set up.
5. Scanning has been easy for a tech-spaz such as myself. The touch screen and the window that pops up are all very straight forward.
6. Tech support receives high marks. They answer the phone quickly and are very patient.
7. Why 4 stars? The machine is spiffy and tech support has been great.

Updated on Apr 14, 2011

I continue to have ongoing fax issues. It is like a continuing bad joke. Yesterday I could not send a fax. I had to plug in my 12-year old HP 3100 in order to get my faxes sent out. Using speed dial, the HP 3100 required 2 button pushes and my faxes were sent. The Lexmark 905 requires at least 6 button pushes to send a fax--even with the phone number on the speed dial.
There has been a great deal of time spent trying to get the fax function to work. I may have made a mistake giving the 905 four stars yesterday.

Pros Easy to install, simple software, print quality is ok, speed is ok for an inkjet printer. Black ink is very inexpensive. Technical support and warranty support are very good.

Cons Poor scan quality. Don't buy a Platinum Pro 905 (or 900 series) if you need a top quality scanner. The scanner has a "known issue" that causes images to be scanned crooked. The scan and conversion software is rudimentary.

Summary I wrote a product review on Lexmark's website that identified the scanning problem and, of course, they refused to post it. To test their objectivity, I later wrote a more positive review that, of course, was quickly posted. So If you are researching this device, don't trust the user reviews on the Lexmark site. They are not authentic or objective.

I even ordered a replacement printer under warranty from Lexmark and it had the exact same scanner problem. Crooked images. Customer service told me that this is a known problem and that the firmware and software updates that were supposed to fix the problem didn't work. I can confirm that from first hand experience with two Platinum Pro 905 printers.

Lexmark will claim that this is one of the fastest inkjet printers on the market and nearly as fast or faster than black and white laser printers. That might be true if you only measure the time that it takes to put ink on a page of paper. But this printer is by no means as fast as a laser printer when you measure the total elapsed time of the print job. The printer takes a long time to process the image, position the print head, etc. So don't expect this thing to print at blazing speeds.

Updated on Oct 13, 2011

The document feeder and scanner are still a problem. It either doesn't recognize the presence of documents, or stops scanning after the first page, or it scans crooked. The manufacturer's "fix" didn't fix the problem. Sometimes the document feeder and scanner just don't work. You can never rely on it.