Lexmark Platinum Pro 905

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.