Product Reviews

With built-in wireless networking and a five-year warranty, Lexmark's X6575 business printer looks a good deal. It's clearly intended for use in small or home offices as there's an automatic duplexer, a 33.6Kbit/s fax and a 25-page automatic document feeder (ADF) to make large fax and copy jobs easier. The small paper tray holds only 100 sheets of 75gsm A4, though.

The X6575 is similar to Lexmark's X6570, which we awarded four stars in last year's MFP group test, thanks largely to its wireless networking capabilities. Wireless inkjet MFPs have come a long way since then, and printers such as HP's C8180 can locate and connect to wireless networks without a PC. The X6575 has only a small mono LCD screen, and to configure its wireless settings you need to connect it to your PC via USB. At least Lexmark provides a USB cable.

The X6575 didn't perform as well as its predecessor in our tests. A print speed of 6.2ppm at normal quality isn't bad, but it's unremarkable by the standard of most home MFPs and is likely to be a little slow for most office print tasks. A single page of normal-quality mono text printed in a fairly quick 15 seconds. Our mixed-colour document printed at 1.5ppm, which is appropriate only for printing occasional single pages.

Draft print speeds were better at 14.6ppm. Print in draft mode was legible, but not quite good enough to hand to clients. Lettering had poorly defined edges and looked smudged and fuzzy. Normal-quality text was more solid and clearly defined,

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but many letters were speckled and wavy around the edges. We were more impressed with the results of our mixed-colour test. Dark areas of solid colour were smooth and bright, while diagrams and illustrations printed on plain paper were sharp and smooth.

Photo printing isn't a feature that most businesses require, and it certainly isn't a strength of this printer. Like many Lexmark printers, the X6575 produced bright but grainy photos. Even photos printed on Lexmark's paper were easily damaged simply by touching them, and odd reflective properties gave them a purple sheen.

MFPs are good for businesses because they can act as standalone photocopiers. The X6575 can make up to 99 copies, as well as enlargements and reductions of between 25 and 400 per cent. The 25-page ADF makes it easier to copy large documents. Sadly, copy quality was poor. Images and diagrams in colour copies had a marked yellow tint, while mono copies were lined and grainy. A single mono page was copied in 21 seconds, but we had to wait one minute and 15 seconds for a colour page.

Scan quality wasn't too bad, with reasonably accurate reproduction of colour and detail, but with an optical resolution of 600x1,200dpi this scanner is suitable only for basic document archival. The scanner interface was annoying to use. Settings and previews weren't retained between scans, and having to change our preferences each time soon became tedious.

Print costs aren't too bad if you buy Lexmark's XL high-yield cartridges, but a page of combined black and colour printing still costs 6p, which compares poorly with MFPs such as Canon's MP520. We found the #43XL tri-colour cartridge and the #44XL black cartridge for £15 including VAT each, but these prices aren't typical, so you need to shop around online to get the best prices.

Good-quality MFPs with fax capabilities are hard to find. At £111, this one isn't expensive, but there are cheaper options. Unless you really need wireless networking and a fax at this price, the X6575's mediocre print quality and slow speeds make it a poor choice.