Lexmark X9350 review

Last month we saw Lexmark's first wireless inkjet printer - an attempt to bring the technology to the masses at a very low price - but this MFP is a far more serious proposition.

The X9350 has the same wireless capability as the Z1420 but puts it in a top-end, sturdy multifunction device, with a superior print engine and EverColor 2 inks.

Setup is every bit as simple as with the entry-level printer, with a step-by-step guide to everything from removing it from the box right up to setting up the wireless connection. You'll initially need to use the supplied USB cable to get your network up and running, but once it's working you can put that away and print quickly and simply from anywhere in your home or office. The wireless logo on the front glows green when connected, but also changes to orange to let you know about any problems.

We didn't notice any lag due to the lack of cabling, but the X9350 is not a particularly fast printer. We got just over 6ppm at normal quality, and text appeared clear and sharp, although not quite as good as from the best printers around. Draft is much quicker and the quality isn't too bad, so for quick runoffs you should be happy with a speed of 16.2ppm, even if it is nowhere near the claimed 32ppm.

Photos are a mixed bag, though. The X9350 uses Lexmark's EverColor 2 ink, which is a huge improvement over the standard inks of the Z1420 and resulted in photos with vivid colours and bright tones. We couldn't help but notice a little too much magenta in most pictures, but as this is an office MFP this shouldn't be a deal-breaker. However, while the quality of photos may be pretty good, the speed leaves a lot to be desired: each print takes around two-and-a-half minutes, and a further minute or so to become dry to the touch. The slow speed could make the X9350 the bottleneck in a busy small office and lead to frustration. You'll also need to make sure that you use the main tray, as the quick-feed slot continually failed to load our paper straight. This could become expensive after several binned attempts.

The control panel and number pad make controlling the fax component of the X9350 relatively easy, especially thanks to the 2in screen, but you'll need to hang on to the doorstop-thick manual to navigate through the myriad of menus and options. There's a 50-sheet document feeder on top of the printer to make faxing or copying long documents a doddle, but the scanner is not particularly quick. It took 36 seconds to scan an A4 document at 300dpi.

The scan quality is also only average, with a slight lack of focus in detailed areas meaning images aren't as sharp as those from the best scanners. We also saw, just as with the prints, too much magenta in our scanned images, although this can obviously be tweaked afterwards. The scan driver is a bit simplistic in the Basic view, so it would be helpful to be able to set the Advanced view as the default, rather than having to select it every time you need to scan. Again, this is another case where the printer is slow to use, which could cause problems in an office

The X9350 takes high yield cartridges, and there's a separate photo cartridge, too. The cost per page of 6.3p is reasonable enough, and the £149 purchase price is also not too bad for an office-focused device with fax. The X9350 is a good all-round device that doesn't really excel in any particular area; whether that makes it a good deal for you depends on how useful its wireless capability is, as there are better MFPs around, such as Canon's PIXMA MP510, if wireless printing doesn't catch your eye.

Author: David Bayon