To help us provide you with free impartial advice, we may earn a commission if you buy through links on our site. Learn more

Lexmark Genesis S815 review

Our Rating :
Price when reviewed : £210
inc VAT

One of the best MFP interfaces, but scan and print quality is too poor to justify the price

Specifications

18ppm print speed, USB, 802.11n wireless, PictBridge USB, 420x386x321mm

http://www.amazon.co.uk

Lexmark’s Genesis S805 doesn’t look like any MFP we’ve ever seen before. Head on, you’re presented with a massive touchscreen panel that makes the all-in-one a pleasure to interact with. It takes up more vertical space than most MFPs and also has a large footprint, making it one of the bulkier home inkjets around. There’s just one paper tray at the back, which has a rather limited capacity of 100 sheets and is somewhat prone to jamming. Like most high-end consumer MFPs, the Genesis has USB, Ethernet and Wi-Fi connectivity, plus an integrated fax.

Lexmark Genesis S815

The touchscreen provides easy access to the MFP’s copying and faxing features, as well as making it easy to scan to a USB flash drive, associated PC or email. The printer comes pre-installed with apps to make it easy to print photos from Facebook and scan ID cards. More apps are available online, including templates for printing sheet music and convenient access to your Picasa account.

As well as providing a home for the Genesis’ fancy interface, the front panel pulls forward to leave you staring down the barrel of the scanner’s lens. The scanner is rather unusual; it uses digital camera technology rather than a traditional CCD or CIS scan head. This allows it to carry out incredibly fast three-second preview scans but also limits it to a maximum resolution of 300x300dpi. This is fine if you just want to fax the odd document or put a photo on the web, but it may not be up to the demands of amateur artists or photographers. The scanner interface is extremely basic, but functional enough for a 300dpi scanner.

Lexmark Genesis S815 display

The Genesis goes out of its way to make everything as automated and efficient as possible. Multi-page documents are duplexed by default, the scanner automatically generates a preview image of anything on the platen, and the printer attempts – with varying success – to auto-detect the size and type of paper you load into it.

Pages: 1 2

Basic Specifications

Rating ***
Maximum native print resolution 4,800×1,200dpi
Max optical resolution 300x300dpi

Quoted Speeds

Quoted speed, mono A4 18ppm
Quoted speed, colour A4 11ppm

Tested Print Speeds

Time for two 10x8in photos 1.0 2m 58s
Time for six 6x4in photos 1.0 3m 11s

Physical and Environmental

Standard printer interfaces USB, 802.11n wireless, PictBridge USB
Optional printer interfaces none
Size 420x386x321mm
Weight 8.7kg
Noise (in normal use) 41dB(A)
Duty cycle 10,000 pages

Paper Handling

Maximum paper size A4/legal
Maximum paper weight 255gsm
Standard paper inputs 1
Standard paper input capacity 100
Maximum paper inputs 1
Maximum paper input capacity 100
Duplex (code, cost if option) Yes

General

Printer technology thermal inkjet
Supported operating systems Windows XP/Vista/7, Mac OS X 10.4.4 – 10.6, Linux
Other inkjet features 4.3in LCD touchscreen, automatic print head alignment
Other inkjet options none

Buying Information

Price £210
Consumable parts and prices £12 each
Price per colour A4 page 6.2p
Quoted life of supplied black cartridge 170 pages (ISO/IEC 24711)
Quoted life of supplied colour cartridge(s) 200 pages each (cyan, magenta, yellow) (ISO/IEC 24711)
Quoted life of supplied photo cartridge(s) N/A
Warranty three years RTB (with registration)
Supplier http://www.amazon.co.uk
Details www.lexmark.co.uk

Print Quality

Number of ink colours 4
Number of ink cartridges 4
Maximum number of ink colours 4
Maximum number of cartridges 4
Quoted photo durability 100 years
Quoted photo durability source Lexmark

Tested Scan Speeds

Full scan area preview 3s
A4 document at 150dpi 3s
A4 document at 300dpi 8s
6x4in photo at 600dpi N/A
6x4in photo at 1200dpi N/A

Tested Copy Speeds

Time for single A4 mono copy 1.0 12s
Time for single A4 colour copy 1.0 27s
Time for 10 A4 copies using feeder 2.0 N/A

Photo Features

PictBridge support Yes
Borderless printing up to A4
Direct (PC-less) printing Yes
Supported memory cards SD, Memory Stick PRO, MMC, xD
CD printing No

Copy Features

Maximum number of copies 99

Fax Features

Max mono fax resolution 400x400dpi