Lexmark X502n review

Lexmark's X502n is a reasonably priced single-pass colour laser MFP with all the functions you're likely to need in a small- to medium-sized office.

It's fairly compact, with a footprint of just 482x437mm, although it's much heavier than Samsung's CLX-2160N (reviewed in What's New, Shopper November 2007). This version combines a colour laser printer with a scanner and fax machine, although the virtually identical X500n doesn't have any fax capabilities and costs £85 less.

The software gave us the option of installing either USB or network drivers, both of which worked immediately. The device itself was simple to set up, although getting the photo developer cartridge to fit correctly was a touch fiddly. The X502n runs fairly quietly, but we were annoyed by odd squeaking sounds and a strong smell of ozone when it printed. Pages emerged curled up, but they readily flattened as they cooled down.

We were pleased with the speed and quality of draft prints, which had clearly defined lettering and were easily good enough for formal correspondence. This is fortunate, as mono text prints at normal quality showed little improvement in character definition, yet took seven minutes to print, longer than equivalent prints from some inkjet MFPs reviewed in this month's Labs. A single page at normal quality was equally slow at 19 seconds.

Our mixed-colour document print was faster, with a print speed of 13.5ppm. Images looked glossy and professional, but had a slight red tint, an effect we also noticed on greyscale images printed in colour or auto modes. Our colour photo prints suffered from vertical white stripes. These were most obvious on pale colours and flesh tones, while darker images were barely affected. We also noticed problems with subtle greyscale shading, including a tendency to reproduce pale grey shades as white.

The X502's scanner driver stays open between scans by default, which is great if you're scanning batches of documents. Its interface is a little confusing at first, as it lacks common features such as the ability to auto-detect document size. Fortunately, you can select your scan area manually or choose from several common sizes via a pull-down menu.

Unlike many MFPs, the X502n's scanner is functional over both network and USB connections. Scan speeds were quick, and the resulting images were clear and had realistic colours. A 6x4in photo scan took just 30 seconds at the maximum resolution of 1,200dpi, while a 150dpi A4 scan took 17 seconds. Copies were also reasonably quick, particularly the 10-page automatic document feeder (ADF) test, which was copied in mono in just 42 seconds. Unlike colour prints, colour copies didn't suffer from seriously oversaturated red shades.

The X502n isn't without its flaws. Print speeds were poor at normal quality, and colour prints were imperfect. However, draft quality text prints are both quick and presentable, and the scanner works well, even across a network connection. But even with high-yield toner cartridges, its mono print costs aren't that economical at 1.5p per page, and colour is more expensive at around 8p per page. Consumables are a little more expensive than average, too. They include a £107 photo developer cartridge, which has to be changed every 30,000 colour pages, and a fuser maintenance kit, which costs £120 ever 60,000 pages. Most people will be better off with Epson's cheaper Aculaser C1100.