Lexmark X6575 review

Aimed at business users, this is an inkjet printer with duplexer (double-sided printing), built-in scanner and fax machine, and wireless networking.

It's easy to set up, though to use it on a wireless network you first have to connect it to a PC with the supplied USB cable to configure it.

The smart exterior made a good first impression, but that didn't last long. In our tests, print speeds were average for a consumer inkjet and below par for a business printer. Draft text had fuzzy, poorly defined edges, and normal quality text was still less defined than we expected. Mixed colour documents looked good, with bright, accurate charts and diagrams. But colour photocopies looked hideous, with an exaggerated yellow tint.

Photo print quality isn't a major feature in a business printer, which is just as well: our photos came out grainy and hadn't dried properly even after several days. Their glossy finish suffered strange purple reflections in most lights.

The scanner's optical resolution of 600x1200dpi makes it unsuitable for serious photo archiving or blowing up small originals. Photos looked grainy, with bluish skin tones. A 300dpi document scan was more successful, with sharp and accurate text reproduction. The interface lacks convenience features that you'd find in most scanner software.

The X6575 has almost every feature you're likely to need in an office machine and several that you're not, such as PictBridge and memory card readers for direct photo printing. But it doesn't have the high speeds, low consumable costs and reliable document quality that most businesses would want. It's over twice the price of Lexmark's X4550 wireless all-in-one (search for 130496 at www.computerbuyer.co.uk), which lacks fax but produced almost identical results. Unless you really need fax, that's a better buy. The X6575 is still cheap compared to HP's OfficeJet wireless all-in-ones, but hard to recommend.

Author: Kat Orphanides