Lexmark E320 review

If inkjets are the glamour girls of the printing world, the laser printer must be the tea boy.

Even marketing folk can't get excited about the humble laser, with Lexmark brightly starting its two-page promotional document with the boast of 16 pages per minute print times, before hesitantly announcing '1200 Print Quality' (although 600 x 600dpi is this printer's true maximum resolution) and trailing off with a mention of 4Mb of memory. Wow, just imagine the hordes charging to the nearest branch of Staples!

But anyone who's tried printing a 50-page report on their allegedly 12-page-per-minute inkjet will know the twin disappointments of slow print speeds and fuzzy text, which is why you might just need a personal laser. The E320 immediately stamped its authority on our 25-page plain text document, racing through it in one minute and 40 seconds - excusing the 12-second wait for the first page, that's over the 16ppm rating!

Even better, the text quality was razor sharp. Whatever the font style or size, there wasn't a fault to be seen by the naked eye. It's even readable down to 4-point size, so for everyday use you're unlikely ever to see a problem with this printer.

As with all the laser printers we've seen, the E320 struggled more with graphics. In our sample report document, the pie chart's edges looked jagged, while solid shades revealed some spurious patterns. Still, things improved slightly when we upped the print quality to 1200 rather than the default 600dpi.

We'd also recommend the higher resolution for photos. Streaking was again clear to the naked eye, but - unlike us - most people will be looking at the image rather than examining it for flaws. These impressions will also be improved by good detail pick-up, helped by a well-balanced contrast - many lasers' photos tend to suffer from under or overexposure.

It should come as no surprise that the E320 couldn't keep up its 16ppm pace in any of our graphics-heavy tests. In our toughest document, which includes many photos and a large sprinkling of detailed clip art, the printer was reduced to just over four pages per minute. More alarmingly, this also produced memory problems, with the 4Mb supplied proving too little (you can boost the memory by up to 64Mb, however). It recovered some speed kudos for the report, triumphantly printing the fifth and final page after a wait of just 30 seconds.

Apart from speed, one of Lexmark's boasts about this printer is its ease of use. This doesn't stretch to installation, as we had to browse two different directories on the CD to find the right files when using Windows 98. Note that only Windows 98 SE is supported, but it's good to see Windows 95 (release 4.00.950 or later), Me, NT 4, 2000 and XP - not to mention Linux - all covered.

Once installed, using the printer genuinely is a breeze. It's simple to up the quality from the default 600dpi, and you can also alter the amount of dithering (coarse, medium or fine) and the toner level. There's a warning light on the printer for paper jams, while if there's a data error another light prompts you to press the override button. Simple but effective.

Changing the toner is another straightforward task, and there's no danger of toner leaking over your hands with this sealed unit. The E320 comes with a 1,500-page starter cartridge and this can be replaced with a 3,000-page or 6,000-page unit. If you opt for the 'use once, return to Lexmark' versions, this works out at a reasonable 1.9p for the 6,000-page unit and a less impressive 2.7p for the 3,000-page cartridge.