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Lexmark Platinum Pro905 review

Our Rating :
Price when reviewed : £356
inc VAT

Slow colour print speeds together with an extremely high price cripple this feature-packed MFP.

Specifications

colour inkjet MFP, 10ppm print speed, USB, 10/100 Ethernet, 802.11b/g/n, PictBridge USB, 307x465x392mm

http://www.oyyy.co.uk

Lexmark’s Platinum Pro905 is wince-inducingly expensive, but has lots of features including a 4.3in touchscreen, a fax and a memory card reader.

Two paper trays at the bottom of the printer can handle up to 300 sheets of A4 between them. The top tray can also handle 6x4in photo paper and envelopes.

It also has USB, 10/100 Ethernet and 802.11b/g/n WiFi. If you want to connect to a wireless network, you’ll need either a router that supports push-button WiFi Protected Setup (WPS) or a temporary USB connection to your PC. We’d have preferred to configure these using the touchscreen, which can instead be used to download free apps. Most merely add settings that we’d expect the Pro905 to have already, such as scanning to a file and two-sided eco-copy modes.

The scanner interface is basic, but it’s easy to use and remains open between scans. Scan quality is good, although scans of photos looked a little cold. Copy quality is excellent and we were impressed that a mono copy took just 22 seconds.

Our 6x4in photos printed in well under a minute and looked great, with rich, vivid colours. However, Lexmark’s expensive new photo paper means they cost up to 47p each. Both colour and mono documents looked great at standard quality and even draft text was sharp. Standard-quality text printed at a quick 7.3ppm. Unfortunately, colour documents printed at just 1.5ppm, which is one of the slowest speeds we’ve seen.

This is a deal-breaker in an expensive MFP that would otherwise be ideal for a small or home office. Canon’s Pixma MP640 lacks a fax but can hold plenty of paper and is a far better choice for serious printing, not least because it costs well over £200 less than the Pro905.

Basic Specifications

Rating***
Maximum native print resolution4,800×1,200dpi
Max optical resolution1,200×4,800dpi
Output bit depth48-bit

Quoted Speeds

Quoted speed, mono A410ppm
Quoted speed, colour A46ppm

Tested Print Speeds

Time for two 10x8in photos 1.03m 32s
Time for six 6x4in photos 1.04m 48s

Physical and Environmental

Standard printer interfacesUSB, 10/100 Ethernet, 802.11b/g/n, PictBridge USB
Optional printer interfacesnone
Size307x465x392mm
Weight11.6kg
Noise (in normal use)52dB(A)
Duty cycle10,000 pages
Power consumption standby5W
Power consumption idle11W
Power consumption active26W

Paper Handling

Maximum paper sizeA4/legal
Maximum paper weight255gsm
Standard paper inputs2
Standard paper input capacity300
Maximum paper inputs2
Maximum paper input capacity300
Duplex (code, cost if option)Yes

General

Printer technologythermal inkjet
Supported operating systemsWindows XP/XP-64/Vista/2000/Vista 64/7, Mac OS X 10.4.4 – 10.5, Linux
Other inkjet features4.3in touchscreen, automatic print head alignment, replaceable print head
Other inkjet optionsnone

Buying Information

Price£356
Consumable parts and prices510 page Lexmark 100XL Black High Yield Return Program Ink Cartridge, £17; 600 page Lexmark 100XL Cyan, Magenta, Yellow High Yield Return Program Ink Cartridges £13 each; 170 page Lexmark 100 Black Standard Yield Return Program Ink Cartridge, £11; 200 pag
Price per colour A4 page6.5p
Quoted life of supplied black cartridge170 (ISO/IEC 24712)
Quoted life of supplied colour cartridge(s)200 (ISE/IEC 24712)
Quoted life of supplied photo cartridge(s)N/A
Warrantyfive years RTB (when registered)
Supplierhttp://www.oyyy.co.uk
Detailswww.lexmark.co.uk

Print Quality

Number of ink colours4
Number of ink cartridges5
Maximum number of ink colours4
Maximum number of cartridges4
Quoted photo durability100 years
Quoted photo durability sourceLexmark

Tested Scan Speeds

Full scan area preview10s
A4 document at 150dpi20s
A4 document at 300dpi25s
6x4in photo at 600dpi46s
6x4in photo at 1200dpi5m 14s

Tested Copy Speeds

Time for single A4 mono copy 1.022s
Time for single A4 colour copy 1.034s
Time for 10 A4 copies using feeder 2.03m 5s

Photo Features

PictBridge supportYes
Borderless printingup to A4
Direct (PC-less) printingYes
Supported memory cardsUSB flash drive, SD, MMC, Memory Stick Pro, xD
CD printingNo

Copy Features

Maximum number of copies99
Max mono copy resolution1,200×1,200dpi
Max colour copy resolution1,200×1,200dpi