My trusty all in one printer has sat on the desk next to its partner the monitor for a couple of years now. Before meeting the monitor and their relationship started, the poor printer sat all alone getting dusty on a shelf in the dining room, only ever being visited when someone wanted to use and abuse him.
Why?
The printer is wireless and that was the main reason we bought him two years ago. He's still very much a part of the family and hasn't decided to leave just yet despite getting a little older.

**Model and functions **

The Lexmark X4550 is sold for around £99 which includes bundles of ink. It's not the most modern printer, but still has enough functions to work well against newer models.
Despite being called a printer, the X4550 is actually a scanner as well as a copier.

** Appearance **

The X4550 comes in a subtle shade of grey with contrasting white plastic casing which surrounds the scanner lid and top area of the printer. It hosts a small screen that provides the user with instructions as they are using it as well as a variety of buttons to differentiate between modes and uses.
There is a smaller area containing a small variety of slots for different sized SD cards on the right hand side. This sits under a large flashing button also known as the wifi signal.

Overall the appearance of the printer is nice. It's slightly bulky compared to newer models; however it doesn't look too out of place much like older mobile phone models would compared to new.

** Ink **

The prices of ink for the X4550 are on the average scale when comparing to other brands and models. The printer takes two cartridges, black and colour (23 & 24). You can however choose to print just in black, and also utilise the colour when black is running low. Each cartridge will set you back around £20 each.

Inserting the ink into the printer is an easy process with just a click of a lid and the old cartridge pops out and the new one can be slotted in. This is one of the easier models of printer I have used for changing the ink.

** Setting Up **

When you use the printer for the first time, you will have to sync it with your PC or laptop etc. The back of the printer hosts a power lead and also a cable to attach to the computer before you engage the wifi. A disc is provided with the printer, or you can download drivers straight from the internet should you need them.
I found this an easy process and once synced, I have never found a problem with sourcing the wifi signal. This does seem to take it's time if it's away from the main router.

** Feeding paper **

The paper aligns in a downward motion to the printer. The paper home can take a decent thickness of paper, and the rollers appear to be lasting me quite a lot time without seeing the need to stop working correctly as yet. I have never had a problem with miss feeding, or taking two pages as once, so I am quite impressed with this.

** Scanning **

The scanner is well marked out with positions and sizes of paper. This is easy to use with the linked imaging software that comes with the printer installation. It's not a function I use very often on the printer, but one I am pleased to have for those little emergencies like needed to scan in a bill or pay slip etc.

** Quality **

I find when using this printer with official inks then the quality is a lot better than when using replacement inks. However with the correct inks, I have never come across any smudging or marking of the paper. The colours are perhaps a little duller than some more expensive models of printer, and when printing photos, I find there are faint lines as the printer cannot keep up with the photo quality, but overall decent quality for what you pay for.
When scanning, I find the images to be clear and concise.

** Overall **

Overall this printer stands up well against other models. It's perhaps not worth the £99 retail price that it seems to be selling for now, however I would happily pay around £50 for it.