Just a printer... (Lexmark P707)

Member Name: Tybalt348

Product:	Lexmark P707
Date:	07/06/04 (329 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Price , Ease of use, Print quality

Disadvantages: Cost of cartridges, A little slow

Having had a Lexmark printer in the past and been very happy with it, when I was looking for a new printer I saw this on special offer and had to have it. The current price seems to be around £60-65, depending on where you go, and that price the P707 represents excellent value for money.

In the box are all the usual bits and pieces - a power lead, a few sheets of photo paper, instruction manuals and of course a pair of cartridges. Unlike a lot of printers though, as the P707 is marketed directly at the digital camera lovers, it comes with a photo cartridge, so you may want to buy a black cartridge if you're going to be printing a lot of text, especially with the slightly high cost of cartridges.

Setup is very easy, particularly if you own a Mac with OS X - again, seemingly a nod to the digital photography crowd. Literally, all that's required is putting in the cartridges, plugging the printer into the wall, and then into a spare USB port. For a PC, it's just a simple matter of installing the drivers as well, but nothing challenging, and the instructions are just fine.

So what's it like to use? To start with, a minor niggle - the gravity feed system seems to be a little iffy. The pages go in, but often seem to be at a slight angle, meaning you can never be 100% sure that it's not printing at a strange angle. I've only once seen it spoil the print, but it's still a little off-putting. The quality of printing is excellent, particularly when you use photo paper, with strong, vibrant colours and good definition and tone. Try printing a picture of a tropical island with some glistening blue water to see what I mean. The reproduction is excellent. Admittedly it does take its time printing, but it's not too bad. It's speed when printing plain text is fine, though not blazing fast.

It also has a neat little memory card reader, but I've never used it, since it takes less effort for me

to plug my camera into the Mac than it does to take out the memory card and insert it into the printer. But I'm sure a lot of people would find it very useful.

Overall, I'm perfectly happy with the P707. There are very few printers for the price that will beat its print quality. It's well made, nicely designed and very simple to use. The only real downside is that the cartridges are a little pricy, but then they do last a good length of time.

Summary: