Let's Print! Maybe not photos?:) (Lexmark Z735)

Member Name: nickbrown60

Product:	Lexmark Z735
Date:	12/03/09 (398 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Very cheap, Cheap cartridges, Looks Okay!

Disadvantages: Black print

Hello everyone and welcome to this review!


If you are also finding that printer cartridges cost way too much for what they are, then you are not alone! I also think this, decided around 6 months ago to be exact. That was when I decided we needed a cheap printer that was cheap to maintain, never though I would find one until I set eyes upon this Lexmark Z735.


In Comet that weekend and this printer happened to be on sale at only £14.99, bargain. It was half price, the usual price was around £29 which still is great value considering the price of some printers on the market today. The Comet staff were great, I will review them later on!


Got it home
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The printer was home and ready to be set up. Opened the box and inside was the printer, power cord and a free cartridge. There was also the instruction book of course, but being such a cheap printer there was not much in the book, most of it is on CD these days. The first thing to do was to install the printer software. This had to be done before the printer was plugged into the computer, it was very quick and painless by just popping in the disk and waiting around two minutes. Once installed the printer was plugged into the wall and by USB. Please note that the USB cord is not included in the box of this printer, these have to be purchased separately. They can be found on eBay very cheap at around 99p or if you are replacing a printer you should not be needing one. When the USB was in the cartridge had to be installed, this was pips to do by lifting the flap and clicking it into place, job done. My printer was ready for use!


Looks:
*****
My first impressions on this printer were quite good, now lets be honest.... It's not much of a stunner, but it certainly does not look terrible. It is a rather square or rectangular shape with rather straight edges certainly making it look like a budget printer. It is mostly white in colour with bits of silver and gray here and there making the appearance slightly better than if it was all white. The paper tray sticks up at the back and there is also a paper tray at the front where the printed items come out, this is handy as it catches all of the papers with ease, it also folds for easy storage.


Setting the printer up
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It was time to test the printer, it has many features that I definitely was not expecting on such a cheap printer. The printer can take all sizes of paper under A4 size, such as 4 X 6 photo paper. Yes! It can even print photos. I have tried this feature and will talk about it a little later. The first test was with the test page when fitting the new cartridge, I was shocked! The printer talked, well it didn't personally talk but the computer did, it shouted ' Printing Started', I had not had this with a printer before but it certainly was a pleasant surprise. Make sure your speakers are on low when using this printer, you could be in for a shock as it may start talking at any time! Any way, back to the testing. The printer printed a picture of apples in a basket and it came out rather good, nothing special but certainly acceptable!


Now as my printer was new and it actually had ink inside and I could afford to replace it being so cheap, only £9 per cartridge I though I would print some holiday pictures. I could not resist printing a few pictures with the photo paper I picked up in Tesco. It was simple printing a picture, I chose the picture on the computer and clicked print, the Lexmark wizard popped up and took me through the settings such as paper type and the quality I wanted, this was great and very simple to use while looking like professional software at the same time. Once the set up was complete I pressed print and the printing started. At first the printer did have a bit of trouble sucking the small 4 X 6 paper in but it was nothing that a little push couldn't help. The picture came out and it was okay, nothing special but acceptable. It seemed a bit grainy and as I selected the super high photo quality setting I was expecting a bit more.


What do I like about the printer?
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There are many things that I like about this printer, obviously the main advantage is the cheap maintenance and the initial cost of the printer, definitely a thumbs up for that.


Printing speed - This printer really can print extremely fast, I find that the black on quick setting can print up 25 sheets per 5% coverage, that is great! Lexmarks says it's 15 pages per minute, that must be on the normal setting rather than the quick. The colour is also quick unless it's a big picture.


Ease of use - The software included with this printer is fabulous. It has every feature you could possibly want with a printer. Whether it is paper size, type, colours, quality, red eye reduction or speed it really has a load of features. There is also a section in the software for marinating your printer, such as cleaning the rollers, the cartridges and printer head alignment, I have used all of these and the actually work! Great stuff.


Never jams - I have had a few printers in my time and I have found many to jam up by taking in too many sheets of paper, but oh no! Not with this Lexmark. I have printed thousands of sheets with this printer and it has never failed.


Buttons -The two very simple to use buttons on the top are great, there is a very useful On and off switch and a paper feed button, this paper feed button is used if you want to insert a different type of paper or you forget to load paper and press print, simply insert the new paper and press the button, it gets sucked in and gets a new look when it comes out the other end...


Any annoying bits?
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Now, one annoying thing I have found with this printer is the colour system. The cartridge is called the no1, this printer only uses one cartridge for both the black and the colour printing. This is good as in the money side of things being only £9 for the original replacements but there are issues that come with most cheaper options. That being the black colour that comes out of this printer. Most of my prints do require a sharp black print such as essays and dark pictures but this printer totally fails at this. The black comes out as a rather light green colour which is extremely annoying. The three colours Red, Blue and Yellow are all mixed in the cartridge to make the nearest to black colour and that unfortunately is dark green. Does not look good handing an essay to a lecturer when printed in green! That is my only main gripe.


Overall Conclusion
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Overall I am extremely pleased with this printer for the price I paid, it would be nice to have a slightly better black colour and better photo printing but it does the job. The cartridges are cheap and last a very long time. At £9 a cartridge you certainly cannot go wrong for everyday printing and the printer allows use of many different paper types. The software included is fantastic and very easy to use with some great picture editing software. The printer is easy to use and very effective for everday printing. Very reliable in the time that I have owned it and a joy to use.

Highly recommend! Only 4 stars due to the black (mono) Printing!


Thank you for reading, hope this has helped you.
Nick nickbrown60

Summary: An Okay value printer!

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