NOT EVERYTHING IN LIFE IS BLACK AND WHITE (Lexmark Cartridge No. 70)

Member Name: stuleg

Product:	Lexmark Cartridge No. 70
Date:	27/08/05 (151 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Branded is best, crisp printing with no blockages to the print head

Disadvantages: Expensive, no recycling address provided for empty cartridges

If you have a computer in your home or business the chances are you have a printer as well. Once an expensive piece of equipment - a perfectly useable printer can now be bought for as little as £20, but the initial joy at acquiring a bargain printer can be short lived once you realise that the Ink cartridges needed often cost more than that initial printer outlay.

Unfortunately when I went shopping for a printer last year I was more interested in dots per inch and pages per minute than the cost of cartridges, and it was only when I came to buy replacements for my Lexmark Z52 that I realised they were amongst the most expensive available! Of course I went down the well trodden route of trying to refill old cartridges myself but that ended disastrously with more ink on my hands and clothes than in the cartridge. I also tried unbranded cartridges but the quality simply was not on a par, so I decided the best option was to use proper branded Lexmark cartridges and be done.

The 12A1970 black cartridge is fairly non descript to look at – black plastic casing with a mauve top and a couple of stickers giving brand and colour details all stored in a silver bag which in turn sits in a box of finest cardboard. The metal flexi circuit snakes from side to base and should not be touched while a thin tab protects the print head prior to installation.

Installation is simply a matter of following your particular printers’ instructions but with mine I simply switch the printer on and lift the front cover, the old cartridge lifts out and the new one snaps reassuringly into place. Again depending on what printer you have and whether a cartridge status window pops up during printing you may have to open your active printer folder and instruct the system that you have installed a new cartridge – those using Windows XP do not have to though.

First printing with the new cartridge is good with no running in time needed; printing at a resolution of 300 x 300 dots per inch produces a perfectly legible result with drying time pretty well instantaneous. For high end printing at 1200 x 1200 dots per inch on media such as glossy photograph paper drying time takes longer, up to two minutes in fact, but once dry the ink displays a good solid and sharp result with no blurring, splashing or over-run. It is also worth noting that once dry the ink does not smudge or leave the hands dirty like some cheaper inks do. For average daily use I normally expect this cartridge to last about two months, which although not great is about average for cartridges nowadays.

Lexmark state on the packaging that these own brand cartridges are the only ones containing “specially formulated ink approved for Lexmark printers”, but to be honest I find it hard to believe that a certain printer needs a specific fusion of ink to make it run at its best. The Lexmark statement further loses standing when I read on the other side of the carton that this cartridge is also compatible with a large selection of Compaq, Samsung and Kodak printers. Nevertheless the final print quality does seem far better than previous unbranded cartridges have delivered so perhaps the folk at Lexmark are talking a bit of sense!

As with most computer consumables it pays to shop around for the best price available; after a little searching I found a site that sells these cartridges for £18 – a far cry from the £27 PC World want for the same product. On a final note I’m slightly disappointed that there are no recycling details on the box, with the cost of these cartridges and the need to recycle as many plastics as possible I don’t think it’s asking too much for Lexmark to provide a freepost address to send empty cartridges to so they can re use them. Four stars out of five then with the final star removed for those recycling issues and the fact that all printer cartridges are way too expensive!

www.lexmark.com

Summary: Branded is best when it comes to replacement cartridges

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