Lexmark X264dn

Lexmark X264dn

Lexmark explains the X264dn as a small workgroup multifunction printer, and it is certainly large and durable enough to live in a medium-sized workplace. It is a mono machine, but it supports duplex printing and the ability to copy from solitary to double-sided web pages, not producing full-duplex duplicates.

Lexmark X264dn Review

Cased in light and medium-dark grey plastic, the machine is angular enough to appear functional while not invasive in much less realistic environments. The 50-sheet Automated Document Feeder (ADF) has a somewhat slanted feed tray but remains reasonably reduced account, and the leading printer area feeds to a large output tray, straight underneath the scanner.

The control board, which runs the total size of the front of the machine, is well set out with a 2-line by 16-character LCD in the centre, bordered by switches for navigating, menu choice and to begin and quit Copy and Check jobs. To the left are options for copying and function choice switches for Copy, Check/Email and Fax. To the right are a collection of fax options and a numerical pad for going into numbers.

The main paper tray can take 250 sheets of paper, and a fold-down, single-sheet feed enables unique media. In addition, the machine can take one optional paper tray, which can be a 250 or 550 sheet unit. Sockets for USB and 10/100 Ethernet links are at the back, and the cordless link is available as an additional option.

The two-piece drum and printer toner cartridge ports in from the front and the photoconductor drum unit benefits 30,000 web pages before requiring a substitute. Lexmark provides Presto! PageManager for document handling and OCR consists of the driver for Postscript Degree 3 and PCL 5 as standard. In addition, there is support for Home windows, OS X and Linux; however, Linux drivers must be downloaded and installed customarily.

Lexmark estimates an optimum speed of 28ppm, but we just saw about fifty per cent of this under test. Our five-page text print returned a rate of 12ppm in a typical setting, but this just increased to 12.5ppm when we selected prepare set. However, there was a bit visible distinction in print quality, so you might as well use prepare to gain the slight speed increase.

The 20-page test still just led to a rate increase of 2ppm, taking the accelerate to 14ppm, and we saw a full throttle of 15ppm when we ran the five-page text and video document. These rates are reasonable for a mono laser, especially one at a reasonably low cost.

Other Printer: Lexmark MX310dn

When we ran the 20-side duplex document, we saw 13.0 sides each min, a significant transform of speed for duplex print. A single-page copy from the flatbed took 11s and a five-page document from the ADF still just took 22s, an excellent transform of speed. Finally, a 15 x 10cm picture print on A4 took 24s, a sensible outcome.

The quality of the prints differs a fair bit with the kind of document being published. The black text comes through very cleanly, with the default resolution of 1,200dpi, ensuring no harsh sides to any personalities. Greyscale videos are OK in small quantities, but video fills show some banding and a restricted range of grey tones.

Our picture print was reasonable, with some banding in prominent fill locations and some loss of information in dark tones. Photocopies of greyscale material are pretty ropey, with blotchy fills and darker tones coming through black, production overlaid text challenging to read.

The printer toner cartridges are available in capabilities of 3,500 and 9,000 web pages, with the 9,000 web page component having a large enough yield to ensure you will not need to maintain the printer frequently. At present Internet prices, we determine an expense for each ISO text web page of 2.5p. While not the most affordable cost we’ve seen for this machine course, it is still a relatively inexpensive device to run.