Lexmark Z617 - Inkjet Color Printer

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Lexmark Z617 - Inkjet Color Printer

Milind Bandekar, Dec 22, 2005 1847 hrs IST

We think the Lexmark Z617 is a recommendable solution for home users.

Good overall print quality, brilliant color reproduction, Inexpensive

No indicator to display ink level status, slightly expensive cartridges

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Techtree has been full of MP3 players, DVD players, LCD monitors and more in the past few months, but almost a year since we posted a printer review. Well, today we have a printer, the Lexmark Z617 for review - a recent launch in the inkjet series.

The Lexmark Z617 is a thermal inkjet printer that supports up to 4800 x 1200 dpi on photo paper in the best mode and up to 2400 x 1200 dpi on all other paper types. It features Accu-Feed Paper Handling which virtually eliminates paper jams and its quick Pick Paper Feed System prints multiple page jobs at a faster rate.

The Z617 looks smart with a blend of grey and black and a sleek design that makes the printer fit on your desk without taking much of your workspace. It's a USB printer and the installation is pretty easy.

Many brands mess up in being able to produce the right shade of blacks, grays and adding the right amount of vibrancy to their colors. Let's see if Lexmark Z617 stands out any better in its print quality over others.

We ran our standard tests on it at the highest print quality setting (unless specified in the description). The following are the tests and their results:

Font Test: The font test consisted of printing a document containing various font sizes starting from 36 going all the way down to point size 1.
Result: The replication onto the paper for this was pretty neat, except for the last line with font size 1. This came out wavering and unreadable when checked through a magnifying glass. I guess the printer can be ruled out for giving minute details with utmost accuracy.

Black and White Resolution Test: We printed an EIA Resolution chart (1956), containing high-contrast vertical, horizontal and diagonal lines as well as curves of various sizes.

Result: The grey color was accurately reproduced in this test and there was no breaking of lines or anything either. The overall quality of the printout was decent enough.

Color Test: We printed out a sheet with gradients of RGB and CMYK bands, which start from the darkest shade to the lightest, eventually fading to white.
Result: The colors weren't that vibrant on normal print settings but on a high print quality setting, the result was quite impressive. The blending and color separation was done neatly.

Border Test: This document contained lines stretching out all the way to the edge of the document that test the printer's borderless printing capabilities.
Result: The Lexmark Z617 did not support full borderless printing. It left a half-centimeter gap from the page border. This is pretty common in most of the inline series printer from other manufacturers as well, so we can't really point this out as a flaw.

500 DPI Image Test: We printed a 500 DPI image with minute details and varying colors.
Result: The print quality was brilliant with good reproduction of color and shadow details at a fairly low print time.
Time Taken: 4 minutes and 8 seconds

600 DPI Image Test: Same as the 500 DPI test, this one is only done with a higher resolution (600 DPI) image.
Result: The print quality was as impressive as the 500 DPI one. This image included highly textured, vibrant colors and the reproduction of these on a normal bond paper was neat. The similar print on a glossy paper looked much more enhanced with a greater amount of detail.
Time Taken: 4 minutes and 14 seconds

Speed Test: We printed 20 copies of a page full of text at normal quality and then calculated the printer's speed in documents per minute.
Result: This printer was capable of printing around 5 pages per minute, which is less than what the specifications claimed. However, 5 pages per minute is a fairly decent speed for any home user, where quality is generally a priority over speed.

Conclusion

Judging from its overall performance and satisfactory print quality, and a price of Rs 2599 with a year's warranty, we think the Lexmark Z617 is a recommendable solution for home users. The ink cartridge might be a little expensive as compared to Canon, but it's certainly cheaper than that offered by HP. All and all, a good buy for general purpose usage where extreme detail is not a necessity.

Test Unit sourced from: Lexmark India