Lexmark’s latest range of all-in-one printers give users far more than they might expect.
A Lexmark Prestige Pro805 I have been testing has the usual all-in-one copying, scanning and printing functions, but there is also a kitchen sink of extras thrown in.
These are being supplemented by new software all the time, with Lexmark turning its top Interact, Platinum and Prestige printers into platforms for a host of applets.
This expansion is made easy by the wireless internet connection and the 4.3 inch touchscreen display and menu system included.
For example, this week a Scan to Evernote feature was launched , linking the printers to the popular website bookmarking and online note-taking service.
By logging in through my PC to my account on Lexmark’s Smartsolution website , I was able to select the new app and have it wirelessly downloaded to my printer.
Selecting the option that now appeared on the touchscreen menu screen, I was able to scan several business cards and notes and have the printer send them to my Evernote email address.
Opening up Evernote a few minutes later, the scan had been added to my online notebook and automatic OCR (Optical Character Recognition) had been carried out, making the scan searchable in Evernote for the contact names on the business cards.
Lexmark has its own Business Card Scan app for that specific task among its smart solutions, offering OCR and syncing to address books.
At first, I doubted I would find myself checking a small display on a printer for some of the online information on offer through apps, such as RSS headlines or a weather forecast. But the printer can provide instant access to information, saving me the time of booting up my PC. I now regularly check its display to see what is on my Google Calendar for the day.
Aside from the unexpected bonus of new apps, the Lexmark Prestige proves to be an excellent all-round printer with its touchscreen menu system making it very easy to master.
The unit is a little on the large side, weighing in at 20 pounds. Print speeds are not the fastest but quality is excellent and the ink cartridges last a long time, although I did not get an adequate warning when the black one began to run dry. Lexmark says it offers the lowest-cost ink with this printer, at a cent per page for black text.
The Prestige will create PDFs from scans, but I found them to be very large file sizes and ended up reconverting them using other software to make smaller email attachments.
The printer also has the same problem as other all-in-ones in still being a jack of all trades, master of none. Its scans were adequate in their detail but could not match the resolution of my five-year-old Epson single-function scanner.
Nevertheless, the convenience, amazing versatility and low-cost printing make the Pro805 a very tempting buy at a suggested $300 retail price and a steal at a price sometimes as low as $175 on Amazon.
