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-------------------------------------------------------------- This story was printed from ZDNet Australia. --------------------------------------------------------------
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Lexmark Z12 Color Jetprinter September 03, 2001 URL: http://www.zdnet.com.au/reviews/hardware/printersscanners/soa/Lexmark-Z12-Color-Jetprinter/0,139023422,120106390,00.htm
With an estimated price of AU$149, the Z12 Color Jetprinter has the distinction of being the least expensive inkjet printer sold by Lexmark Australia. At this price, the 1,200 x 1,200-dpi printer could easily be an impulse purchase -- and might even cause you to wonder if the old adage "You get what you pay for" still rings true.
The Z12 includes both USB and IEEE 1284 parallel-port connections, though neither cable is provided. Once we got a USB cable, we followed the illustrated setup guide and were up and running in minutes. The printer uses separate black and three-colour ink cartridges. (Black Cartridge AU$62.70; High Yield Black Cartridge AU$96.80; Tri-Colour Cartridge AU$62.70; High Yield Tri-Colour Cartridge AU$96.80.) Only one cartridge, however, can be used at a time; the one that's not in use fits in a handy compartment located on the back of the printer. Consumers will further appreciate the Z12's quiet performance, compact size, helpful ink-level indicators, and 100-sheet-capacity paper tray. The printer supports 300-, 600-, and 1,200-dpi resolutions, though it defaults to 600 dpi unless you manually change the settings. We were a bit disappointed with the text and colour-photo output quality of the Z12 at the default resolution. Text wasn't completely smooth, and our test photo's colour was muted. When we increased the resolution to 1,200 dpi, however, we noticed a dramatic improvement. Text was nearly laser-quality, and our test photo's colours were much more vibrant, although the image was still noticeably grainy. At 1,200 dpi, black-text printing crawls along at approximately half a page per minute (about 18.5 minutes for a 10-page Word document), our four-page Adobe PageMaker newsletter required 27.5 minutes to print, and our 7.5x6-inch photo took 6 minutes and 49 seconds. We wouldn't recommend using the Z12 to print business reports, presentations, or other documents that require a professional look. But for home users who have the occasional print job, the price can't be beat.
Lexmark Z12 Color Jetprinter
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