The Lexmark E210 (AU$599) is a good all-purpose home or office laser printer, producing crisp prints at a fraction of the cost of larger printers. Easy setup, simple software, and low-cost toner refills make the E210 an acceptable printer solution for home or small-office needs.

Lately, it seems that every printer maker on the planet is jumping on the small, cheap laser bandwagon, with considerably mixed results. Lexmark has hopped onboard with the E210, a compact, good-looking laser printer capable of the claimed 12ppm at 600dpi and that can be yours for under AU$600. We put this inexpensive laser printer through its paces and discovered a solid competitor in an ever crowded market segment.

Pros and Cons Pros Good print speed Practically instant setup Small desktop footprint Inexpensive to own and maintain Cons Limited RAM slows large print jobs

Weighing a mere 5.9kgs and occupying less than 0.6 square meters of desk space, the E210 is easy to unpack and to place just about anywhere. The bare-bones package has no added options, such as more RAM, extra paper trays, or network cards. One toner cartridge, a USB cable, and two minutes of driver installation later, we were up and running with ease. Although initial setup went smoothly, driver setup for the printer was a little wonky. Where most modern USB printers automatically install distinct USB port hub software and switch the printer's default output port to this new hub, the Lexmark defaulted to the LPT1 parallel port, which caused us some trouble on initial printing. Because this is usually an automatic feature, we were left scratching our heads and wondering why the E210 wasn't responding--until we came upon a tiny little section of the instructions that mentioned manual USB selection. We appreciate this clarification, but no other USB printer we've tested yet has required manual selection--it's always transparent and automatic at initial setup--leaving us somewhat annoyed at the oversight.

Print times were reasonable, with 10-page text documents popping out at just more than 10ppm in both 300dpi and 600dpi modes. When we ran tests in both resolutions, the resulting prints were practically identical, exhibiting only a slight increase in banding across darker graphics in the lower-resolution mode. Because the tiny toner cartridge is rated for only 2,000 pages, we had hoped to see a Toner Saver mode (much like the one that the very similar Samsung ML-1210 carries) or some other econo-mode setting, but it looks like frequent trips to the office supply store for new toner are in order for high-volume users.

We have always been dubious of upright-feed printers because exposure to humidity and bent-over sheets cause frequent paper jams, but Lexmark touts the E210 as using a "jam-free" technology. We didn't experience a single problem during our tests, so we'll give Lexmark the benefit of the doubt for now and see how long-term performance affects this aspect.

The only other thing we didn't much like about the Lexmark was the RAM--or, rather, the lack of it; our documents show that the E210 packs a meager 4MB. It doesn't much matter, really, because very large graphics files were bogged down considerably, slowing print times down in their wake. It's too bad the E210 can't pack 8MB like its Samsung cousin or at least be upgradable.

Overall, the E210 is a competent, inexpensive laser printer that fits almost any light printing need. Cartridge refills might become expensive over the long run, but for the small home office or other light-duty jobs, the latest creation from the Bluegrass state might just hit the spot.

Lexmark E210
Company:Lexmark
Ph: 1300 362 192
Price: AU$599

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