Lexmark Z22 & Z32
Price: AU$149-$199 (Z22); AU$199 (Z32).
Distributor: Lexmark Australia
Ph: 02 9930 3500; Fax: 02 9930 3550
www.lexmark.com.au
When you're on a good thing stick to it, that's a phrase that Lexmark has applied with great enthusiasm to the current range of Z-series printers. All the way from the Z22 up to the Z52 they look identicalâ€"only the printers' physical dimensions appear to differ. And, there is a lot to be said for creating an instantly identifiable corporate -look" to your product range.
What did tend to confuse us, however, was the pair of twins the Z22 and Z32. You see, other than the price, there is precious little to distinguish between the two. Yes, they have a different model number and, according to Lexmark, the Z22 is 1ppm slower than the Z32 producing black printing but they are the same speed outputting colour. That's it folks.
However, Lexmark has taken an interesting step to differentiate the two printers. The Z22 is supplied with only a CMY tri-colour cartridge while the Z22 also ships with a black cartridge. The Z22 still has a vacant carrier spot for the black cartridge but the user can make do with composite blacks from the CMY cartridge. Obviously, the Z22 in this configuration will be a tad slower, and the composite black will be nowhere near as deep and rich as when using the black ink cartridge but you can always shell out the extra dollars for a black cartridge at some later date. Unfortunately, this configuration difference was passed onto the Lab well after testing had been completed using the supplied CMY and black cartridges for the Z22. If you wish to obtain the highest-quality photo output possible from any of the Lexmark printers an optional Photo print cartridge must be purchased. Lexmark claims the Z22/32 are capable of 1200 x 1200dpi in both black and colour.
In all but one case the Lexmark print cartridges produced fewer pages than the other printer vendors. The Z22 and Z32 managed 220 and 240 black pages at 5 percent coverage, respectively, while colour pages totalled 133 and 137 pages at 15 percent coverage. And, given the cost of the cartridges is not all that different when compared to the other vendors, the cost per page will obviously be higher; between 26 and 29 cents per page for black and 47 to 50 cents per page for colour.
The printers are quite solidly constructed, with the exception of the sheet feeder, which is a little flimsy. They weigh very little, that is, until you add the weight of the hefty external -brick" AC adaptor. The four Lexmark printers tested all feature parallel and USB ports, the sheet feeders have a 100-sheet capacity and stock up to a hefty 275gsm can be fed through the -L"-shaped paper path. Documentation is nothing stunning but we would certainly rate it as adequate. Included is a double-sided A3 quick installation guide, which is certainly not as informative or -pretty" as the HP and Canon equivalents, a small paper manual that very briefly covers operations, and an online manual in PDF format.
The single printer driver, labelled like the documentation with the title -Lexmark Z22/Z32", is also a giveaway that the two must be pretty similar in function right down to the firmware level.
As previously mentioned, the Z32 is rated as the fastest of the two printers when printing plain black text, both with black cartridges fitted, however our peak throughput tests show that at the same quality settings -Quick Print 600" the Z22 and Z32 performed identically with a score of 3.3ppm. Surprisingly at this setting the Z32 produced many more registration errors than the Z22. It was a similar performance story in the average throughput test with both printer drivers set to -Normal 600dpi" the scores were line ball at 0.74 and 0.74ppm. However, at this setting, the Z32 behaved itself with no errors at all and, in fact, the quality of the text output was nothing short of stunning. All the Lexmark printers from the baby Z22 up to the Z52 produce exceptionally crisp, black characters, superior in quality to even the best of the competition. Graphics at this resolution were good, but we did find that in some of the large black fill areas the distribution was a tad uneven.
The Z22/32 were both quite slow in the photo output test with scores of 0.09ppm and 0.1ppm, respectively. The quality of the outputs with the photo cartridge installed was good with quite good colour fidelity although the Canon 2100SP for example produced more accurate skin tones and its dither patterns were a tad finer.
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