The Z53 boasts a 2400 x 1200dpi print resolution, photographic sharpness to its prints, speedy text print times, and more-all for a reasonable AU$399.
As with most Lexmark products, the Z53 is one of the simplest inkjet printers on the market to setup and install. Both paper trays are built into the unit, so two flicks of the wrist and two ink tank insertions later, we were ready for driver installation. After another five minutes we were up and printing, amazed at the ease and speed of the software setup package.
Although the practice of cramming all three colour inks into one cartridge is somewhat frowned upon by high-volume users (Canon's S600 uses individual ink tanks for each colour), we understand why Lexmark would use such a cost-cutting measure in a printer with such a low price as the Z53. Another concern was ink cost over the long run, since the AU$40 refill price can certainly add up quickly when printing out stacks of digital stills. Nevertheless after printing half a dozen or so maximum resolution images of various sizes, we gave the ink tanks a good shake and listened to what sounded like plenty of ink floating around inside. Your mileage may vary, but we'll take our chances with ink to see significant savings off the top.
Once all the details had been seen to, we set about putting the Z53 through its paces, watching to see if it would flinch against such lofty claims. We weren't disappointed. Text print times were right up there with HP's 990Cse at 8.1ppm, with letter pages looking like laser prints even in ink-saving draft mode. A four-page PageMaker report set to normal mode also popped out in a respectable amount of time, but what surprised us most was pure photo quality printing on glossy paper. Vivid, bright colours and amazing clarity were to be had on every print-and this was in the normal default 600dpi mode.
Once the highest quality resolution mode was activated, it was all we could do to hold back tears, even if printing an 8 x 10 sample image took just under five minutes. The Z53 might not be the fastest photo printer around, but we're willing to wait a bit for this kind of off-the-shelf cost savings.
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