Review Of Lexmark Platinum Pro 905 Printer

Printers — on October 19, 2009 at 4:30 am | 1 Comment

Lexmark Platinum Pro 905 – An ace all-in-one business printer f the Lexmark family that seems to be a runner-up to the HP Officejet Pro 8500 Wireless.

Sum n Substance:

Thumbs Up:

Impressive printer speed
Two independent paper trays
Convenient wireless setup
All-inclusive diver features
Fail-safe Smart Solutions Widgets

Thumbs Down:

Bluetooth Support Absent
Pricey at $ 341.99- $ 399.99
Non-adjustable auto document feeder

The Whiz Kid Speaks: The Lexmark Platinum Pro 905 is one printer where all your business printing requirements can be taken care of. However, its touch screen is something that you might not like very much. Though the Smart Solutions widgets allows you to customize virtually, a bit of physical control is recommended. It’s the best of Lexmark creations, but we feel HP Officejet Pro 8500 Wireless is more efficient at the job.

For your business requirements you might not really want a multi-functionality printer with a touch screen, but you’ll find that most of the lot being manufactured today comes with touch screens. Lexmark Platinum Pro 905 comes with virtual controlling enabled by Smart Widgets. This is a desirable feature, but the model could have done better with some hard button controls. Its like a building having an escalator facility without the conventional staircase or elevator for commuting up and down. The escalator is a more convenient feature, but would you really want the building to have only one option for climbing up and down? What about the risk factors?

The virtual shortcut keys can be more convenient, but when the printer suffers from the iPhone syndrome, you might just long for some good ol’ physical buttons that. The HP Officejet Pro 8500 Wireless also has a touch screen, but it has other options also open so that in terms of efficiency, we prefer to name it as our first priority item in comparison to the Lexmark Platinum Pro 905 .

Razzle Dazzle: Dimensioned at 12.1 “ h X 18.31 “ w X 15.42 “ l the Lexmark Platinum Pro 905 is the usual size of a business gadget . It’s an all-in-one printer, scanner, copier and fax machine. This is no more an Apple-type,white colored machine. The dark exterior gives a more formal look to the machine. You’ll not find any sharp edges anywhere.

Less hard buttons though indicate less physical control on the flip side, they make your operational surface less cluttered which is really convenient to handle. On the front side you’ll find the “My Touch” button which is an LCD power button with a Wi-Fi power status indicator and a PictBridge USB port. The paper tray places the Pro 905 a class apart from the rest. I really like this feature. A silo drawer adds support to the 150 sheet paper container adding to the heftiness and durability of the tray. Apart from that, a second tray of 150 sheet capacity supplements the primary tray. So can you go ahead and print 300 pages in a lot without any hassles? Well, not really, the arithmetical logic does not quite convert that. In the lower tray, unlike the upper which accommodates 4X6 inch photo paper, you can only rest letter and legal sized paper. The lower tray is detachable, which is a plus feature when it comes to saving space. The screen of the display is bright and conveniently read, but an adjustable display angle is recommended. Now you only read it by standing straight over the printer.

Lexmark printer

The printer comes with Smart Solutions Widgets which enable the virtual function keys. Total dependence on virtual keys is not advisable because in case of a software crash, you are totally decapacitated. Presence of alternate hardware keys can really help in such crises. Bluetooth inclusion could have been an added advantage. But the built-in setup utility allows you to connect wirelessly. Smart Solutions consists of short keys to applications that you can activate to perform certain tasks like activate Photo-bucket and Picasa, scanning-to-emailing, scan-to-faxing and copying etc. The solutions can be customized according to your requirements. At present the application reserves can do much better with a lot more features to come. The Eco Copy feature is worth mentioning. It enables you to print on either side of the paper simultaneously. But the quality is low, though less ink is used. The Pro 905 could do with a cartridge finder inclusion.

Inside Dope:
The Pro 905 performs very fast. Rather its one amongst the fastest which should actually be the fastest for a price of $ 400. But it just happens to be the runner up to HP Officejet Pro 8500 Wireless which peroforms at twice the speed of the Pro 905. Epsom Artisan 800 also seems to be superior to the Pro 905 in so many aspects.

Nitty Gritty: The separate paper trays which can accommodate different types of paper, an easy to set up wireless system and a multi-functional driver with a foolproof Smart Widgets application are the points on which you can vouch this computer.