I'm hooked. Or perhaps I should say I'm un-hooked. I'm loving Lexmark's Z1420 wireless printer. The freedom of being able to print without having to get up to plug my laptop into the printer is wonderful. Even better is being able to pick my laptop up from the desk to take it to another spot in the house without nearly pulling the printer onto the floor because I've forgotten to unplug it first.
The Lexmark Z1420 was a breeze to set up. While I've learned a great deal in the realm of computer technology over recent years, I'm still not what anyone would call truly tech-savvy, and when I find myself up against a techie-task that requires greater know-how than I have, I tend to get frustrated rather quickly. Thankfully, installing the Lexmark Z1420 was the essence of simplicity.
I popped the installation cd into my laptop, followed the simple step-by-step instructions as prompted and fifteen minutes later I was running the first few test prints, and thinking to myself, "Now that's cool." Okay...so maybe I'm easily impressed but I couldn't help but get a kick out of my new toy. Of course, it's far more than a toy, but any new tool that promises to make my life easier excites me and I was having fun playing with it. I still get a kick out of it every time I hit "print" and hear the printer start up in the other room. (And if you're concerned about having to leave the printer on all the time, don't be...it goes into sleep mode on its own.)
I've been very pleased with the quality of the printing as well, whether in normal or quick print. However, I don't like that I can't set the default to quick print. I noticed this about a previous Lexmark printer I owned. Because most of the printing I do is for my own use I typically use quick print and I find it annoying to have to go into properties to set it to quick print each time. It does allow you to save settings and to choose them again from a drop-down menu but this still requires that you go into properties each time.
While Lexmark has created a toolbar that can be downloaded for easier printing from the internet, including quick print, it's only compatible with IE. I gave up using IE years ago in favor of Firefox which I find to be far superior. Considering the ever-growing number of Firefox users I think it's short-sighted of Lexmark not to have made the toolbar compatible with it as well.
I haven't yet done enough printing to get a feel for how often I'll need to replace or refill the ink cartridges. As ink cartridges go, these are reasonably priced at $23.99 for the standard black ($24.99 for high yield black) and $25.99 for standard color ($29.99 for high yield) .
The Lexmark rewards program also gives you a free cartridge for every 5 purchased, and a free cartridge for every 5 used cartridges returned in the postage-paid return envelopes they provide for you. Not only does this cut down on your overall ink costs (it's $21.99 to purchase a return program color cartridge and $19.99 for a return program black cartridge) but it's environmentally friendly. So while, Lexmark may not be taking Firefox users into consideration they haven't forgotten the growing number of their market who are environmentally conscious.
The Lexmark Z1420 is the smallest and sleekest of their line of wireless printers, and takes up little space. For those of us working in multi-function spaces in our homes that's a bonus. The paper feed seems to function exceptionally well. I've been pleasantly surprised that it hasn't jammed. I was relieved to discover as well, that the paper tray also seems to function quite well even when printing large quantities. It would kind of defeat the purpose of wireless printing if you had to get up to fix a paper jam or to insure that the last half of your prints didn't start sliding off the tray and onto the floor.
The Lexmark Z1420 is also a color photo printer and comes with the Lexmark Imaging Studio which allows you to crop, re-size, adjust color, create greeting cards, posters, slideshows etc. I've yet to print any photos with it, though, so I can't comment on how well it performs in that regard.
All things considered, I highly recommend the Lexmark Z1420 for laptop users or anyone with more than one computer in the house who'd like to eliminate the need for multiple printers.
Note: As mentioned in a previous post, the agency handling the marketing for Lexmark's new line of wireless printers sent me the Z1420 for review. I'm pleased to be able to give it a good review overall, but had it been a dismal failure I'd have said so. I do NOT recommend for purchase anything which I don't honestly believe you'll find to be an asset to your life or business.
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