Lexmark Z33 Inkjet Printer Review

Lexmark aren't as widely known in the photography printer market as say Hewlett Packard or Epson. This is largely due to the huge range from these competitors pushing Lexmark out of the spotlight. However, this does not mean that Lexmark's products don't have their merits. Take this Z33 model, for example, Lexmark have provided it with 2400x1200dpi resolution, quite impressive for a printer being sold for around 70.

Design, interfaces and installation

This printer only has a USB connection, and making a welcome appearance is a cable for it, something many manufacturers don't bother to include.

Both the upper and lower paper trays can be completely folded up making the printer very compact. The trays aren't as well built as some more expensive printers, but shouldn't cause any problems.

The printer uses separate colour and black cartridges (shown to the right), these are not cheap to replace at about 20 each. Fitting them is easy with the printer having corresponding coloured holders to the cartridges. The manual is quite small, but installation and setup is explained very well and those new to printers shouldn't have any major problems.

An unusual feature is the print status window which can be modified dramatically by changing its 'skin'. This allows you to play with its appearance and many skins are available from the Lexmark website. Below is the print status window with a before shot and after shot sporting thenew skin:

Before	After

The Z33 specification states that noise levels reach 44dBA, however we found the noise levels to be very good. It even seemed to be quieter than the recently reviewed Canon BubbleJet S800 (specified 37dBA), which retails at over 200 more than the Lexmark.

Print Quality
Despite taking such a long time to print an A4 photo we didn't find the quality very impressive. The printer does have its redeeming features, from a distance the prints appear much more pleasing to the eye, and seem to be very sharp. All these images were printed out on glossy Sigel Inkjet paper - Lexmark do not include sample paper in the box so don't forget to pick up a pack.

The printer has done a good job here of producing some of the finer details in the picture. Single hairs appear sharp as does the fabric of the man's jacket. However the same problem with colour rendition remains with skin tone being reproduced inaccurately. Dark areas in the picture such as around the sunglasses and the background are still too light and muddy, and some dark areas are lacking the original's detail. Dots are not so immediately visible in this picture, mainly due to the amount of variation disguising them.

Colour rendition in this picture although inaccurate, is still quite pleasing to the eye, with good levels of detail backing it up. However the same stumbling blocks remain, and there is a distracting amount of dots in the sky which almost detract attention away from the boat.