!8: Lexmark X5650 For Sale

!±8± Lexmark X5650 Cartridge

Lexmark have now added the #X5650# to their collection of multi-function printers for use at home and by students. Printing, scanning, copying and faxing are all possible.

The #X5650# looks quite plain. The control panel contains an LCD screen and a number of operating buttons. There are multi-format card reader and USB ports on the right which enables you print photos without turning on your computer.

The #X5650# includes an auto-document feeder which is a bit of a surprise for such a cheap machine. You can, therefore, send faxes or copy multi-page documents in one go. At a maximum of 25 pages the capacity isn't huge but it will save you a considerable amount of time.

Getting the #X5650# up and running is simple and doesn't take very long.

There are two different sizes of black and colour cartridges available for the #X5650#. The 36 black is supposed to print up to 175 pages while the 36XL should do 475 pages and the 37 is estimated to do 150 pages and the 37XL 500 pages. The page estimates are definitely best case scenario but the XL's are better value over time. If you want to print high quality photos there is a separate no. 31 cartridge available for the #X5650#.

The #X5650# is a reasonable printer. Bold text was a little fuzzy but ordinary text was black and clear. The #X5650# produced rather pale business graphics but there was no sign of banding and black text was clear on coloured backgrounds. It took the #X5650# about a minute to print six pages of ordinary text although it doubled that in draft mode.

The #X5650# printed fine, lively photos even with the ordinary colour cartridge. However when looked at closely there was a noticeable lack of detail although most home users would probably be satisfied with them. Printing photos on the #X5650# was slow at nearly two minutes for a 5x7 print.

The #X5650#'s scanner is located on top of the machine and has a resolution of up to 600x1,00 ppi and it is possible to scan directly to a computer or a flash drive.

During testing the #X5650# proved to be surprisingly noisy when printing which could prove annoying during a long print run.

Anyone looking for highest-quality prints should look elsewhere but for the price the #X5650# offers a decent set of features and does most things satisfactorily.

Theodore Beach is a member of the Cartridge Concept team which specialises in Lexmark X5650 printers.