Lexmark Z52 Color Jetprinter

Reviewed By: Kirk Hiner

Review Date: September 8, 2000

Developer: Lexmark

Minimum Requirements: Mac OS 8.6, USB port

Retail Price: $179.99

Availability: Out Now

Remember back in grade school when a student transferred to your class from another town? He always showed up after class had started and would stand nervously in the doorway as the teacher walked over to invite him in. She'd then turn and say, "Class, I want you to welcome so and so to our school. He just transferred here from wherever." It was always somewhat exciting; a new student to stir up the soup. He looked kind of cool, and could probably be your best friend...if only he didn't smell so much like clams.

In the Mac world, the Lexmark Z52 Color Jetprinter is that new student...right down to the clams. But we'll get back to that later.

It's no secret that the low-cost ink jet printer market is dominated by stalwarts Epson and Hewlett Packard. Well, HP did desert us for a while, but they've recently returned, and it's good to have them back. But both companies better be looking over their shoulder. Lexmark has a dandy product poised to make its run, and trust me, it will run quickly. Boasting 2400x1200 dpi in black and color along with a maximum print speed of 15 pages per minute, the Z52 sounds pretty impressive. It sounds even better at under $200. But how applicable are these numbers in the real world? Let's find out.

If this review were based on ease of set-up alone, the Z52 would rank amongst the best printers ever made. To get it hooked up and running, I didn't have to read one page of an instruction manual. Glancing over one sheet of diagrams was all it took to get the printer opened and the ink installed. The black and color ink cartridges are the same size but are also color coded to assist with proper set-up. Not quite so easy was the USB cable installation. The port is hidden behind a door in the back that may as well have been bolted and nailed shut. After struggling for a bit, I finally got it open to access the USB port. However, when I opened it a second time to plug in the power chord, the latch broke off. Now the door won't stay closed. I would attribute this to my brute strength, but fellow Applelinks reviewer Bill Stiteler had the same trouble with his Z52, only he broke the latch on the first attempt to open the door.

Because the driver installation involved no moving parts, it went much more smoothly. The installer ran automatically after inserting the CD, and the installation was finished after only a few clicks of the mouse. After completing the set-up and selecting the printer in the chooser, it was time to get all my prints head in a row.

Bill felt the process of aligning the print heads was somewhat arcane, but I didn't mind it that much. The printer shoots out a test sheet then asks questions about how things look. For example, it prints twenty sets of three cyan lines. The lines vary in their relationship with one another, and you're instructed to tell the computer which set of three comes closest to making a straight line. A lot of squinting is involved, and you'll want to get a second opinion (or at least a magnifying glass), but the process worked.

So far so good, right? Sure, until I tried to print. Each time I sent the command, nothing. I checked the cables and reinstalled the driver, and the printer still refused to give me anything more than its default test page. So I gave in and called tech support. There was hardly a wait, and the gentleman with whom I spoke was very friendly. He asked a few questions, one of which revealed that I wasn't using Apple's desktop printing feature. There it was. After turning this on and rebooting, the printer finally started responding. Desktop printing is a handy feature, but I'm surprised Lexmark would make it a requirement. Hopefully this will change in future versions.

So now lets talk features. One look at the Lexmark printer control panel and you know this machine was built for simplicity. It doesn't offer nearly as many advanced features as Epson's print driver, instead focusing its attention on basic controls. Tell the driver what type of paper you're using and it adjusts the print quality accordingly. For instance, if you tell it you're using photo quality paper, the quickprint option is greyed out. And speaking of options, the Lexmark driver offers you four; quickprint (600 dpi), normal (600dpi), high (1200 dpi) and maximum (2400 dpi).

For color matching, you can choose Lexmark's built-in option or go with the traditional ColorSync controls. Both offer minimal choices, designed to make it easy on the user. ColorSync rendering, for instance, offers three options; auto, photo or business graphics. You can hardly go wrong there.

The layout features are a bit more robust, offering options such as reverse printing, watermarks, booklet printing, etc. My favorite feature, however, is the "Wait for pages to dry" option. If you're running multiple pages through at a high rate of speed, the Lexmark will pause between pages to allow the ink to settle in to the previous sheet. Considering the trouble some printers have with smearing colors, I'm surprised I haven't seen this feature before.

To test the print speeds and quality, I ran the Z52 against my Epson Stylus Color 850. On the Espon, four pages of single-spaced text at the speed setting printed in 2:10. The Z52 at normal setting edged it out at 1:55. The Lexmark type was somewhat darker than Epson's, and therefore seemed sharper. Both were free of smudging and banding. I then printed the same document using Lexmark's high speed setting. The same four pages printed in only 55 seconds, but the type was much lighter and some defects did appear.

Although impressive, these times are well below the 15 pages per minute claimed by Lexmark. I checked other reviews across the web, and most seemed to be having success reaching Lexmark's numbers. Just don't expect them along with higher print quality options.

And besides, what really matters here is color, right? Sure, text is important, but photos and charts at what really make documents pop. The Z52, then, is all about pop. Again, for comparison, I printed a 4MB Photoshop document on the Epson 850. At high quality (1440 dpi), the Epson printed the photograph in 2:18. At it's fastest setting (360 dpi) it took a mere 42 seconds. The Lexmark numbers were right in line; 2:24 at high quality (1200 dpi) and 50 seconds at normal (600 dpi). But remember, the Z52 can do one better in each direction. In quick mode (600 dpi), the Z52 whipped out the 4MB file in an amazing 13 seconds! On the other end, the file took 4:10 to print at maximum quality (2400 dpi).

So how about quality? It need not be a concern. Predictably, quick mode offers less than stellar results. Contrast is extremely poor and details are almost completely lost in the shadow and highlight areas. Use this mode for proofing and placement only. But things quickly get better at normal mode. Without getting up close and squinting, already its hard to tell that this is not a photo. The blacks could be richer, and complex textures look a little muddy, but most users will never have to leave this setting.

At high quality, it's time to get out the frame and hang the print on the wall. Only the most discerning onlooker will be able to tell that it's not a photo if you know your way around an image editing program. The blacks are simply the best I've seen from an ink jet printer, and the colors are vibrant and pure. Even the spectral highlights seemed natural. Use this setting with photo quality paper and you'll never need to bump up that 2400 dpi maxium setting.

But of course I did it anyway. If you've got an extremely his res file and a lot of time on your hands, this option is amazing. At this point it goes beyond home and small business use and gets into the print shop proofing area, except...

No PostScript and no ethernet. With ethernet coming standard on so many Macs these days, I'm surprised Lexmark doesn't include it with the Z52. That would take the price well above the magical $200, but hopefully Lexmark will at least make it an option sometime down the road. And if Lexmark doesn't include their own PostScript RIP, perhaps Infowave will add compatibility in a future release of StyleScript.

So if you're looking for a low cost printer for either text or graphic work, for small business or home use, for quality printing on everything from standard laser printer paper to transparencies, you really can't go wrong with the Lexmark Z52. It's almost a steal at $179, except for the clams.

You see, when you start printing at 1200 dpi, the Z52 is laying a lot of ink on the paper. And for one reason or another, that ink smells a lot like clams. I left my office while it was printing, and when I returned I thought I'd stepped into a seafood buffet. The smell eventually dissipates, of course, but be careful not to do any printing before a date...or before attending a new school.

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