No photo printers in Lexmark 2002 range

25th March - 2002
By Ian Burley

Read the official press release – click here

Lexmark claims ink-jet resolution crown but appears to snub digital photographers. Company suggests within as little as four years one of the big four ink-jet printer players, Canon, HP, Epson and Lexmark, may have to drop out of the market. “It won’t be us” say Lexmark. Bullish prediction underlined by Lexmark claim to have been the only one of the four to make a profit in the last financial year.

Six new ink-jets but no photo models?

Today, Lexmark in Europe has launched six new colour ink-jet printers. Lexmark's new flagship model is the £179 inc.VAT Z65n colour Jetprinter (see left). With this model Lexmark introduces a 4800x1200 dots per inch (dpi) print head. That’s 5.7 million dots per square inch compared to Epson’s latest 1440x2880dpi technology at 4.1 million dots and Canon’s and HP’s1200x2400dpi that delivers 2.9 million dots per square inch. The ‘n’ designation indicates integrated networking to allow a printer to be shared on the network without having to be hosted by a workstation. A version of the Z65 without integrated networking is also available for £129 inc.VAT.

Auto head alignment

One of the new features introduced by Lexmark for the first time with the Z65 is PrecisonSense, which combines automatic head alignment, previously seen on some HP and Canon models and a media type sensor, which is featured on some HP printers.

Next in line is the £99 inc.VAT Z55 (right), which sports 3600x1200dpi print resolution. Although Lexmark hasn’t launched any photo-specific models, they have included a feature called PrecisionPhoto. Applying to both the Z65 and Z55, this categorises the new 4800 and 3600dpi print head technologies with variable droplet sizes down to 3 picolitres. The new print heads, that are based on faster firing CMOS technology, have alternate 7 and 3 picolitre ink nozzles. 640 nozzles are now featured instead of 208 before, which helps increase printing speeds.

To give Lexmark their due, our limited time with the printers back in mid February at the embargoed European launch, seemed to prove that Lexmark had achieved exceptional photo results for a three colour plus black ink system. Compared to anything comparable from Canon, Epson or HP, Lexmark’s Z65 and Z55 photo output is apparently superior, though not quite in the same league as Canon or Epson dedicated photo (5 colours plus black) printers.

Lower down the pecking order is the £79 inc.VAT Z45 (left), which has 2400x1200dpi capability, as does the slower £59 inc.VAT Z35 model. Finally, we have the ultra-cheap £49 inc.VAT Z25 that prints at 1200x1200.

More dots is favoured strategy

Lexmark’s strategy is to increase the dot resolution rather than go down the photo inks route. All its new printers use black plus three colour inks. Gone is the option in previous models, like the Z53 and Z43, of an optional photo ink cartridge.

None of Lexmark’s new ink-jets has a built in digital camera memory card reader. Lexmark’s senior technical manager, Jack Morris, insisted that photo printers being introduced by Canon, Epson and HP were niche products and if there was demand a card reader-equipped Lexmark could come to market within about four months.

Photo printing is ‘niche’

Meanwhile, Pat King, Lexmark’s vice president of worldwide product marketing, insisted that it was better sense to bundle a separate memory card reader in the box than to produce a specialised version of the printer. Admittedly, Lexmark was one of the first to introduce a printer with memory card reader in the form of the JetPrinter 5770 and this was not a successful product. Work on photo-tailored models produced for Kodak’s brand was similarly unrewarding.

No wide carriage models

Also missing from the new Lexmark line up is a wide-carriage model. Again the reasoning was that the market for wide carriage, eg. A3, printers was too small, especially in Europe.

Cherry picking

It seems that Lexmark is cherry-picking the market and attacking its targets ruthlessly. Lexmark’s printer pricing is certainly ruthless, but early signs are that Lexmark’s established policy of following up with comparatively expensive ink is to be maintained. The one concession to complaints about the affordability of Lexmark ink is the introduction of lower priced ink cartridges, but with lower ink contents.

Reader feedback

Is the job of a manufacturer like Lexmark to serve only the most attractive parts of the market and is Lexmark missing out by leaving the dedicated photo printer market to its rivals? Would you consider buying one of the new Lexmarks? Click here to let us know.

Lexmark Z35 and Z25 models look like this (left)