Lexmark X502n colour laser multifunction review

Lexmark X502n Review

Reviewed by: Felisa Yang

Reviewed on: 9 July 2007

For direct-attached scanning, you must initiate the task from your PC, either using Lexmark's Presto PageMagic software, which offers a wide range of options or WIA- or TWAIN-compliant software, such as Adobe Photoshop. Using Presto PageMagic, you can scan files and open them in a variety of programs, including Adobe Acrobat, Word, Excel and Outlook, among others. If you want to be able to edit the document, you can avail yourself of the optical character recognition component. And you can save files in a wide variety of formats, including TIFF, JPEG and PDF.

The fax machine lets you save up to 20 Quick Dial (or one-touch) numbers and an additional 50 speed-dial numbers. Unfortunately, there's no group dial option, though you can send fax blasts to up to 100 numbers (you have to manually dial each number or choose a quick-dial or speed-dial entry). A group dial option is often important to work groups, so it's a puzzling limitation. The X502n also lacks a secure-receive mode and junk-fax blocker. The Xerox Phaser 6115MFP/N and the Samsung CLX-3160FN both offer a better set of fax features.

Performance
The Lexmark X502n basically kicked the competition's butts in CNET Labs' speed tests, including models that cost more. It cranked out black text at a rate of 19.71ppm (pages per minute), which was 5ppm faster than the Xerox Phaser 6115MFP/N. The X502n produced black graphics pages at a rate of 13.95ppm, a little slower than the Xerox, but still much faster than either the HP Color LaserJet CM1017 or the Samsung CLX-3160FN.

With colour printing, it was still the fastest of the pack, though not by such a wide margin: it produced colour text at a rate of 6.97ppm and colour graphics at a rate of 6.82ppm.

At scanning, the Lexmark X502n was again the fastest of the four by a good lead. It scored 6.30ppm for greyscale and 6.23ppm for colour. Finally, for copying using the automatic document feeder, it was a speed demon: 14.65ppm. This machine is a workhorse!

CNET Labs' colour multifunction laser speed tests (pages per minute)
(Longer bars indicate better performance)

Copy

Colour graphics

Colour text

Black graphics

Black text

Lexmark X502n

14.65

6.82

6.97

13.95

19.71

Xerox Phaser 6115MFP/N

3.36

4.5

4.94

14.87

14.76

Samsung CLX-3160FN

11.37

3.74

3.95

3.76

13.53

HP Color Laserjet CM1017 MFP*
N/A

6.16

5.91

6.31

6.81

CNET Labs' colour multifunction laser speed tests (pages per minute)
(Longer bars indicate better performance)

Colour scan

Greyscale scan

Lexmark X502n

6.23

6.3

Xerox Phaser 6115MFP/N

2.57

2.63

Samsung CLX-3160FN

4.31

4.44

HP Color Laserjet CM1017 MFP

2.61

3.39