Lexmark X7675 review

The Lexmark X7675 printer gives office workers and home users an easy-to-use tool for printing media, faxing documents, and scanning text and photos. It's available for around £120.

Cuts a dash
The X7675 has an attractive black finish, with silver side panels and clean, rounded edges. It looks fairly original, compared to some of its stablemates, which look too much like made-for-Mac clones. The printer measures 483 by 203 by 356mm and weighs only 8.6kg, making it easy to unplug and transport around the home or office. The front of the printer is pretty basic, except for a media card reader on the right side that supports PictBridge USB, SD, Memory Stick, xD-Picture Card, MultiMediaCard, and CompactFlash cards. A central control panel folds on a hinge for adjustable viewing angles.

The buttons on the control panel access the most common device settings, and include keys for your on-screen address book; copy, scan, fax and photo shortcuts; toggles for one- and two-sided or black and white prints; a cancel button; and a button that takes you to more specific device settings. The toggle keys save time, but we're disappointed that the panel is missing one-touch autodial buttons. 

The X7675 boasts a pleasing design and excellent output quality

The paper input tray sits on top of the printer and can hold up to 100 sheets of paper using the industry-standard adjustable arm that stretches horizontally to fit paper sizes of up to 8.5 inches by 17 inches. There's no advanced paper-handling technology, however, and the tray that's supposed to catch prints on the way out is too short -- even with the extra plastic foot extended, the printer sent paper flying off our desk. The X7675 also features an auto-document feeder that can hold up to 25 pages for copies, faxes or scans.

Lexmark lets you connect the X7675 to your computer directly via USB or using the built in 802.11b/g wireless print server. Either way, set-up is a breeze thanks to Lexmark's on-screen guide. We successfully connected the X7675 to our router and printed a page after only 5 minutes. An indicator on the front of the printer alerts you to the status of your connection, displaying green for 'connected', yellow for 'on but not connected' and red for 'off'. You can print, fax, scan and copy over the network through your computer or directly on the machine. The X7675 can also scan files to a PDF file, an email message or to a USB key through the front-loading PictBridge port.

You can access most of the instructions, warranty information and promotional offers on the CD included in the box. Along with the drivers that support Windows XP, Vista and Mac OS X, the CD also automatically installs several Lexmark productivity programs onto your computer. The Lexmark Toolbar gives you a shortcut bar on top of your Web browser for easy-access printing. Lexmark's Productivity Studio and Imaging Studio programs provide an easy way to auto edit or crop your photos, and the Lexmark Service Center acts as a troubleshooting aide should you encounter a snag in the printing process.

We like the on-screen progress bar that automatically pops up when you print. It shows you the progress of your job in an easy-to-read percentage bar (the LCD on the control panel also shows the progress) and conveniently displays a graphical representation of your ink depletion.

Prints charming
The X7675's output speed is inconsistent across different types of media. Compared with other multi-function printers in the same price bracket, the X7675 registers relatively quick colour text marks, at 6.97 pages per minute, but it falls far behind the rest in photo print, colour presentation document, and colour scan times.