3M X75 LCD Projector
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- Weight: 8.8 lb.
- Contrast Ratio: 400:1
- HDTV Formats: 480i 720p 1080i 480p 525i 525p
- Type: LCD Projectors
- Form Factor: Portable
- Image Brightness: 3500 ANSI lumens
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User ReviewRead All Reviews »
Overrated Machine Stumbles With Basics
Pros
Compact, elegant design; easy to setup and operate; good print quality
Cons
Paper jam-ups and misalignments; can't print nonstandard(custom) sheet sizes; documents tobe scanned mustbe superflat onglasstop
Recommended it?
Yes
The Bottom Line:
Not for scanning pages of books nor for printing on custom sized sheets of paper. It's a neat machine for the occasional user with little space, and little money.
Tested on a 1.3 GHz Athlon 4 with 256 MB and WinXPH.
SCANNING
--------
Henceforth, wherever I refer to b/w or black-scan, I am not referring to the gray "magazine/newspaper" setting but the "black text" setting.
Do not black-scan thick *bound* documents with the X75. But although you can get good quality 300 dpi black scanning of *individual* document sheets (because they can lay very flat on the glass), you will still end up with much larger file sizes than can be obtained via a gray-scan at 300 dpi!! This is not to say that the X75's gray-scanning is superb, but that its b/w scanning performance is poor.
Unless a document is absolutely flat against the glass top of the X75, you will get illegible b/w scans unless you use a slow, high-resolution setting that creates a ponderous file size.
Essentially, the X75's b/w scan setting functions so poorly with bound documents that it provides no advantages and should not be used under that circumstance. Very disappointing that such a basic and otherwise frequently used low performance setting should be so unacceptable as to be avoided with the X75. With all the advancements in scanner technology over the past several years it's shocking to discover such retrograde b/w performance for a current model scanner. Somehow the Lexmark engineers forged ahead with resolution and color while ignoring the most important function of a cheap scanner: b/w text scanning. Keep in mind that this is a *cheap, flat bed* design machine; therefore chosen by consumers for the capability to copy the pages of bound documents such as books, magazines and product manuals (presumably text only). Inexplicable.
SCANNING SOFTWARE
-----------------
An annoying thing about the Lexmark X75 scanning/copying software is that its window cannot be maximized to the full size of the monitor. The window remains stuck at an intermediate size because the icon in the upper RH corner of the window (for maximize) stays grayed out and unavailable to click. This makes it slower and less accurate to manually crop the previewed image, because you must work with a small image size. The Lexmark Photo Viewer software does not have this window maximization problem.
SCANNING SPEED
--------------
Slo-o-o-ow. A 7 1/2" x 9 3/4" 300 bpi gray-scale image took 14 seconds to preview and then after I manually cropped the previewed image it took an aditional 16 seconds for scanning. Then, another delay occurs after scanning is complete; for the automatic opening of the Lexmark Photo Viewer software that displays the image. On my new computer a 300 bpi grayscale image it took about 17 seconds to appear *after* scanning was complete. This file was saved as "low quality", resulting in size 249 KB.
A 300 bpi color image of the same subject as the aforementioned gray scale one took 14 seconds for preview, followed by 36 seconds for scan, and then 40 seconds for the Lexmark Photo Viewer window to appear with it showing. This file was also saved as low quality and was of size 373 KB.
PRINTING
--------
Sharp print quality, but not very fast.
There must be a problem with Lexmark's driver version 4.0.950 (Nov. 2002) because when I attempted to print 2 custom size documents via Microsoft Word '97 (3 3/4" x 6 3/4" and 6" x 9"), the printing was offset 1 1/4" to the right of either of the custom paper sheet sizes. I tried repeatedly to get them printed correctly, but to no avail.
The X75's paper width adjustment guide is *terrible*. Not only is it sticky, but its positioning is not very accurate; hard to get the exact location that you want for it. Also, this adjustable guide, which is on the left side of the printer, is vertically misaligned with the fixed right-side guide, which is molded into the upright paper backrest. The result of this poor design is that the sheet can become rotated if the adjustable guide is moved up against the sheet edge.
Moreover, the machine's built-in paper alignment capability is almost nonexistant. It seems like the paper always feeds crooked no matter how carefully the movable guide is adjusted.
There is another shortcoming of this printer's paper feed performance. It cannot feed thin sheets of paper such as those of note pads. I tried and failed a dozen times to print onto a thin 6" x 9" sheet of paper from an Office Select? Writing Tablet pad (available at K-Mart). Conversely, I have no such problem with my Epson Stylus Color 850 printer, which is a 4-year-old model. Thus, you will not be able to print nice neat little invoices unless you can find relatively expensive small-sheet paper that is as heavy as letter sized sheets. Oh well. I guess that's just another reason why the X75 is really a home machine; not a business machine.
USB CABLE
---------
Costco was the only store that had the X75 packaged with a USB cable inside the box. Furthermore it was priced US$10 less there than at 3 other stores where I found it for sale.
CONCLUSION
-----------
I give this machine an average rating instead of a below average rating only because of its low price and neat, space saving design.
OTHER USER REVIEWS
------------------
Numerous overrated reviews of this machine by users at
http://bizrate.com/
More overrated user reviews of this machine by users at
http://www.amazon.com/
PROFESSIONAL REVIEWS
---------------------
Sally Wiener Grotta reviewed this machine at
http://www.pcmag.com/
Eric Grevstad reviewed this machine at
http://www.hardwarecentral.com/
Nigel Donnelly reviewed this machine at
http://www.vnunet.com/
SCANNING
--------
Henceforth, wherever I refer to b/w or black-scan, I am not referring to the gray "magazine/newspaper" setting but the "black text" setting.
Do not black-scan thick *bound* documents with the X75. But although you can get good quality 300 dpi black scanning of *individual* document sheets (because they can lay very flat on the glass), you will still end up with much larger file sizes than can be obtained via a gray-scan at 300 dpi!! This is not to say that the X75's gray-scanning is superb, but that its b/w scanning performance is poor.
Unless a document is absolutely flat against the glass top of the X75, you will get illegible b/w scans unless you use a slow, high-resolution setting that creates a ponderous file size.
Essentially, the X75's b/w scan setting functions so poorly with bound documents that it provides no advantages and should not be used under that circumstance. Very disappointing that such a basic and otherwise frequently used low performance setting should be so unacceptable as to be avoided with the X75. With all the advancements in scanner technology over the past several years it's shocking to discover such retrograde b/w performance for a current model scanner. Somehow the Lexmark engineers forged ahead with resolution and color while ignoring the most important function of a cheap scanner: b/w text scanning. Keep in mind that this is a *cheap, flat bed* design machine; therefore chosen by consumers for the capability to copy the pages of bound documents such as books, magazines and product manuals (presumably text only). Inexplicable.
SCANNING SOFTWARE
-----------------
An annoying thing about the Lexmark X75 scanning/copying software is that its window cannot be maximized to the full size of the monitor. The window remains stuck at an intermediate size because the icon in the upper RH corner of the window (for maximize) stays grayed out and unavailable to click. This makes it slower and less accurate to manually crop the previewed image, because you must work with a small image size. The Lexmark Photo Viewer software does not have this window maximization problem.
SCANNING SPEED
--------------
Slo-o-o-ow. A 7 1/2" x 9 3/4" 300 bpi gray-scale image took 14 seconds to preview and then after I manually cropped the previewed image it took an aditional 16 seconds for scanning. Then, another delay occurs after scanning is complete; for the automatic opening of the Lexmark Photo Viewer software that displays the image. On my new computer a 300 bpi grayscale image it took about 17 seconds to appear *after* scanning was complete. This file was saved as "low quality", resulting in size 249 KB.
A 300 bpi color image of the same subject as the aforementioned gray scale one took 14 seconds for preview, followed by 36 seconds for scan, and then 40 seconds for the Lexmark Photo Viewer window to appear with it showing. This file was also saved as low quality and was of size 373 KB.
PRINTING
--------
Sharp print quality, but not very fast.
There must be a problem with Lexmark's driver version 4.0.950 (Nov. 2002) because when I attempted to print 2 custom size documents via Microsoft Word '97 (3 3/4" x 6 3/4" and 6" x 9"), the printing was offset 1 1/4" to the right of either of the custom paper sheet sizes. I tried repeatedly to get them printed correctly, but to no avail.
The X75's paper width adjustment guide is *terrible*. Not only is it sticky, but its positioning is not very accurate; hard to get the exact location that you want for it. Also, this adjustable guide, which is on the left side of the printer, is vertically misaligned with the fixed right-side guide, which is molded into the upright paper backrest. The result of this poor design is that the sheet can become rotated if the adjustable guide is moved up against the sheet edge.
Moreover, the machine's built-in paper alignment capability is almost nonexistant. It seems like the paper always feeds crooked no matter how carefully the movable guide is adjusted.
There is another shortcoming of this printer's paper feed performance. It cannot feed thin sheets of paper such as those of note pads. I tried and failed a dozen times to print onto a thin 6" x 9" sheet of paper from an Office Select? Writing Tablet pad (available at K-Mart). Conversely, I have no such problem with my Epson Stylus Color 850 printer, which is a 4-year-old model. Thus, you will not be able to print nice neat little invoices unless you can find relatively expensive small-sheet paper that is as heavy as letter sized sheets. Oh well. I guess that's just another reason why the X75 is really a home machine; not a business machine.
USB CABLE
---------
Costco was the only store that had the X75 packaged with a USB cable inside the box. Furthermore it was priced US$10 less there than at 3 other stores where I found it for sale.
CONCLUSION
-----------
I give this machine an average rating instead of a below average rating only because of its low price and neat, space saving design.
OTHER USER REVIEWS
------------------
Numerous overrated reviews of this machine by users at
http://bizrate.com/
More overrated user reviews of this machine by users at
http://www.amazon.com/
PROFESSIONAL REVIEWS
---------------------
Sally Wiener Grotta reviewed this machine at
http://www.pcmag.com/
Eric Grevstad reviewed this machine at
http://www.hardwarecentral.com/
Nigel Donnelly reviewed this machine at
http://www.vnunet.com/
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