3M X75 LCD Projector

We bought this printer when my family's other one broke. We did not go shopping intending to buy an all in one machine. We purchased it because it prints, scans, and copies, and was as affordable as some of the other ones that just print. There were also printers that could fax as well, but this is not something we would have used too often, so we stuck with this machine. Additionally, Lexmark is a name we trust.

So far, so good with our machine. Basic printing works well. It prints both text and pictures well and sharply. I like the little voice that tells you when printing starts, or if there is a problem. Also, when you start to print a little gauge shows up telling you how much ink is left in your cartridges, both color and black and white. This is handy, because you can easily be prepared with more. The voice is also much better than just reading error messages. Finally, printing time is pretty fast. A test page takes maybe 3-5 seconds.

Printing is not perfect, however. As usual, cartridges are expensive. Occasionally there is a problem with lining the text up on the page. I used to have problems with paper jams, so I stopped loading so much paper in at once, and that helped immensely.

Some other neat features are being able to choose how much quality you print with (so you don't waste as much ink printing out some jokes for your spouse to read as you do printing out your new resume). Also, you can choose to print pages in reverse order so you can staple multiple pages right from the printer, without needing to switch the order.

Scanning works well as well. I like being able to scan pictures I take to send to friends with e-mail. I problem I have with this is that if I am scanning a snap shot, the extra space around it is filled with white space. A photo editing program can be used to chop this off, however. Another difficulty with scanning is keeping the document or picture straight and level. It may show up crooked, but it is easy to get a second chance. Scanning a picture is accomplished in a fairly decent time frame, around 15 seconds. I like that this is a flat bed scanner, rather than the kind where you feed what you want to scan through an area that looks like where things are printed.

Copying is the most disappointing function. It is a real challenge to line it up correctly. Parts get cut off. To get a perfect copy, I often need to try 5 or 6 times. It is also a lot slower than I expected it to be.

The machine does take up a decent amount of space on your desk, but all in all, I feel it was a good purchase. It is fun to see just how much you can do with all those things you can now scan. When purchasing a new printer I would recommend considering an all in one machine, and this is a good one to look into.