Reason for New Printer
In December of 2006, I had used the old printer for the last 2 1/2 years. So it was getting a little long in the tooth. Plus With Vista coming out soon, I knew this printer would probably not be supported. So I started going to printer manufacturer sites looking for Vista compatible Printers and All-In One's. I made a list of those that had or would have Vista drivers.
Now I counted HP out-they usually do not make drivers for many of their older printers- Brothers I've had too many problems with them, so the list contained both Cannon-Lexmark and Xerox.
When payday came I went to WalMart and started looking. I found the Lexmark X1270 All-in One at a price that was amazing-$30. Only caveat on this was price of the ink cartridges. The standard volume inks were priced at about $40 for both. The high volume ones were almost twice the price of the AIO printer. The low volume inks last me about a month and the high volume- I'm still using 2 1/2 months later. I can re-fill the black ones but not tried the color ones yet.
Specifacations from Lexmark website
Print Technology Thermal Inkjet
Color Technology 4 Color Inkjet - Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black
UNSPSC Code 43.21.21.10
Scan Technology CIS with 48 bit depth
Function Color Printing
Color Scanning
Color Copying with PC
Maximum Print Speed (Draft, Black): Up to 17 ppm(ppm=pages per minute)
Maximum Print Speed (Draft, Color): Up to 9 ppm
Maximum Print Speed (Normal, Black): Up to 10 ppm
Maximum Print Speed (Normal, Color): Up to 3 ppm
Maximum Copy Speed (Draft, Black): Up to 15 cpm
Maximum Copy Speed (Draft, Color): Up to 6 cpm
Print Resolution, Black Up to 2400 x 1200 dpi(dots per inch)
Print Resolution, Color Up to 4800 x 1200 dpi
Scan Resolution, Enhanced Up to 9600 dpi
Scan Resolution, Optical 600 x 1200 dpi
Operating Systems Supported
Microsoft Windows 2000
Microsoft Windows 98 SE ,Microsoft Windows Me(at the time I wrote this these OS's were supported but no longer)
Microsoft Windows XP
Microsoft Windows Vista 32/64 bit
Print (ASF) Paper Input Capacity (Maximum) 100 pages 20 lb or 75 gsm bond
Card Stock, Coated Paper, Envelopes, Labels, Plain Paper, Transparencies ,Banner (A4 or Letter), Hagaki Card, Index Card, (3"x5"),Iron-On Transfers ,Photo Paper
Unpacking and Installing
Unpacking from the 15 1/2" x 9 1/2" 19" well designed box. Looks like they wanted to be sure the AIO printer would get to the consumer in the same condition as it came off the assembly line. After removing all the packing material, I put the printer on top of a file cabinet I have in my computer room. Of course before I did that, I had plugged in the USB cable(by the way as usual not included but then I usually have several spares around) and the power supply. I also copied the S/N and put it on the manual that was included.
Now this manual is very complete and easy to follow for even the most non-tech person. There are illustrations that help identify various aspects of the printer/scanner. This also comes with a setup sheet that helps everyone connect and install the driver and software.
At the time that I was installing this, there were only drivers and software for Windows XP or lower. Since this had first come on the market in 2006 plus this was one of a series of products where the Lexmark website said that they said were going to have Vista compatible drivers and software.
I installed the printer on the Windows XP computer until such time as Vista drivers/software for both 32/64 bit were available. Which by the way were available about half way in to Febuary.
Using with Windows XP/Vista
Since the software interface looks and acts the same in both XP/Vista, anything done in one can be done in the other.
I used this AIO(All-in-One)on XP until Febraury when the software/drivers were finally available for Vista.
There are 5 buttons on the control panel of this AIO.
1 Power Button
2 Paper Feeder
3 Scan to Computer
4 Color Copy
5 B&W Copy
Now I use the printer mainly for printing off the internet-email or any information I find I want. I have printed acouple of photos to see how the prints look. Which by the way look just like Photos bought from a Photo finisher. By scanning old photos I have then burning them to a cd. I take this to WalMart where I have them printed out for less than I can on the printer.
Scanning
The default scanning resolution is set at 300 dpi which is good enough for viewing on the web. But if I want photo's that look good on paper- I set to 2400/4800 dpi. I can set it for 19200 dpi but then this file can be 100 gig just for one photo.
Which is not needed for a great photo. So I mainly use the scanner to put many of my old(60 years of photo's) on my computer.
OCR is included in the software(OCR converts a scanned in doc from a graphic to text), I have not used so can not say how effective it is.
Printing
As I said I use the printer mainly for web related articles-sometimes information for when a computer is not available. I also print many important emails for archival uses. So this AIO suites me.
Bottom Line
If you want to print a lot of photo's this is not the AIO to get. But for the limited uses I use, it is satisfactory.
About me
If you have read my reviews before, I mainly write about computer hardware and software. I have a AA Degree in Electronics.I have been into computers since early 1980's. Building my own PC's since about 1986, so far anywhere from 25 to 35 (I lost count). At this time there are 4 computers in this house all built by me. I have many times reviewed those builds here.
But the one review I'm proudest of is this one
How I built my AMDx64 computer
I spent 4 weeks writting this review and with the help of Gr8ful(Thanks Bill), this can help anyone who wants to try building one, be it a AMD or Intel computer. I can not guarentee you will be successful just how I build one.
My Reviews of Vista
What is in Ultimate for you? You decide.(Partition Magic not needed)
Is Vista better than XP?(Partition Magic not needed.)
I try to write for those that don't have the technical knowledge I have but I sometimes forget(will be 65 May 26th, 2007) so if at anytine in my reviews there is something more you want to know or explained, e-mail me and I'll answer both by email and my review.
dragon54@mchsi.com
