Product Reviews

Lexmark has always had a very strong presence in the departmental mono laser and the desktop inkjet arenas. The company's latest OptraColor range promises to combine the strengths of the company's two flagship ranges and heralds Lexmark's first move into network colour inkjets.

The OptraColor 45n is the top-of-the-range model and aims to be the complete all-round office performer. It offers true 600dpi resolution, interpolated 1,200dpi, A3 paper handling and has a MarkNet print server adaptor for full network connectivity.

The Lexmark designers certainly seem to know their stuff. The OptraColor 45n stands out from the crowd with its sleek lines and gently curved front panel. The clever design extends to the control panel and LCD display to its right. These offer an easy-to-navigate menu system which you can understand without a degree in rocket science. Standard paper capacity, provided by the solid front-mounted tray, is 150 sheets and it can handle up to A3 oversize paper. This can be boosted by a further 100 sheets with a second optional tray (£60) that slots in at the rear.

Under the hood, the 45n is driven by a 33MHz Intel 80960 processor, and a controller board with a base 8Mb of memory on board. This is increased to a healthy 24Mb on the 45n, with an extra 16Mb module fitted underneath a small panel below the paper tray. However, if you plan to expand further you'll need to lose the 16Mb module, as it's fitted in the only slot. You'd be well advised to shop around for memory, as Lexmark charges an amazing £510 for 32Mb.

Running costs for the 45n are acceptable but nothing ground-breaking. Although a mono page, at 2.1p, will cost more to print than on most mono laser printers, colour printing is a very reasonable 7.6p per page (five per cent coverage per colour per page). This is cheaper than QMS' colour laser MagiColor 2 EX (reviewed issue 41, p163) can manage. Lexmark also offers a special three-colour cartridge, which replaces the black cartridge, for photographic prints.

I was surprised that Lexmark has neglected to develop a specific PCL driver for the 45n. The company takes the position that most users will prefer to use the enhanced features that the included PostScript driver offers, and only provides PCL support for legacy applications. If you do

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need PCL, you'll have to download and install the driver for the Optra SC 1275 instead.

Print speeds depend on the selected resolution, but even when using the QuickPrint mode, the 45n failed to get close to Lexmark's quoted figures. At 300dpi, an A4 page Word document of 24 pages, composed of basic text and a single font, took nearly six minutes at a disappointing 4ppm print speed. At 600dpi, the time increased to ten minutes for just 2.4ppm. An eight-page report with embedded graphics, various fonts and a dash of colour fared little better, with the printer delivering it at a mere 2ppm in QuickPrint mode and 1ppm at 600dpi. Photographic images take even longer to output: a full-page A4 print at the 1,200dpi interpolated resolution took eight minutes and 30 seconds to complete in the top resolution. Dropping down to 600dpi made a vast improvement, as the test took only two minutes and 35 seconds to complete. Clearly, usage will have to be restricted in busy departments to avoid large print queues building up.

The story doesn't improve with print quality, either. When printing on basic photocopy-grade paper, the text was sharp with none of the feathering that so often afflicts inkjets. However, colour printing was a different story. Using inkjet paper, the PC Pro colour performance test was produced in vivid, eye-catching colours, with minimal stepping across different shades. Unfortunately, excessive banding across darker areas marred the results, while detail was poor, even at the top resolution. It lacked the clarity and sharpness that the Epson Stylus 850 (reviewed issue 47, p123), for example, can produce.

On a brighter note, Lexmark's MarkVision software ensures that network installation is easy. The printer can be managed over IPX or TCP/IP protocols or, for local connections, via the parallel port. An internal HTTP server lets you access and modify configuration details using any Web browser, as is usual with Lexmark's workgroup printers. Support for NetWare networks is also comprehensive - MarkVision supports both NDS (Novell Directory Services) and bindery modes, allowing you to create new printer queues as well as assign operators and users to them. In fact, you can avoid going anywhere near Novell's NWADMIN95 or PCONSOLE for all printer management operations.

One of the strongest arguments in favour of the OptraColor 45n is its low price and the limited competition in this market. Take, for example, Epson's Stylus Color Pro 5000. You get A3-size colour printing but it has a street price of around £1,600 and you still have to add PostScript 2 support and a network card to get it to the same level of specification.

Overall, the OptraColor 45n certainly provides features that a busy department will appreciate at a reasonable price. It's just a shame that output quality is average and the print speeds are so short of the quoted figures.