Lexmark Color Jetprinter 7200

Speed will vary according to the performance of your PC, but our tests showed pretty clearly that the 7200 is no speed demon. In high-quality mode, tested on a 266MHz Pentium II Windows 95 system, a simple five-page text document took two minutes, 55 seconds from clicking 'OK' until the last page dropped into the output tray. Even in draft mode, we found difficulty in getting up to the claimed eight pages per minute. And a full A4 photo on glossy paper will take 14 minutes on average. Compared with the HP 890C, it's pedestrian.

Despite the fact that the 7200 is no more than a rebadged 7000, it's still an excellent printer with much to recommend it. The small changes and additions that have been made only serve to improve things further, and when placed alongside the competition there's little to choose from in terms of output quality. What really swings it is the price: at just £237, the 7200 still represents the very best value for money.

Author: Jonathan Bray