Product Reviews

Multifunction peripherals (MFPs) usually tend towards one of two types. Those aimed at photographers typically have memory card slots and a display screen that can be used for direct printing, while those designed for use in an office concentrate on copy and fax performance.

Lexmark's X8350 is an inkjet MFP that, though primarily aimed at office users, aims to please both camps. It has a 50-sheet Automatic Document Feeder (ADF), suitable for making multipage copies and faxes, and a colour screen. A range of memory card slots on the front panel allow it to make direct photo prints from common formats.

The X8350 is the model above Lexmark's X7170 MFP, reviewed in Labs, Shopper March 2006. The X7170 seemed flimsy in some respects, but the X8350 feels altogether better made. Although its scanner hinges won't let the lid close flat on over-size original documents,

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they feel tougher, and the lid itself isn't as easily flexed. It produced good-quality scans, though not especially quickly.

This MFP's ADF is easy to load with originals for fax or copying, but multipage copies are printed in the reverse page order. The X8350 took six minutes and 25 seconds to copy a 10-page document in black only, which isn't particularly fast, and the results were far too pale. Single-page copies were also slow at 38.5 seconds in mono and 55.5 seconds in colour, but they were more accurately exposed.

The X8350 uses the same family of ink cartridges as most of the current Lexmark inkjet range. The cartridges come with their own print heads, and we've criticised the print quality of several products that use them. However, although the X8350's plain paper prints aren't as good as those from competitors such as HP's OfficeJet 6210, plain paper print quality did seem improved over the X7170.

The X8350 was fairly quick across all our print tests. We ran our photographic tests using the default four-ink setup, although an optional six-ink photo cartridge is also available. With the standard setup, photos were grainy and a little soft, but colours were very realistic.

The X8350 is quite capable and easy to use. It produces acceptable results on plain paper and clear, accurate scans. However, it isn't a great photo printer, and the inclusion of memory slots and a high-quality colour screen make it far too expensive.