This line of printers presents six of the 12 that integrate 802.11g Wi-Fi capabilities with an additional two models offering an upgrade for around £30 - depending on the reseller. Each printer in the line supports Windows Vista also offering a wireless setup software wizard that first requires cable connection through USB to set up wireless capabilities. Once set up, these printers support Wi-Fi security schemes such as WEP, WPA and A=WPA2.
Model Highlights
One thing consumers need to note when viewing model specs is that all print speeds are based on draft mode excluding first page feed time.
X4550 Wireless All-in-One is priced under £90, far below the £160+ price tag tacked on the X9350 Wireless All-on-One, a machine that provides heavy-duty office-duty based features like two-sided printing plus fax capabilities. The 4550 does include Wi-Fi possessing a variety of photo-friendly features that include media card slots with the capability to print directly from digital memory cards and PictBridge-compatible cameras as well as USB thumb drives. This model also can use an optional printing cartridge allowing six-colour printing. It has a page output rating of 26 pages per minute (ppm) for black only and 18 ppm for colour printing.
X3550 All-in-One is much like the 4550, priced lower at around £60, yet includes media card slots, a 48-bit colour flatbed scanner and copier as well as providing PictBridge support. This model comes with an optical character recognition program allowing for scanning text into editable documents. However, you need to up the price to obtain Wi-Fi capabilities. Printing speed is rated slightly slower than the 4550 at 24 ppm for black and 17 ppm for colour.
X2550 All-in-One is Lexmark's entry level multi-function model is well under £100. Although it lacks the number of media card slots offered in other models, it provides speedy printing at affordable pricing with 22 ppm for black and 16 ppm for colour.
Inexpensive Wi-Fi
Lexmark also offers to consumers not seeking all the broad and varied features of a multi-function printer an affordable Wi-Fi printer in its budget-minded model Z1420. The additional cost for built-in Wi-Fi as a standard model feature makes this printer the least expensive in the market. Additionally, options include six-colour printing along with resident technology helping prevent paper jamming and automatic cartridge alignment. It is a speedy printer for the money invested at 24 ppm for black and 18 ppm for colour.
Your choice of Lexmark printer basically cones down to a preference of features. If you are fairly budget minded, you cannot go wrong with the 2550, even if it is a few years old now. Yet, even further up in the range you find a great bargain selecting a Lexmark model providing a great variety of features making your printing tasks easy to complete. Multifunctional model possessing Wi-Fi capabilities allow you greater mobility throughout your environment making printing tasks as easy as pressing a button.
