The Lexmark Impact S305 features a fairly simple design, with none of the extra paper trays or document feeders of the more costly models in the range, yet it still has several useful extras.
The paper feeds from a fold-up tray at the back with a tiny spring-loaded flap in the front that no one seems to be able to explain the reason for. We once thought that it was to avoid dust slipping to the feed slot, but even when the tray is fully loaded, there's still a big gap between the paper stack and this flap.
The Contact Image Sensor (CIS) scanner is straightforward and thin, so adds little to the overall height of the machine and runs its full width, so there is no extra room taken by a control panel. The control panel is placed at an angle projecting from the front of the machine, similar to all those new Lexmark all-in-ones. It features a simple, mono LCD display, though this is bitmapped, rather than being two lines of 16 characters, so can display limited graphical information.
Set into the front right-hand corner of the machine are two memory card slots, but there's additionally a PictBridge socket for direct camera connection, which can take USB drives.
Despite the quite low price, the Lexmark Impact S305 printer retains wireless connection and also a USB socket at the rear. Wireless set-up is pretty straightforward and the machine supports WEP, WPA and WPA2 security. It comes with a good bundle of support software, including a copy of Abbyy Finereader OCR.
