While all printer manufacturers are busy reasoning of ways to rationalize the estimate of print engines they have in their machines, Lexmark went beyond most by production use of the exact same engine in all seven of its new Home and professional series all-in-ones.
The only thing that seperates the different models now is the set of features of each engine and this is where Lexmark needs to play it sensibly. The Platinum Pro905 stands out as the top-end and is placed above the prestige Pro805, but does the extra £100 give you value for money?
Printer Inkjet
2 things distinguish the 2 models is the fax facilities as well as an additional paper tray. The printer is very like the prestige Pro and same as with that engine it is also equipped with a 50-sheet self-acting Document Feeder (Adf) over the scanner. The Platinum Pro is capable of producing double-sided copies, however, only by scanning to the machine's memory and feeding the originals straight through twice, this is exactly because of the single-sided scanner head and the absence of a duplexer.
Speed test results were interesting. The five-page text print from the Platinum Pro returned a speed of 4.05ppm which improved to 6.38ppm on a 20-page test. The five-page text and graphics page printed at 2.94ppm.
Considering that they each make use of the exact same print engine, you'd probably imagine that test results using this device is going to be practically similar to those from the various other units within the Home and Pro series. In fact, while there's just a small incompatibility in the middle of the platinum pro and the prevail pro, a estimate are important.
For example, this engine was visibly quicker when printing on duplex, having the 20-side, 10-page document printed in 5 minutes and 12 seconds, which took 5 minutes and 32 seconds on the Prevail Pro. However, it took 47s for this engine to spit out a singular page, coloured copy from the flatbed, while it only took 32s on the cheaper model. A five page black and white copy from the self-acting Data Feeder likewise done in the Prevail Pro's favour, getting 1:17, whilst it required 10s longer on the Platinum Pro.
As far as print capability goes, the new Vizix engine offers improvements on both plain and photo paper, compared with the previous generation of Lexmark inkjets. Black text was clear and easy to read although there was a small estimate of feathering towards the edge of the page.
The colours for business graphics were fascinating and undeterred, and is practically identical to the originals. We were surprised with the results of the photo prints as it was much closer to the top Canon, Epson and Hp can offer, in which they used to trail by a large margin. In general, the print capability is above satisfactory.
As a member of the professional range of all-in-ones, the Platinum Pro905 ink cartridges add the 105Xl black cartridge. It is, to any intents and purposes, exactly like the 100Xl cartridge, any way is available for under £4.
The black cost in singular is very good for an inkjet and is down to the cost of some laser printers within the £300-£400 area. The 105Xl cartridge is designed to not operate in the Home series of all-in-ones, so the reduced costs are merely available to those buying the more high-priced professional printers.
Whichever way you look at it, £370 is a lot to pay for an inkjet all-in-one. Even though the Platinum Pro905 is well a capable unit, that has useful bonuses like duplex print as well as copy, Wi-Fi connection, dual trays, fax and a touchscreen user interface, you can get something like the Canon Pixma Mx860 with all these features bar the touchscreen, for nearby half the price. In the event that print and copy are your main requirements, you can select from the much cheaper lexmark all-in-ones with practically the same print capability and speed.
Lexmark Platinum Pro905 Ink narrate