Lexmark X1270 Review
The most compelling feature of the Lexmark X1270 is its low price. At $50 it is, for the moment, the least-expensive all-in-one (AIO) you can find. The burning question is, exactly how much AIO does this buy? Unfortunately, not as much as you might like.
The X1270 is obviously aimed at the home user. Yet in addition to printing, scanning, and copying, the device offers two features that many home AIOs don't. It comes with fax software (though it doesn't have a built-in fax modem), allowing you to use your PC's fax modem (that is, if your PC has one). The X1270 also allows you to scan directly to email, adding a scanned image to your message as an attachment.
Setting up the X1270 is typical for an ink jet AIO, and pretty straightforward. Simply plug in the power cord, install the black and color ink cartridges, attach the USB cable, and run the setup wizard. In addition, you have to align the cartridges manually instead of relying on automated alignment. This lets Lexmark keep the cost down, but it's a bit of a chore.
To say that speed is not the X1270's strong point is an understatement. Timed at 58 minutes 11 seconds on our business applications suite (measured with QualityLogic's hardware and software, www.qualitylogic.com). That's almost twice as long as the 32:23 that the HP PSC 1410 All-In-One took. For photos, the X1270 averaged slightly over 10 minutes for each 4-by-6, compared with 2:41 for the PSC 1410. On the other hand, the X1270 is only about 60 percent the price of the PSC 1410, so we’re not surprised that it's significantly slower.
Output quality was a mixed bag, with text being readable but not pretty. We consider the X1270 fine for printing a short letter to a friend or a 250-word composition for school, but not good enough for anything more than that.
The X1270's saving grace, though, was its graphics and photo quality, which were both far better. We did see some banding in graphics in default mode, as well as a tendency for thin lines to turn ragged or disappear altogether. Even so, if you pick your settings carefully, the quality is sufficient for home printing tasks.
Photos, similarly, are good enough to pass for true photo quality at a quick glance or arm's length. But we wouldn't frame them in an effort to archive precious memories. Also, they aren't waterproof. Even after they've dried, the X1270 prints are at risk for smudges from damp hands. Still, they're good enough to hand out to friends as snapshots or to stick under a refrigerator magnet.
Though it's hard to pass up its rock-bottom price, you might want to consider the X1270 as a supplement to a printer you already have, or use it solely for its copier, scanner, e-mail, and fax features. It might also be a good unit for a child in grade school who needs to print out reports.
Source: abcnews.go.com
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