Reviewed by: Denny Atkin
Review Date: June 2007
The Lexmark Z1420 is one of the least-expensive printers we've seen with built-in wireless networking, and it offers performance and print quality on a level with wired printers that cost the same amount.
The included drivers for both Windows and Mac make the setup routine novice-friendly. As you install the driver, the installation wizard walks you through assembling and connecting the printer; it will also guide you through configuring Wi-Fi if you plan to use the feature. And Lexmark's printing utility is excellent, with a wizard-driven menu that will automatically adjust quality and paper-size settings for operations like printing an envelope.
A light on the front of the printer verifies your Wi-Fi connection. The Z1420 supports Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP), Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA), and WPA2 wireless encryption. Ironically for a wireless printer, the Z1420 is one of the few printers to actually include a USB cable in the box.
The printer has a boxy, off-white design that looks reasonably stylish on your desk. It's also very light—so much so that it feels flimsy. Lexmark says its Accu-feed technology virtually eliminates paper jams. In practice, it worked well; in our tests, we never had any sheets misfeed, even when we intentionally misaligned some when loading paper.
Print quality was generally excellent on a variety of paper types. Both color and monochrome text was crisp and highly readable, even at tiny point sizes. Color photos looked great on glossy photo paper; we noted no visible dithering, and colors, including skin tones, looked natural despite the printer using just four ink colors. (Lexmark offers an optional photo cartridge, which replaces the black cartridge, if you want to further improve the quality of photo prints.) When printing in standard mode on plain paper, photos didn't hold up as well, with visible dithering evident in lighter areas.
Text print speed isn't bad for an entry-level printer, though color photo prints are slow. Lexmark claims speeds up to 24 pages per minute (ppm) in monochrome and 18ppm for color, but those are best-case scenarios in draft mode. In normal mode, a 10-page, single-spaced monochrome document took 1 minute and 17 seconds to print. A more elaborate three-page printout, which included color text and a half-page photo, took 1 minute and 22 seconds. A full-page, 8.5x11 photo took 6 minutes and 10 seconds at best quality; a 4x6 photo took 1 minute and 48 seconds. We saw little difference in printer speed whether using the USB or 802.11g Wi-Fi interface.
For this printer, Lexmark offers standard ink cartridges, as well as slightly costlier high-yield ones. The company rates its $29.99 high-yield color ink cartridge for 500 pages (a reasonable 6 cents per page); you'll obviously get nowhere near that many pages if you often print full-page photos. The $24.99 high-yield black cartridge is rated at 500 sheets (5 cents per page). The standard cartridges cost nearly as much, yet Lexmark rates them for just 185 to 215 pages. Clearly, the high-yield cartridges are the smart-money choice.
With the Lexmark Z1420, you don't have to sacrifice quality to get the flexibility of wireless printing at a low price. Just be sure to opt for its high-yield ink cartridges, or you'll pay a lot extra for ink over time.
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