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(More customer reviews)The Lexmark Pinnacle Pro901 has gotten quite a bit of press given that it can use black ink cartridges that cost $5. Clearly, that distinction is unique among inkjet printers, most of which are sold at or near a loss so that the manufacturer can recoup expenses on the sale of (extremely) high-margin replacement cartridges. So, does that feature make this printer worth the purchase? Perhaps...but perhaps not. > Why?
Sure, the black cartridge retails for $5, but the three color cartridges will set you back more than $50. Thus, your savings (and cost per copy) will very much depend on your usage. If you are careful to print and copy in black and white, then this printer will likely prove to be quite inexpensive for you - approximately 1 cent per page given that the black cartridge is rated for 500 average pages of text. On the other hand, if you print a mix of materials, your cost per page could actually be more than competing inkjets. HP has a white paper on their website that claims that their cost per page is actually *lower* than Lexmark's for *color* content. Amazon is not a fan of links in reviews, but fire up Google and search for "HP Officejet / Officejet Pro vs. Lexmark Cost-Per-Page Comparison" if you are interested.
Oh well, no argument, $5 is a good deal for black and white output. So good, in fact, that the cashier at Office Depot did a double take when he rang up three of them for me, asking, "is this really the correct price?" Thus, if you limit your color printing/copying, the Pro901 (and related models, e.g., 905) really *can* represent quite a savings in comparison with competing models. If instead, you print significant amounts of color content, I would call it a wash. > So, how is it as a printer?
In a word, decent. Text is dark and clear, unlike many competing models. Photographs also seem fairly decent...especially on photo paper. My in-store tests showed that it fared very well in comparison to the lauded Epson Artisan 810 on plain paper. That said, most reviewers claim that the Artisan is superior on photo paper, which one would expect given that the Artisan uses a 6-color cartridge system. Regardless, photographs looked good enough to my eye...and the Pro901's text quality is far better than the Artisan's in my opinion. Obsessable[dot]com has a detailed review that focuses on print quality if that issue is your primary concern.
The printer also has a removable tray that holds either 150 sheets of paper (up to legal size) or photo paper...but not both simultaneously (as does the Epson Artisan line). You can add a second tray to the Pro901, thereby upgrading your 901 to a 905, but that option is fairly pricey (at the moment).
The output tray is really just an extendable plastic arm, but it is fairly rigid...and seems about ten times more rugged than the flip-out equivalent on the Artisan 810.> How about scanning and copying?
Scanning quality looks good. To scan, you can place the document directly on the glass or use the document feeder. Many have reported problems using the feeder, but it worked quite well for me. That said, the controls are where this unit really shines for scanning and copying...but more on that topic later.
> What about faxing?
Well, the fax uses the aforementioned printer and scanner for the fax operation, so the physical aspects of faxing are also decent, as one would infer from the discussion of those features. Once again, where faxing really shines, however, relates to the controls...which brings us to... > How are the controls?
Well, the controls on the device can be summed up in one word -- fantastic.
The device has a 4.3" full color touch screen that is really striking. Of course, a decent screen without a decent UI is a waste...and Lexmark did not waste the screen. The UI consists of beautifully rendered 3D controls that are laid out intuitively. The user interface strives to keep each screen simple and clear in purpose, yet also provides easy access to more advance features that are relevant to the current operation at a touch. In general, they allow quick access to all device features and do so in a manner that does not require a Computer Science degree to access all of the useful settings. The beauty and intuitiveness of the display and the controls must be seen and used to be appreciated fully, but perhaps it suffices to say that even the most non-technical user in my house is able to perform advanced operations with this device. I wasn't particularly looking for a touch screen, but there is no turning back after using this one.
With regards to specifics, the controls allow you to perform simple copying and faxing functions as you would expect, but also allow you to initiate document scans that are sent directly to any computer on your network (provided it has the driver software installed) or to a recipient via email. Specifying recipients for either the fax or email can be either by direct entry or by using the device's embedded address book. Of course, specifying other options during these operations (quality, size, color/b&w, ...) is also extremely straightforward.
The device also includes one other unique control feature - downloadable applications. While some of these downloadable applications are fairly limited in value (e.g., a calculator, RSS news feed display), others may be incredibly useful to users who have repeating scanning, copying, or faxing tasks.
Lexmark coined the term SmartSolutions for the downloadable applications. Several come preinstalled while others can be downloaded from the Lexmark website. The website uses a browser-based Java applet to review, configure, and install each application directly to your Pro901 from their website, eliminating the need for you to perform an additional installation after downloading.
So what do they do? Well, what do you want them to do? You can configure a SmartSolution for almost any type of repeating task - scanning, copying, faxing. Yes, this explanation is somewhat obtuse, so perhaps an example will help.
Assume that you must scan a timesheet each week and mail it to one individual (Fred) as a PDF...with a specific subject and message. You can certainly use the device's standard "scan" control to perform this task, but you would need to tap quite a few buttons to make it happen - first scan, then specify scan to email, then specify options (like document type, color/b&w, email address, etc.). Alternatively, for such a repeating task, you can pre-configure a SmartSolution task to perform all of these steps in one button push...and name it "Email timesheet to Fred". In the future, you could then drop your timesheet on the document feeder, click the Smart Solutions button, and then click the "Email timesheet to Fred" button.
You can do the same for scanning documents to your computer. Assume that you scan a credit card statement each month, place it in a PDF, name the PDF with the card/bank name and the date, and place the PDF in a specific credit card statement folder on one of the computers on your network. You guessed it - one button click....assuming that you configured a Smart Solution for this task.
There are many other Smart Solutions, including one to upload scanned files directly to Evernote and another to print your calendar directly from Google...and Lexmark has been creating new applications fairly regularly during the two months that I have owned the device. Thus, a description of them all is not practical, but suffice to say that there is probably at least one that you will find useful. Of course, you can also ignore them and life would be fine...and you would still have access to the full range of features on this device...albeit with a couple more button pushes.
The controls also extend to computers configured with the Lexmark driver software. Normally, I am not a fan of heavyweight printer software on my computers, but the installed Lexmark software does allow access to useful features on the device....which brings us to...> How easy is it to install and configure?
Not bad. The Pro901 supports direct connection to a PC (or Mac) via a USB cable or by using a network-based connection via wireless or Ethernet cable. I installed mine as a network-based printer by connecting it to my home's Gigabit Ethernet backbone (no slow wireless for me :), so plug-and-play detection was not an option. Instead, I installed the driver software on several PCs in my home using the included CD. The first installation included PC-based setup of the device as well, while the installer allowed me to bypass such configuration for subsequent PCs. All-in-all, quite painless...but also not plug-and-play. Of course, that's what you get with a network-based configuration.> So why not 5 stars?
Because the fax's caller ID is maddening. Seriously.
Even if you configure the fax to not auto-answer, the device's control screen will still display caller ID for each incoming call. Hey, that doesn't sound bad, does it? It is...because each time that the device needs to display this caller ID, it must wake from its sleep state, which also cycles the print head back and forth. Sure, not a problem if the device is awake, but it is an energy star device so it must sleep eventually. You can configure the time before the device sleeps, but regardless, sooner or later you will be sitting next to it when the phone rings and the device is asleep...and you will then need to answer the phone with the device noisily warming up in the background. Amusingly enough, the...Read more›
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Lexmark Pinnacle Pro901 All-in-One PrinterThe Lexmark Pinnacle Pro901 is a revolutionary All-in-One plus fax with the world's lowest black ink cost and intuitive 4.3-Inch touch screen technology. The Lexmark Pinnacle includes a 5 year guarantee, wireless N connectivity, automatic 2-sided printing, individual ink cartridges, and integrated business card scanning software - all features that will raise the bar on efficiency in ways no printer has done before. Let Lexmark help you get more done. The easy to use 4.3-Inch color LCD touch screen allows you to easily navigate with bright graphical icons and allows users to copy, scan,fax, and email in one easy touch. Enjoy the ability to download customizable apps to help save time and money. The Pinnacle Pro901 also offers the freedom to print from virtually anywhere within the building and the flexibility to print from multiple computers with Wifi-n and Ethernet compatibility. Included with the Pinnacle Pro901 are individual, high-yield XL ink cartridges with 3X the pages of standard cartridges. Individual XL inks increase your efficiency, save resources, and lower printing costs. The Pinnacle Pro901 ships with a special 105XL black ink cartridge, which provides one cent black and white prints, which is a lower cost per page than many laser products. You also have the benefit of Eco Mode, which offers automatic 2-sided printing and energy saving features. The 50 page automatic document feeder easily handles large printing, scanning, copying and faxing jobs. This robust All-in-One also ships with Business Card Scanning software which lets you scan up to eight cards at once. Using optical character recognition (OCR), the software parcels information such as first and last name, employer, address, email and phone and synchronizes it with many popular contact management solutions. All of this functionality is backed by an unmatched 5 year warranty and lifetime, priority phone support. Rest assured you are getting a printer you can rely on.
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