Great little printer.

I purchased this printer about a month or so ago. It arrived quickly and in very good shape. It has been working great! Doesn't hold as much paper as some of the other printers but prints on both sides. It is wireless and we haven't had any issues in that area. We really haven't had problems with it at all so far and would recommend it to others who are looking for an uncomplicated little printer that is color and wireless.More detail ...

Lexmark Color Laser with scanner/copier (X543DN)

The features included fast printing full color automatic double sided printing (w/o fax option). It will work as a network printer too. It was clearly designed to work with Windows but it is also sold as Mac OS compatible and the User Manual walks you though set-up steps with Windows or Mac OS at the same time. It is thorough. Thank goodness it's in HTML format too.



I'm a long time HP printer user (30+ years) and I wary of other brands. But I haven't had a good experience with HP over the years - they just don't keep their printers drivers up to date (at least not for Mac or Unix systems).



Mac users won't have any problems with this printer and the Mac installer is included. The printer driver did not include a double sided printing option. You have to be working from one of the Microsoft Office applications to notice a third line of options called "Copies & Pages" > "Printer Features". Opening up that list provides all the printer functions like printing form the options sheet feeder (envelope) and you can turn on double sided printing (from the"Layout: menu) if you look carefully enough. You can also choose binding on the long or short side too.



My first mistake was that I assumed the envelope in the single sheet option feeder would give it priority to the main paper bin (as it does on HP printers).



While I am impressed that this printer worked right out of the box (no set-up required). I followed the instructions to the letter installing the "software" before plugging in the printer. But it might as well be using the Generic Postscript driver - nothing special about the driver.



While unpacking it took me about 15 minutes to follow all the colored tape to pull about a dozen plastic shipping pins. Not real hard but I was still surprised at how many of those pins where installed. It is easy to snap off the plastic pins so use care when removing them.



I was not impressed with "pinch and lift" access to the toner drawer - it sticks. But I do like the small square toner cartridges which fit snugly in their respective slots. Each toner box is keyed so you can mix up the colors.



The print quality is excellent. Finally I'm printing off web pages that look just like they do on my monitor. No calibration needed. That's impressive. Color copies and photos look great as well. If you were used to printing color photos off in B&W on a monotone laser printer you'll find the color version more interesting.



The manual also neglects to point out the importance of using high quality polished paper for laser printers (probably because HP sells so much of it). Good paper is really important for sharpness and brightness. When you print to a bond or cotton stock paper it will look fuzzy because of the paper texture. The printer has an option for gloss but I haven't tested that with a photo.



It copies great speed is good once it warms up but warm-up can take 20-30 seconds. Once it's running it does good. I printed out a 40 page PowerPoint file that had heavy black frames. It often took 30-50 seconds to render a page but others came out steady. On a Mac the PDF rendering is done in software not through a chip in the printer. So some of the delay was no doubt on the computer end. However my Mac Pro has a lot of CPU power and RAM to match.



Scanner? - I haven't found any Lexmark installed Scanner applications but I was able to choose the scanner from the "Import" function in Adobe PhotoShop and Preview but not from iPhoto. It works but it's a bit awkward. HP's software takes you directly into a suite of applications that help you edit the picture and print to photo paper of any size and the have all kinds of printing options like masks.



I don't like the rather small vertical output tray in the back and because of that feature I did not order the extra paper bin. You can't expect to stack up much output before you will need to clear the tray. 40-50 pages max.



The sheet feeder worked perfectly. If you fax or copy multiple documents this is a powerful feature.



The control panel layout is well done. The set-up menus are a little awkward to use but fortunately you won't have to use the tiny character panel very often (2 rows of 16 characters). It reminds me of setting the clock on my VCR.



The confusion didn't begin until I wanted to order a new set of cartridges.



First they are hard to find in stores. I checked in every store that sold office supplies and Lexmark printers. But even ordering them on-line was difficult.



Here on Amazon they don't have the cartridge listed in their printer cross-reference tool. (great tool otherwise but apparently it's incomplete).



On Lexmark's web site it doesn't take long to find cartridges but then you start to think you are getting cross-eyed. They seem to have cartridges with different amounts of toner (ink) in them!? Oh no. Is this like the way HP was selling Photosmart inks cartridges that weren't full? I hope not. When I see a toner or ink cartridge I expect that it's a full one otherwise its impossible to compare prices!



So not only are the toners hard to find but you need to be very careful that you are comparing the toner capacities and price.



The "High Yield Toner" was pre-installed - they do not have a replacement part number on them!?



For example they list:



C540X1_G Toner for Extra High yield (C544 and X544 only) -$130

C540H1_G Toner for High yield (C540C543C544X543X544 printers) - $72

C540A1_G Toner (C540C543C544X543X544 printers) - $58

C540X2_G Toner for Extra High yield (C544 and X544 only)

C540H2_G Toner for High yield (C540C543C544X543X544 printers)





I bought these for regular Toner refills:

C540A1CG Cyan (Blue) - $58

C540A1MG Magenta (Red) - $58

C540A1YG Yellow - $58

C540A1KG Black (slightly bigger) - $78



(*These are NOT Amazon prices - they are current prices for comparison purposes only)



Bottom-line double check before you shop for replacement toner. This is a very confusing product in that respect. Lexmark pushes recycling and the boxes have labels to return the toners.



My over all impression is that I really love it. The copy functions are simple and familiar symbols or labels. Software (printer drivers) are easy to update - I hope they will!



This design is a little bit outdated but for the price it's a great way to get into an affordable color laser printer that is clean simple and intuitive. The only interactive display is a tiny 10 letter display (most new printers have an LCD). The user manual is in HTML format so find the menu map and print it out. You can get there through that tiny front panel but it takes a lot of time and a little patients. (I hope it has a Factor Reset option if I ever mess this up...)



Overall I think this is a very affordable color printer. And a full set of replacement toner cartridges (a set of 4 can run $3-450) almost costs as much as the original printer. So you may not want to stock up on new toner - just plan to buy a new printer. Seriously!



But don't worry about the printer functions - it's laser sharp. The ink is durable but it will smear if you get the paper wet. It won't survive a coffee spill.





Pros: Solid color laser printer; accurate scanner with sheet feeder copier functions. Mac drivers.

Cons: Toner is hard to find confusing/deceptive; no single sheet over-ride; no scanner app.



Note: I did not test this printer with Windows.



More detail ...

Disaster

While advertised as being compatible with the Macintosh operating system the installation manual's instructions for getting the wireless system working do not work. I needed to use Lexmark's live chat (and allow them to wire in to my computer) to get it working using a completely different installation procedure. Then within a few weeks the wireless network card began having problems and I needed to resort to live chat again. The technician told me there was NO way to install the printer on a Mac even though I'd already done it. Almost three hours later while trying to access a menu on the printer that apparently does not actually exist the printer started printing from the queue on its own. The technician declared the printer fixed. Within an hour it stopped working again. The error code clearly says the network card has an unrecoverable error and needs to be replaced but Lexmark keeps sending me new things to try to get it working. So now I can only use my wireless printer when it is connected by USB cable.



On the positive side print quality is excellent. Speed is good unless there are graphics in which case it is very slow.



If the wireless card wasn't broken and/or if the technical support people could actually fix the problem I'd probably rate the printer four stars.More detail ...

Great Upgrade!

I had a Lexmark C522N. It was a good and reliable printer for many years. It developed a problem that was not cost effective to repair. I did some research and found the Lex C544N. I am really pleased with it. It is a definite step up from my old C522N. The speed at which it prints comparatively speaking is phenomenal. I am quite pleased with this printer and would make the choice to purchase it again. I do use this printer in a small business setting. The Lex C544N also has an awsome return program in which you earn FREE toner!More detail ...

Economy WiFi Printer reconsidered

I have been using this printer for some time now and I am more appreciative of its qualities. I made some adjustments on the software end and now get better print quality. Lexmark also makes large ink cartridges and these last a very long time. I just built a new computer for another room in the house and the connection to this printer was extremely simple. Very nice for a bargain price.



Original Review

I bought this printer for its WiFi capability and that works fine. It frees up space at my desk. It was easy to set up and install. This is an economy-priced printer and the color printing is frankly inferior to the economy HP inkjet printer I have been using. This printer does have 6-color capability and I have not yet tried that--it requires a different ink cartridge. I suspect I will switch to that when this cartridge runs dry. So this is fine for low-cost wireless printing but don't expect great color.More detail ...

Great printer for wireless printing

I've always had to buy a wireless printer server to accomplish wireless printing and it was always a pain sometimes it would work for a while then quit for who knows what reason then you redo the configuration and the cycle repeats.



This printer had some bad reviews but considering built-in wi-fi and the fact that this printer costs less than buying the wireless printer server box (where you'll need a printer to go with that separately) - I gave it a go.



The quality is ok totally usable for office home environments where you don't need blinding quality. If you're looking for a very sharp high end photo-quality color printing - this printer won't do. However for vast majority of printing tasks - it's more than sufficient. Wireless config and reconfig is a snap with the software that comes with it. I was able to easily reconfigure it to work on various wi-fi networks including WEP - all very quick and hassle free. The config is typically done via the USB cable which is also supplied (which is unreal since most printer s that cost more don't come with one).



Definitely recommend this printer.More detail ...

Great Printer Slow Burner

There are two aspects to this printer that really need reviewed separately...Printer vs. Burner.



Printer: 4

The printer itself prints as well or better than any small photo printer out there. The print speed is average printing in the highest quality print (Up to 2 min. per photo in Photo quality.) It does print faster in Normal mode and still the picture is good enough quality if just being stored in an album. The auto-enhance feature works really well. It doesn't over saturate colors as many computer programs even do. The enhanced photos print in a warmer / richer tone. The red eye feature really doesn't fix your problems. You're better off adjusting camera flash intensity and trying to prevent red eye without relying on the printer to detect and remove it. It does fair on wide angle group shots but hardly noticeable on close-up shots. Overall functionality is well designed. Printer does take a while to boot up...like a computer. Buy an extra ink kit as the one included goes really quick!



Burning: Depending on your camera usage and quality you can't just burn your 70 photos to the CD. If using medium resolution photos do not expect to be able to burn more than 10 - 15 photos at a time. Copy 10 to the CD then 10 more then 10 more...and so on. Tech support said it writes in only 2X speed and is intended for home use...not designed for burning high quantity / quality photos. If planning to burn 100 photos...just use the computer. The index page it prints is a great feature. You can print the index of a CD and/or card.



Great printer for those who don't have a computer and want burning capabilities. There's nothing like it out there now but I expect that this idea will fill the market rather quickly. I'm also sure that any drawbacks will be improved in future models.More detail ...

fax program not reliable

I purchased this printer because I need to send faxes a few times a week and got this all-in-one for a good price. It works fine for that. However the office I usually fax has sent me faxes and that part of the printer works poorly. I had no idea they'd be sending me a very large fax. I wasn't in the room when the fax was sent and I only received about four pages. The fax was 38 pages long. I spent a good deal of time trying to figure out where/whether the fax was saved anywhere on my computer so I could print the rest of it. Not being able to find it I called Lexmark. They said that it was "50-50" whether I'd be able to recover the fax but after a few more questions it sounds like the chance of recovering the fax is about 0. The printer memory is very small I was told and they are aware that that is a big drawback. So if the fax is an important feature to you this is definitely not the fax to buy.More detail ...

Good but not great

After a reload of the OS my old HP laser was no longer compatible with my Mac computer so I went looking for a color laser that did duplex printing (trying to be a bit green). My use is at home for personal as well as some business printing.



The set up was easy and the instructions clear. Printing in B&W single sided is fast and of high quality. I find the color printing to be a bit muted and not photo-like but still acceptable. The biggest negative is the duplex printing. It works but... When I select two-sided printing it takes forever to print. It is so slow that I have given up using it completely. As I was hurrying out of the house on a road trip I tried to print a Google map in duplex and it took so long I simply left the house without the map. I don't know what is going on inside but this is so bad I'm shocked it ever was released.



Once I ignore duplex printing and treat it like a nice feature I will rarely if ever use then I am generally satisfied with the printer and recommend it for the price.More detail ...

Decent results horrible ink cartridge protection.

This is a decent enough printer. Performance is good the ink seems to last a reasonable time but the cartridges are fairly expensive. Scanning is good. Software is frankly an annoyance.



However don't buy if you're looking to refill cartridges like I was. They are protected. Not all manufacturers do this but most do just now. My situation was worse because no matter what I tried I couldn't get the printer to print only in black and white even after Googling the issue a whole day so the colour ended up running out even without my wanting to print in colour. From what I've heard about Lexmark ink is their business and this would explain why the printer was so cheap and why they have built the printer in such a way.



For your average user I give it 3 stars as perhaps a moderate user would be happy paying for the ink. Myself as a programmer and systems developer who bought this printer in a hurry upon arriving in a new country I need to print rather more and it has been a waste of my money and frustrated me for two whole days. I have bought a few Lexmarks in the past but after this experience I doubt I'll try them again.More detail ...