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(More customer reviews)I have primarily owned HP printers for the last 15 years, but was having sporadic problems with my main printer, an HP D360 photo printer. I was tired of troubleshooting with HP, so I decided to give in and go with the Lexmark Prevail Pro705. I shopped around and didn't really do much research prior to buying. I knew I wanted to try a new manufacturer and was hoping to get a multi-function unit. I was in an office supply store and asked if Lexmark was comparable to HP quality, and saw for myself that there wasn't a lot of difference in quality.
The Prevail Pro705 was the new model at the time of purchase (Oct 14th, 2009). This is my first purchase from Lexmark and I am very pleased. The most appealing things to me about this particular model were the number of features (Fax, Scanner, Copier, Printer), the 5 year warranty, and the slightly lower costs per print than the HP model. The color cartridge claims to get about 200 prints more than the HP 02 color cartridges, so that (ideally) means more prints for less.
After unboxing the printer, I first tried to set it up on Windows Vista Ultimate PC, connecting via USB cable (included). I was able to print a test page, but had difficulty printing pictures- the progress bar would only go to about 30% or so. I contacted tech support help troubleshoot my issue. They spent 4 hours trying to tweak things while remotely connected to my computer, with no luck. At the end of the first support session I was worse off- the printer was struggling to print a complete test page. Fortunately, my issue was escalated to second level support whom I was able to get in touch with the next day. After another two hours of trouble shooting, I was told this was an issue that may need to be submitted to the software engineering team. I was getting ready to pack up the printer to return it, but I decided to mention to the technician that I had another computer (a netbook) that had Windows XP on it and if that would make any difference. The tech recommended that I try to install the printer on that using the USB cable. I followed his instructions later that night and was able to get the printer installed and it printed everything, including pictures, perfectly. After that, I thought I'd try printing using wireless (instead of the USB) from my Vista computer and everything worked perfectly. Apparently, there are still some bugs that need to be worked out for Vista, or it is possible that my Vista computer has other issues that prevent the printer from functioning properly over USB. Since I also had issues with HP printer, I think it is possible that my computer settings are the culprit. The Lexmark support technician said the issues seemed to be related to a firewall on my computer, though we disabled that and still had the problem. The tech support people were very helpful and spoke good English, despite being in another country.
Had it not been for the trouble that I ran into while installing the printer on Vista and the lengthy tech support calls, I would have given a 5 star review. There are many pro's: the photo prints are very comparable in quality to my HP D360. The printer makes some noise when printing, but a lot less than my old printer. The wireless capability of this printer was a life saver and it was very easy to get set up with the software included (I am using a dlink wireless N router, with WPA security). It seems that it is also possible to set up the wireless capability from the printer, but I didn't try that.
The copy functionality of the printer works well. It took less than 30 seconds to make a copy and it looks very clean, though some colors (like light grays) seemed to be a little darker on the copy. There is also an "eco" setting that will automatically make copies on two sides of the page. This is a nice feature and saves paper, which I like. The eco mode also puts the printer into sleep mode after a certain amount of time.
I would recommend this to anyone looking for a solid multi-function printer. It seems to have similar quality and capability to the more expensive HP printers.
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Lexmark Prevail Pro705 Small Office Wireless Multifunction Inkjet PrinterPut the robust Lexmark Prevail Pro705 Wireless All-in-One with Fax to work for your home or small office.Experience greater freedom with WiFi-n (3X better wireless coverage and faster transfer speeds) or connect via Ethernet. Be more productive with built-in full feature fax, and a large, 50-page auto document feeder to easily handle printing, scanning, copying and faxing jobs.Installation is fast and easy – requiring approximately 10 minutes, while WiFi Protected Setup allows you to sync the printer to a WPS-enabled router with the touch of a button.The Prevail Pro705 also features a 2.4” color LCD to easily view and enhance photos.The Eco Mode feature includes an energy-saving feature and automatic two-sided printing, which can cut paper consumption in half.Print fast with document speeds up to 33ppm and 4”x6” photo printing in as little as 24 seconds.This robust All-in-One ships with XL high-yield ink cartridges which use Lexmark’s own Vizix ink technology to produce clear and consistent results.The Vizix ink system uses individual cartridges which can be replaced one color at a time.The Prevail Pro705 also ships with Business Card Scanning software which lets you scan up to eight cards at once, parcel the information, and synchronize it with many popular contact management solutions. All of this functionality is backed by an industry leading 5-year warranty and lifetime, priority phone support!
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