Scanner and Copier

The X2650's scanner is worthy of comment. It provides neat, sharp scans that are only just a touch too red.

In terms of speed, scanning an A4 page takes around 10 seconds, just a little longer than it does using the competition.

When scanning a 4x6 photo print, though, the X2650 blows the competition out of the water, digitizing the whole image in 27 seconds.

Thanks to this nippy scanner, this all-in-one does provide good copies, with color copies taking less than a minute and black and white copies taking just 14 seconds.

The Lexmark X2650 is, logically enough, a replacement for the X2550, and the change in model number has also brought a redesign.

Now featuring a white case, this new multifunction is a good value, and easy to use--too easy, perhaps--and lacks several features found elsewhere, including an LCD screen and a card reader.

Printing Speeds

Lexmark claims that the printer can reach speeds of up to 22 pages per minute (ppm), but we couldn't replicate this in our labs.

A more realistic measurement is 4 ppm for color printing and 5 ppm for black and white documents.

Activating draft mode, which gives perfectly acceptable documents, brings speeds up to 17.5 ppm using our test document.

Photo printing is admirably speedy, with the X2650 spitting out a full color 4 x 6' print in around 40 seconds and 1 minute 50 seconds for an A4 photo.

These kinds of speeds are normally seen on printers that are twice as expensive, but don't be fooled into thinking you're getting a good deal: the quality belies the price point.

Quality

Office printing is very good, with sharp details and deep blacks.

As we found in our speed tests, the draft mode will be usable for all but the most important of documents, even though it does feature visible ink droplets in places. 

For everyday use, it can certainly replace standard mode to save a little ink.



As for photo printing, the results are less satisfactory.  Ink drops are too apparent if the black photo cartridge isn't used--trouble is, it's sold as a separate option, rather than coming included with the printer.

No matter how many cartridges we tried, we couldn't get rid of streaky lines across photo prints.

Cartridges

Cartridge	Lifespan (A4 pages)
14 (black)	175
15A (color)	150

Based on these findings, we cannot recommend this printer.

And, if you're reading this, Lexmark, please try to make it clear to your customers that multifunctions like the X2650 are only so cheap because they're so inefficient in terms of their use of ink.  You're sure to rake it in later on with cartridge sales.

While cost per page varies according to how much you actually pay for your cartridges where you are, the short lifespan on these all-in-one cartridges makes them very expensive.