WHAT'S HOT: The Lexmark Z45 Color Jetprinter has superfast text-printing speed. At 8.3 pages per minute--more than 1 ppm faster than the next-fastest ink jet we've tested--it could take the place of a home-office laser. That's a strong reason to consider a printer that costs only $89. We were mostly satisfied with its text-printing quality, which looks a bit grayish but clean, and were very impressed with how well it renders high-resolution photos on glossy paper.

WHAT'S NOT: Though its price is low, the Z45's ink costs are not. Based on Lexmark's cartridge yield specification, black ink will run you 6.3 cents per page--a day-in, day-out cost exceeded by only one other printer, also a Lexmark. (The average black ink cost for all printers PC World has tested recently is 4.4 cents per page.) The Z45's color ink price also runs much higher than most, at 17.6 cents per page (the average cost for other printers we've tested is 13.8 cents per page); and color print quality on ordinary paper is marred by bands, dropouts, and rough texture that obscures detail. The Z45's case seems very light and flimsy--we're afraid a careless user could break the lid off. Also, the Z45's documentation could be better. Lexmark provides a good set-up manual, but information about using the printer takes the form of onscreen help files broken up into a stew of bite-size chunks.

WHAT ELSE: Lexmark's driver has an unusual design. It shows you the current settings for all the tabs in a strip along the left edge of the window so you can see them all at one glance instead of having to double-check each tab separately.

UPSHOT: The Z45 offers passable print quality and blazing speed on text, but aside from the good photo images, you'd be better off with an inexpensive laser.

SUMMARY

Lexmark Z45 Color Jetprinter Rated 15 ppm monochrome/9 ppm color, 2400-by-1200-dpi maximum resolution, 100 sheets input, 50 output. $89 888/539-6275 www.lexmark.com