Lexmark P707
Flash-memory card slots and fast, high-quality text make the P707 versatile and practical.
Eric Butterfield
WHAT'S HOT: Though the P707 didn't make the Top 5 photo printer chart, we found plenty to like about it. First is the $100 price for a machine with four built-in flash-memory readers that handle the most popular memory-card formats; HP's Photosmart 7550 has a similar crop of card readers, but it costs $300. Lexmark's driver can download images from your memory cards onto your PC, so the printer doubles as a generic card reader. We also liked its very practical text-printing speed. At 5.1 ppm, it's faster than three of the photo printers on the Top 5 chart. It also printed sharp, clean text, making it a bargain as a general-purpose SOHO printer.
WHAT'S NOT: While the P707 is quick with text, it's terribly slow with photos, printing them at only 0.1 pages per minute--by far the slowest model tested for the chart. Despite the contemplative speed, it doesn't do a great job on high-resolution glossy photos, showing smooth texture and shading but losing too much detail. Also, like many photo printers, it holds a three-color cartridge plus either a photo-ink cartridge or a black cartridge--not both--so you have to swap cartridges when you switch to printing text, unless you want to quickly exhaust the photo cartridge's tiny supply of black ink. You'll have to spend an extra $29 for the black cartridge, though, because Lexmark doesn't include it with the P707. Another way Lexmark cut costs: The P707 wobbles and feels flimsy. Lexmark's documentation is good enough to get you started but somewhat thin on advanced topics.
WHAT ELSE: Lexmark's Photo Center software includes a program for creating and printing photo albums. It has a varied selection of ready-made templates, plus easy-to-use tools for designing new layouts from scratch.
UPSHOT: The P707 makes sense for someone who needs a printer more for text documents than for photos but who still wants the capability.
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