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The Lexmark Z715 costs only $80 and qualifies as a photo printer because of its optional photo ink cartridge, but we were disappointed by its print quality. Even after we swapped in the $25 photo ink cartridge, we were unimpressed by the photographic prints.
The Z715's glossy gray scales had a strong purplish cast that interfered with the image. High contrast made the lighting in our photo look harsh, and objects appeared sharp-edged. Color glossies had an unnatural pinkish cast, a dotty texture, and some loss of detail. When printing with the standard inks on plain paper, the Z715's text looked somewhat rough and grayish, with pale dropouts noticeable on large letters. On our line-art test document, narrow parallel lines suffered from severe banding and overlapping. Coated inkjet paper lessened this effect significantly, but it didn't improve the quality of any other document type. In short, Canon's identically priced i455 delivered much better print quality. Also, the Z715 doesn't support a standard for printing directly from a digital camera (the i455 supports PictBridge). The Z715 printed text at 4.7 ppm, just a smidgen faster than the average of recently tested inkjets, but it tried our patience when printing graphics at 0.5 ppm, less than half the average speed.
On the plus side, we found the Z715 easy to use. The paper tray folds down when not in use, while the output tray, which is somewhat flimsy, can slide under the printer when empty. Lexmark's manual covers not only the Z715, but several similar models as well, but it nevertheless provides detailed information on how to set up and use the printer, how to take advantage of the driver's features, how to work with different types of media, and so forth. The printer's driver installs with a couple of clicks; a window displays the progress of the installation. The driver is also easy to understand, displaying a summary of all the settings you've chosen before you print. The printer automatically detects your paper type, though you can disable that feature if you want to select the paper type manually. An included application called Lexmark Photo Center has lots of templates for creating photo albums, as well as basic photo-editing tools.
Upshot: The Z715 is easy to use, but there are better printers available for the same price.
Dan Littman
