Customer Reviews

Lexmark Interpret S405 Wireless N Multifunction Inkjet Printer

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(57)

 

 

I bought the S405 through Amazon mostly on the basis of favorable reviews here and on other sites where electronic products are reviewed. Buying a printer that was efficient---meaning, didn't use much---on ink was highly important. In general, manufacturers price printers dirt cheap and then gouge you on replacement ink cartridges. All reviews rated the S405, and other Lexmark printers that use the 100 series cartridges, very highly in this regard. I went to a brick and mortar store and the sales people confirmed the Lexmark was very good in this regard. But, the particular S405 *I* received has been horrible. The cartridges packaged with it were toys---they ran out after just a few sheets of paper. I bought a full set (i.e., one black, 3 color) of cartridges at Office Depot, which set me back around $80, and installed them. These were the "XL" type---they cost more than the regular "L" cartridges but are supposed to be something like 3x more efficient for the difference in price. I expected a set like this to last something like 1/2 year at the rate we print---we use the Lexmark mostly for copying and color printing which we don't do much of, for regular black and white we use a different (laser) printer. It's been around one month and the black is nearly empty, all 3 color cartridges are only around 20-25% full, and we've only printed a little more than 100 sheets. At this rate, I will spend something like $700-$800 per year on ink, which is insane. I am in discussions with Lexmark technical support and most likely they will send a replacement printer, but first they want to ship me another cartridge and have me try again---as if it's at all likely that I bought 4 different malfunctioing cartridges at Office Depot! Anyways, the purpose of this review isn't to complain about Lexmark service, rather just to warn that so far I have no evidence this printer is at all efficient on ink, rather, just the opposite. A couple of other annoying things: when you install cartridges, they don't seat firmly. Actually, this might be related to my poor ink usage, perhaps this printer has some defect in the shape of the cartridge containers. Anyways, on every other printer I have ever used cartridges snap firmly into a compartment with some sort of spring-type grip and you can hear a distinct click, i.e., there can be no doubt whether a cartridge is seated properly. With this Lexmark you can never tell when a cartridge is properly seated, there is sometimes a click sometime not and it never feels firmly in place. Lastly, we have 5 computers in our house that need to reach the Lexmark wirelessly. So, I had to do 5 installations. Each installation was time consuming---this is *NOT* a printer where you can just "connect" and have the operating system automatically find drivers and set it up, it needs the Lexmark CD and a long procedure. On several of my home computers I had to repeat the procedure 2 to 3 times to get the installation to work. It is tricky, and will fail without obvious cause-and-effect reasons. The computers I installed on ran 3 different Windows systems, XP, Vista and 7, but the failures were spread around, they weren't all on one type. It simply appears to be hit or miss whether the install will work. By the way, I've got a Ph.D. in electrical engineering and 20 years experience in processor design, and so I know my way around these things, if I'm making errors then errors are too easy to make!

This is my second Lexmark printer. What I like about this, and my previous printer is that it is fairly easy to set up. There are separate buttons for each function, which are fairly easy to use.However There are 2 issues that you need to consider if you are considering this printer 1. The ADF is VERY sensitive, and tricky to use.If you are reading this because you are having a problem, push the paper very very slowly forward. The moment you hear the beep, stop, and push start for the scan to start.
2.It has separate ink cartridges, which sounds great, you don't have to pay for a whole cartridge if only one colour runs out. BUT if one colour runs out the printer stops working, which means you have to have spares.I found the printing speed very slow too, but for home use that isn't too serious.I would proceed with caution on this printer. I returned mine this morning, and am trying to decide what to replace it with.

I am praying that this printer does not turn out to be an ink hog. Otherwise everything has been perfect. The pages print very well and dark even using quickprint. The fax and scan quality are also good. Its quieter than other Lexmarks I have used and its attractive.

Assembly and connection was easy and I am on a MAC. I was a bit uncomfortable with securing the multiple ink cartridges as I have never had a printer like that before. So it took a while for me to get them all in and to snap in place.

Its a sleek attractive printer with lots of bells and whistles. I recommend it.

I bought this printer for it's wireless capabilities and ease of use and it has separate cartridges which is good. I do not print a lot of useless paper anymore as I have gotten into the habit of saving items as PDF files. Setup was easy and it has worked well so far in the few weeks I have had it.
Now the rub, this printer sucks up more ink than a vacuum cleaner and dust. I do not have 50 pieces of paper run through it yet and the Black ink needs to be replaced and yes these cartridges are ones I bought when I purchased the printer, I think I got about 5 pages from the temp cartridges that came with it. The yellow and blue are below 50% and the magenta is down to 25%. I have been running this printer on quick print. Staples does not carry the larger volume cartridges but at the rate this thing sucks up ink it would make little difference.
To bad Lexmark could not get it right. There is no way to tell how many pages you have run through unless you actually keep track on your own.
As far as recommending this printer to anyone else I would not. I would suggest finding another brand which tells you a basic amount of pages before you need to change cartridges. Maybe one of these days printer companies will get it right and make printers that get good ink mileage and you don't have to go into debt to buy ink.

When I tried to clear a paper jam, I found that the S405 does not have a rear door for clearing paper jams. There was no way to get at the paper, which was jammed in the bottom of the S405. I spent about 45 minutes on the phone with a Lexmark technician. He was not successful in resolving the problem. He had to bump the problem up to a more experienced technician, who would get back to me in 24 to 48 hours. About 30 hours later, I returned unit to the store where I purchased it.

I would not buy an S405 until this engineering defect is remedied.

This printer fails on many fronts:
- wireless set up does not work with more than one computer in the house (windows 7) even if one of those computers is hard wired to the printer
- automatic feed does not work for even one piece of paper
- i do not print a lot, and not a lot in color - yet it burns through printer cartridges at an extremely high rate
- there is absolutely no way to clear a paper jam - there is no door giving access
- i estimate that 1 out of 10 print jobs will print without issue - more often than not there is some message about replacing the cartridge head, or cleaning it, which often results in printning a full page of colored lines with no way to stop it (burning another set of cartridges!).
- there is no way to set default to print in B&W
- the manufacturer considered the first printer a lemon and replaced it. the issues experienced the ssecond time were identical.

Don't waste your money on this POS. Bells and whistles are great...IF THEY WORK!
This thing uses ink even when you're not printing. The heads dry up almost daily and the process to clean them uses a lot of your ink. You will exceed the cost of the printer the first time you have to buy ink...which is after about 20 pages. Then, if you get low or run out of ONE color, you are forced to replace it before you can print with ANY of the other colors (full or not). For example, my yellow ink is low so it tells me that the printer will not work at all until I replace the yellow. How inconvenient is that?
The ink cartridges are individual so this crap was designed-in to the product to force you to buy their over-priced ink you may not want or need. Technical support was worthless because they know I discovered their scam.
Automatic feeder? WORTHLESS with less than 10 pages. They all go in at once.
Scanner? Works OK for one page but the feeder is worthless.

Bottom line? I'll never buy a Lexmark product based solely on the fact that I can't print with black ink only when another color is low or empty. That's a BS marketing scam or else Lexmark is not interested in return customers.

This has been an amazing purchase for me.

As I am not the primary user it's impossible for me to rate ink consumption as others have commented on.

Scanning and printing quality and speed are wonderful. It's amazing to get this much quality from this kind of machine.

The Wifi on this unit is subpar. An external antenna could have greatly improved the signal quality perhaps but this unit ultimately suffers from too much corner cutting.

My biggest gripe, and the one that is going to make me want to drop Lexmark as a company is that the engineering of this unit did not take into account day to day operational issues.
Lexmark must have believed that this unit was perfect in every way(which it seems to almost be) to the extent that they didn't even take into account potential paper jams.

There is no back door one can open to remove paper jams. If your paper is stuck inside the unit there is no way to access it. Worst design ever in that regard.
The paper stays there and if you aren't able to see a large portion of it(think most of the page and not just one small piece still visible) or physically touch it, the printer is good for the bin.

I need to get in touch with Lexmark for them to service/replace the unit which seems ridiculous for such a basic problem. If possible I will get a refund because the risk is too great for this to happen again.

The manual itself does NOT give any solution for resolving this problem...troubleshooting for paper jams should be of the highest priority on a printer but in this case it's treated as nil, impossible, non existent.

Beware! They will send you non-refillable cartridge licensed for single use only. I have always refilled my own cartridges. Well Lexmark is a total scam in this aspect. Charging big $$$ for cartridges once the are empty. Don't bother refilling because the printer will not recognize them. They tout their "greeness" but you have to mail the cartridges in for a new one. What's so green about wasting gas, paper packaging and time? This is no deal. Stay away from Lexmark Interpret S405.

We had a very reliable all in one Canon printer that was drinking ink even when shut off, and the replacement ink is EXPENSIVE for a Canon, unless you buy off brand or re-furbs, which the printer will NOT recognize as a viable replacement.

I decided it was time to take a different approach and purchase a printer that utilized the four cartridge system vice the two. We found the Lexmart S405 on sale, brought it home and had it working wireless on line in less than 30 minutes....

And then, the network compability problem kicked in. We have 4 computers working on a home network "N" router, which is backwards capable to support this printer. The printer wanted to connect to the home network AND each computer wirelessly, so it printed everytiing twice, or not at all acting as if it were offline. I had to uninstall the software on all computers, re-install the printer via the usb cable, and then re-install all software for each computer again, while the other computers were off line. Once this was accomplished the printer performs flawlessly. We can scan, print, and fax from any of the computers, and/or fax right from the printer by simply plugging in the phone number, loading the documents and pressing send.

We have had multiple Lexmart printers in the past, most of which were the cheap "just print" type, but this is by far the easiest, fanciest and most reliable to use. Set-up would have been simple if we were utilizing just one or two computers. I accept this as a learning curve on my part, and not a fault of the priter itself. However, the printer software is fuzzy, in that it brings up multiple installation screens collectively while loading, and if you are not watching your toolbar carefully, you will re-install the printer on every computer you add the software to, instead of simply adding the computer to the printer network. This is what caused our initial problems.

Unlike others, our printer does NOT drink ink. In fact, I just purchased out first replacement "Black" 100Xl cartridge from Amazon for $22 today, more than one month into use with heavy college and medical record printing. This compares to the $47+ for the old Canon black ink we had previously purchased.

All in all a solid printer and fax. Color and photo printing is above that of our old Canon, and black and white printing is fast and seemless. Photos on quality photo paper look better than what you get from the store!! Printer is VERY quiet compared to the old Canon. One recommendation is to get away from the cheap $3.00 Walmart printing/coping paper, and use a little more quality paper, the results are impressive.

My next printer will be another Lexmart, hopefully a 2016 or beyond version....