Lexmark Z52 Color Jetprinter

by Lexmark

Product Details

Product Manual [2.87mb PDF]

• Product Dimensions: 19.5 x 11.3 x 14.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S. and to APO/FPO addresses. For APO/FPO shipments, please check with the manufacturer regarding warranty and support issues.
• ASIN: B00004U9HJ
• Item model number: Z52
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes
• Date first available at Amazon.com: September 4, 1999

Product Description

Amazon.com Review

The Z52 Color Jetprinter provides accurate color reproduction, quiet operation, and fast output. Plus, it prints black text documents at about five pages per minute, which rivals the speed of many more expensive printers. Plus, it offers 2,400 x 1,200 dpi black and color printing and a rated speed of up to 15 pages per minute in black and seven pages per minute in color.

We set up the Z52 by connecting it to our PC's parallel port. The setup process included a useful cartridge alignment test, which allowed us to make adjustments to find the optimal cartridge positions. In our tests, it took a surprisingly long two minutes and 45 seconds to print a 54 KB color JPEG image. However, the Z52 made up for that by printing text documents much faster. The five ppm it produced at that setting suggested fast throughput despite the parallel connection. Also, the Z52's color reproduction was extremely accurate compared to similarly priced ink-jet printers. When printing smaller images as part of a highly designed document, such as a Web site, the results showed little ink saturation even on plain paper.

Fans of the Lexmark Z42, the Z52's subordinate twin, will note the same helpful print status window that measures the elapsed printing time; they'll also appreciate the Z52's swifter printing speed. Overall, among similarly classed color ink jets, including those by other manufacturers, the Lexmark Z52 stands out as a cut above the rest. --John Frederick Moore

Amazon.com Product Description

The Lexmark Z52 Color Jetprinter offers a high 2,400 x 1,200 dpi resolution for clear, black text and vibrant color prints. A speedy print performance of 15 pages per minute (black print) and 7 pages per minute (color) makes last-minute print jobs no problem. The Lexmark Z52 includes Accu-Feed paper handling technology. This eliminates jams while handling a wide range of media from envelopes and transparencies to paper stock up to 150 pounds.

Featuring one-click printer driver software installation, simple cartridge loading, and convenient ink-level indicators, the Lexmark Z52 is easy to set up and maintain. It handles photo paper, index cards, envelopes, transparencies, and other special papers, along with standard paper sizes, equally well. Compatible with both Macintosh and Windows operating systems, it connects to your PC or Mac with either a parallel or USB cable. The printer includes a high- resolution standard-yield color print cartridge, black print cartridge, user's guide, and CD-ROM.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Textbook Printer, July 30, 2000

By 

Wayne Boyette (Bonita Springs, Florida) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lexmark Z52 Color Jetprinter (Office Product)

I'll keep this short and sweet. This printer offers simply incredible performance on black and white text. It's fairly quick, although no where near the rated 15 p.p.m. It is however faster than the Xerox C-11 it replaced. Quieter than it's predecessor in my system, it is a decent to very good value at the going street price. Color performance on text is very good but not world class. Photo mode is no where near H.P. type performance but then again neither is the price. Recommended!!!

30 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another Great One From Lexmark, January 13, 2001

By 

R. Lade "prophoto" (Palm Beach, Florida) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lexmark Z52 Color Jetprinter (Office Product)

This is my third Lexmark printer and I'm extremely happy with this one. Prior to the Z52, I had a Lexmark 3200 that was also an excellent printer. I haven't been disappointed with a Lexmark yet. I looked seriously at the H/P's that were supposed to be comparable, but in my opinion, weren't! More often than not, the "comparable" H/P's were more money, print quality was, in my opinion, less than drop-dead wonderful, and if you believe at all in the CNET ratings, didn't rate as high as the Z52. This thing is really pretty amazing! The text is flawless, and the color prints I've got out of this printer are incredible. Several of them are matted and framed and hanging on my walls both at home and in my studio. I do photography for a living, so I'm extremely persnikety about what I consider to be "framing quality". Would I use this printer for professional digital work...no, probably not. But then that's not this printers intent. However, I have sold prints that came out of this printer.

Downsides? There really aren't any that I would consider worth mentioning. I read a lot of noise out there about the Lexmark "cost of ownership" being outrageous. I have to disagree. I hear all the time, "the ink cost is too high, the ink cost is too high". I don't believe it's any worse than any of the others. My ink cartridges seem to last longer than I think they should. I'm always thinking that I need to go buy more ink, but the printer thinks otherwise. If you do a lot of picture printing and you don't believe in anything but 8 x 10's, yeah, you're going to use a lot of ink. But like I said, I'm pretty picky about what I print and how big and how many. And if you live near a Costco, you can pick up 2-packs of ink that are significantly less expensive than buying two single cartridges. Printer speed is less than advertised, but then again, I haven't tried one yet that delivered as much as the manufacturer said it would.

In short, this is a great printer at a great price and is unbeatable for the quality it produces. If you're looking for a printer that does an outstanding job both with text and color imaging, you won't be disappointed in the Z52.

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great printer for the price!, August 19, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Lexmark Z52 Color Jetprinter (Office Product)

Experience with this machine started out terrible. Horrible black &/or color smudges. Contacted Lexmark support, waited only a couple of minutes to talk to a friendly, experienced, HELPFUL tech rep. Talked me through some troubleshooting, finally decided my scanner was competing for the port. Disconected the scanner and uninstalled the software and now it functions absolutely beautifully. Great color, clean crisp text, high speed, especially in B&W. Now I guess I'll go order a USB/Parallel port adapter...