The X5150 sub-$150 device prints, scans, and copies black-and-white or color documents with speed and quality that are comparable to, if not better than, those of similar units. Lexmark X5150′s glossy aerodynamic silver-and-black shell is designed for those who want their work area at home to “look as good as their printed output. The X5150 isn’t small–it measures 18 inches wide and 21 inches deep with the paper trays open. The printer component accommodates various paper sizes, up to legal, but the scanner bed measures only 8.5 by 11.7 inches (big enough for letter or A4 documents).
The X5150 is so easy to operate that its rich feature set comes as a pleasant bonus. The X5150 consists of several useful software packages, including Lexmark’s All-in-One Center program. This onscreen interface helps you manage communications between the X5150 and your PC.
The X5150 delivers better image quality and speed. In its official simple-text tests X5150′s print speeds at 5.2 pages per minute and a color photo at about half a page per minute; both speeds were about the same as those of most available inexpensive inkjet printers. Lexmark X5150 scanned a monochrome page in 15.1 seconds and a color page in 16.5 seconds (both documents contained mixed text and graphics).
On coated inkjet paper, the text obtained from the printer looked darker than it did on plain paper, and it’s free of jaggedness. Still, the colors looked correct and the graphics preserved the detail well in some areas. Even in grayscale, the X5150 managed to preserve sharp detail that rivals that of other midrange standalone scanners.