Lexmark’s X83 is a color inkjet-based multifunction that combines a flatbed scanner, a printer, and a photocopier in one box. Lexmark X83 measures 18.1 inches wide by 21.2 inches deep by 12.4 inches high with its paper trays fully extended. The top-loading input tray can take 100 sheets of plain paper or 10 envelopes, among other media types; the output tray extends out of the front of the device.
Setting up the Lexmark X83 is straightforward. The device connects solely via USB, though it ships without the cable. The included CD contains drivers for Windows 98 and above but offers no Windows 95 support. Drivers can be downloaded for Mac OS 8.6 and above from the Lexmark Web site.
Lexmark X83 printed text at 4.2 pages per minute (ppm)–faster than the Xerox Work Centre M940. However, pages with mixed color text and graphics came slower than those of the X83′s competitors, at a little less than .75ppm. Lexmark’s scanning application is top-notch stuff, too. The color scan of this printer is also acceptable. The scanner has an optical resolution of 600 dots per inch (dpi), though we tested it at 150dpi; it captures color at 48 bits. Printer cranked out text-and-graphics copies at the rate of about 2ppm in our tests and 4ppm for plain text. Quality of the copies good overall rather than excellent because of a slight dip in the sharpness of text reproduction on plain paper–but it’s better than that of many other inkjet multifunctions.