Lexmark Platinum Pro905

It’s already a hassle to find a business targeted printer with simple options, but while most of its competitors are either working on a model with a full-touch screen interface or are offering a “hybrid” of touch screen interface and hard buttons for a faster command, the Lexmark Platinum Pro905, at a steep price of $400 offers a touch screen-only printer, practically throws itself out there, in unknown territory, offering a complicated device for a medium which relies solely on speed and reaction time.

Of course, as a compensation for this lack of speed, Lexmark Platinum Pro905 suggests the “Smart Solutions” pack, which can be accessed by connecting the printer to the Internet. This option, once activated, lets you create a handful of shortcuts which will appear on the touch screen’s display. However, we still will recommend the HP Officejet Pro 8500 Wireless for businesses, mainly because it actually is a more utilitarian solution for this type of environment.

Design and Features

The Lexmark Platinum Pro 905’s size is not a surprise, being a standard device for a business-ready scanner, copier, fax machine and printer. We measured it as being 12.1-inches tall by 15.42-inches long by 18.31 inches wide. With this new model, the company opts for a more appropriate darker, professional look, instead of the classic glossy white ‘Apple-esque’ design we came to be accustomed to.

The front of the printer is pretty clear, the only hard button you’ll actually find, is the small power button, found on the left side of the control panel. The paper tray (placed at the bottom of the printer) is another feature that the Lexmark Platinum Pro 905 has as a strong point, unlike its competition. Instead of opting for a simple-model tray, this printer has a silo-drawer built into the base; this only adds more durability and heft to the already spacious 150-sheet container. The other paper-tray is also of a 150-sheet capacity, this only helping its case, at least for bigger businesses with larger printing needs.

Pros

The new Lexmark Platinum Pro905, is a good model when it comes to faster printing speeds, it offers two separate paper trays the wireless setup was very accessible to all sorts of users, the driver features are comprehensive and on top of all this, it is also a foolproof Smart Solutions widgets device.

Cons

Unfortunately, the Lexmark Platinum Pro905 is a little bit on the expensive side, and doesn’t quite deliver all we’d like it to deliver: for starters, it lacks Bluetooth support and during our testing sessions for the current review, we found that the auto-document feeder was not at all adjustable.

Review Conclusions

We found the new Lexmark Platinum Pro 905 model to be a very capable all-in-one device especially for a business environment, but beware of its pretentious touch screen which may throw a tantrum every now and then, thus putting a wrench in your workflow. Even if the Smart Solutions widgets will add virtual customization to the printer’s control panel, we still wished we’ve seen a few hard buttons as well on this model. The Lexmark Platinum Pro905 is basically considered to be at the top of the Lexmark family food-chain; despite its getting the job done most of the time, we would still consider the HP Officejet Pro 8500 Wireless to be a better option.

Specs

• Manufacturer: Lexmark
• Max Copy Size 8.5 in x 17 in
• Scanning Optical Resolution: 1200 x 4800 dpi
• Max Printing Resolution: up to 2400 x 1200 dpi (mono) / up to 4800 x 1200 dpi (color)

• Speed Details

- Printing: up to 33 ppm – B/W draft,
- Printing: up to 30 ppm – Color draft,
- Printing: up to 16 ppm – B/W normal,
- Printing: up to 10 ppm – Color normal,
- Copying: up to 25 ppm – B/W draft,
- Copying: up to 21 ppm – Color draft

• Width: 18.3 in
• Depth: 15.4 in
• Height: 12.1 in
• Weight: 25.6 lbs