Issue #0821/1 – Following the postponement of this article in favour of last week’s article ("Lexmark in-store inkjet visibility plummets"), we now consider the elusive new home/student range of inkjet devices from Lexmark and see just how expensive the X4650 is in comparison to its competition – Brother DCP-560CN, Canon PIXMA MP610, Epson Stylus Photo RX585 and Hewlett-Packard Photosmart C5280.
As indicated last week, gathering information for this article has proved to be less than easy. The initial announcement from Lexmark was made at the time the company released its last set of financial results in April. There were said to be three products falling into the home/student category but, on investigation, we were quickly confused by the real availability.
Even Lexmark’s own websites can be confusing. At the home page for Home Printing on most Lexmark country web sites, there are two sections. One is labelled “Ready for Home and School” and the other “Lexmark introduces two laptop-friendly inkjets”.
Lexmark X4650However, on the UK web site, following the first link brings a viewer to only two products (X2650 & Z2320), not three, neither of which appear to correspond to the black device shown on the home page! Following the second link reveals only one product (X4650), not two!
At least the US web site is a little clearer, immediately offering the viewer the option to learn more about the ‘Home and Student Series’ right from the home page – and, this link takes the viewer to a page that does indeed show all three products that Lexmark announced with its financial report in April.
But, the confusion lies largely in the fact that the three products mentioned are only part of the story. In fact, there are different products in different countries. These range from just three products in the UK (only one of which matches the US products) up to five products in Germany – all three of the US products plus the two additional UK products.
Lexmark home/student product availability
| UK | Germany | France | US |
|---|---|---|---|
| X4650 | X4650 | X4650 | X4650 |
| X3650 | X3650 | ||
| X2650 | X2650 | X2650 | |
| Z2420 | Z2420 | Z2420 | |
| Z2320 | Z2320 | Z2320 |
Searching for places to buy these products reveals lots of ink for the devices but precious few prime stores around the world actually selling the devices themselves – even Lexmark’s own online store in the UK does not sell a single one of these new products!
Lexmark X3650These are the front USB port, that allows a user to plug into the printer easily without having to fiddle around at the back of the device, and an installation package that Lexmark claims enables a user to be up and running within 10 minutes.
While these are both good features, they can hardly be described as ground-breaking or even specifically appropriate to homes and students - they are features that are relevant to any inkjet printer user. We would expect that they will be found on all new Lexmark inkjet devices from here on.
However, Lexmark should be applauded for attempting to simplify a printer user’s experience with a product type (printers/MFPs in general) that is notorious for the difficulties and aggravation that it can cause.
Found consistently on both sides of the Atlantic, clearly the X4650 is the primary device in this new pack. Not only is it the only one that appears in all countries but it is the one that is most easily located on the Lexmark web sites and is less difficult to locate in stores.
So, we’ll focus on the X4650 for a brief review and comparison of costs with devices from other manufacturers that sell at about the same price.
What we should first note is that Lexmark is tending to reverse the pricing strategy of more than a decade.
This device is not dirt cheap as we had come to expect from this manufacturer. Selling in the UK at prices ranging from £108 to an incredible £152 (but not through any of the prime outlets!), the X4650 is anything but low cost even at purchase. To be realistic, it is probably priced above the reach of the average home or student.
Purchase Price - ‘Home/Student’ Inkjet AiO
Lexmark Z2420Selecting 3-function All-in-One products from the competition that most closely match the price point, reveals some superb and very fast, high-end products such as the Canon MP610 – in fact, all the competing products here could be considered to be high-end products for a home environment.
Surprisingly, the best feature of the X4650 is actually unique within this grouping - wireless network interface. Lexmark has certainly been leading the way with wireless inkjet devices but the wireless interface is really this AiOs only advanced feature.
Otherwise, it is not fast – only 25ppm in draft mono and 18ppm in draft colour – and it does not have an LCD preview display or the Automatic Document Feed for the scan unit that is present with the network-ready Brother DCP-560CN.
In fact, these two features (wired network and ADF) make the DCP-560CN a key player for performance at this price point, with none of the other machines in the group being equipped in this way.
Lexmark’s X4650 does, however, ship with the Lexmark Productivity Suite, Lexmark Imaging Studio software, OCR software and is capable of scanning directly to PDF – not a bad range of features.
So, what of the cost? To begin with, we have established that it is not a low cost device at point of purchase. To help with cost of printing though, it is capable of accepting high capacity ink cartridges (#36A and #37A), a characteristic of devices that generally do not sit at the bottom end of the price scale.
Ink Cartridge Yield - ‘Home/Student’ Inkjet AiO
Although these cartridges do not provide the highest page yields of the devices considered here, they are nonetheless in line with the competition.
Sadly, this realigning of purchase price and availability of high capacity cartridges does nothing for its Total Cost of Printing.
Only the C5280 from Hewlett-Packard also has two cartridge sets. As usual, the XL set is used here for comparison.
Lexmark X2650We’ve shown Total Cost of Printing for both standard cartridges and high capacity cartridges for the Hewlett-Packard and Lexmark AiOs, in a separate chart below, to emphasise that the use of high capacity cartridges only brings the X4650 closer to the cost of the other machines, it does not make it competitive.
Note in the first chart that Total Cost of Printing for the devices from Brother, Canon and Epson is pitched at almost precisely the same level, with the cost of running the Hewlett-Packard C5280 falling at a slightly higher level. It is only the Lexmark X4650 that stands out on its own with a really high Total Cost of Printing – 25% higher than the C5280.
Total Cost of Printing - ‘Home/Student’ Inkjet AiO
Note that for this level of machine, the mixed mono/colour CPP over three years shown in the accompanying table is calculated on the basis of 100 pages per month; 70% pages in mono and 30% pages in colour; is based on the use of maximum capacity supplies; takes into account any standard, or starter, supplies shipped with the device; and also includes the cost of purchase. All prices are street price including tax, sourced in the UK.
Using the standard cartridges from Lexmark instead of the high capacity XL cartridges, the cost of the X4650 would more than double to 17.85 pence or 192% higher than the Brother and Canon AiOs (not far from 3x the cost over three years)! The nominal colour CPP comes in at a whopping 22.78 pence – even Epson’s high nominal colour CPP is only just over half this level.
To be absolutely fair, if the standard HP350/351 cartridges were used on the Hewlett-Packard C5280, the long term cost of running that machine would rise by 55% to 10.09 pence per page. This is only 65% higher than the Brother and Canon machines.
Total Cost of Printing - ‘Home/Student’ Inkjet AiO
Note: mixed mono/colour CPP over three years shown in the accompanying table is calculated on the basis of 100 pages per month; 70% pages in mono and 30% pages in colour; is based on the use of standard capacity supplies; and includes the cost of purchase. All prices are street price including tax, sourced in the UK.
Lexmark Z2320What we have here, then, is a three-function AiO that is not at all as cheap as we have come to expect from Lexmark but with a Total Cost of Printing that is every bit as high as we expect from Lexmark! The higher purchase price is most definitely NOT balanced by lower cost of ink. Even Epson’s higher purchase price and high cost of colour ink (due to the use of 6-inks even for office printing), is balanced by a low cost of black ink, resulting in a competitive Total Cost of Printing.
Wireless networking is the X4650’s main benefit but this is a function that is increasingly available from other manufacturers with much better long term cost prospects.
So again, Lexmark does itself a gross disservice by pricing over the top and not providing value for money. Not only is the purchase price and the Total Cost of Printing still on the high side by comparison to the competition but the supposedly ‘moderate use’ cartridges are prohibitively expensive for those who are looking for a low out-of-pocket expenditure on ink cartridges. There is no reason to suppose that any of the other devices in the range will be any more attractive.
~End~
