A multifunction monochrome, this printer comes with 128 MB of memory and can be comfortably shared by a work group of around twenty people. It has plenty of cards up its sleeve but won't be affordable to everyone.
The only thing missing is colour, though organisations going for this printer are likely to be deliberately choosing a machine that doesn't include it. The X464DE does however have a large, tiltable, colour touch screen (15 cm by 9 cm) that's nice to use, especially for those with big hands. The screen isn't the most responsive however - you'll need to wait 4 seconds between when you request an action and its completion.
All the functions on this 4-in-1 (printer, copier, colour scanner, fax) can be activated with the screen and double sided mode and wi-fi and Ethernet connectivity are included. The printer is Windows, Mac and Linux compatible and it also supports PCL6 and PS3. Standard loader capacity is 300 pages but this can be extended with the addition of further drawers to increase capacity.
There was some disparity between the speeds measured in our tests and those announced in the spec. Lexmark claims 38 pages per minute (ppm) but we scored it at 18 ppm. The double sided speeds drop to 9 ppm. These are comparable speeds to the HP LaserJet Pro M1212nf, a 4-in-1 monochrome for the enterprise sector, slightly better than the Samsung SCX-3205W (15 ppm), but a good way down on the 26 ppm yielded by the Canon i-sensys MF4570dn.
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The quality of prints is precise, sharp and clean. We have no criticisms to make except for the presence of a slight print head line. The contour of the letters makes them perfectly legible and gives the X464DE a well-earned five star rating! We compared the prints to those with the Dell 1130 and the Canon i-sensys MF4570dn and the Lexmark clearly comes out on top for print quality.
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The scanner resolution is 600 x 600 dpi. While the X6464DE excels as a printer, the scanner can only really serve as a back-up solution. The definition lacks precision and the image details and contours look slightly blurred. Skin colours have no nuance and are overexposed. It takes 12 seconds to scan an image at 300 dpi, which is pretty good.
There's a nice feature that allows you to send scanned documents to various destinations (USB key, email and network).
The printer consumes 20 Watts in standby and 300 Watts when printing. The standby score is too high but is no doubt due to the power required for the screen and the small lamp illustrated above. Again, comparison with the Canon i-sensys MF4570dn, which consumes just 2.4 Watts in standby and 320 Watts when printing, isn't favourable.
Measured at 50 dB(A), the X464DE is fairly quiet.
High yield cartridge
Standard cartridge
Hardware
The only thing missing is colour, though organisations going for this printer are likely to be deliberately choosing a machine that doesn't include it. The X464DE does however have a large, tiltable, colour touch screen (15 cm by 9 cm) that's nice to use, especially for those with big hands. The screen isn't the most responsive however - you'll need to wait 4 seconds between when you request an action and its completion.
All the functions on this 4-in-1 (printer, copier, colour scanner, fax) can be activated with the screen and double sided mode and wi-fi and Ethernet connectivity are included. The printer is Windows, Mac and Linux compatible and it also supports PCL6 and PS3. Standard loader capacity is 300 pages but this can be extended with the addition of further drawers to increase capacity.
A wide, tiltable, colour touch screen
A little light comes on to illuminate the printed pages
Speeds
There was some disparity between the speeds measured in our tests and those announced in the spec. Lexmark claims 38 pages per minute (ppm) but we scored it at 18 ppm. The double sided speeds drop to 9 ppm. These are comparable speeds to the HP LaserJet Pro M1212nf, a 4-in-1 monochrome for the enterprise sector, slightly better than the Samsung SCX-3205W (15 ppm), but a good way down on the 26 ppm yielded by the Canon i-sensys MF4570dn.
Quality: excellent
The quality of prints is precise, sharp and clean. We have no criticisms to make except for the presence of a slight print head line. The contour of the letters makes them perfectly legible and gives the X464DE a well-earned five star rating! We compared the prints to those with the Dell 1130 and the Canon i-sensys MF4570dn and the Lexmark clearly comes out on top for print quality.
Scanner and copier
The scanner resolution is 600 x 600 dpi. While the X6464DE excels as a printer, the scanner can only really serve as a back-up solution. The definition lacks precision and the image details and contours look slightly blurred. Skin colours have no nuance and are overexposed. It takes 12 seconds to scan an image at 300 dpi, which is pretty good.
There's a nice feature that allows you to send scanned documents to various destinations (USB key, email and network).
15 seconds is reasonable for a copy and the copy mode has plenty of options, such as double-sided, adapting copies to the desired format, setting intensity, scale and so on. We did our tests under so-called standard conditions, at default settings. The quality of prints merits a three star rating. While the graph is relatively legible, the coloured background isn't well-rendered at all and legibility is affected. As far as reading text goes however, it's perfectly okay.
Copy settings
Energy consumption & Noise levels
The printer consumes 20 Watts in standby and 300 Watts when printing. The standby score is too high but is no doubt due to the power required for the screen and the small lamp illustrated above. Again, comparison with the Canon i-sensys MF4570dn, which consumes just 2.4 Watts in standby and 320 Watts when printing, isn't favourable.
Measured at 50 dB(A), the X464DE is fairly quiet.
Cost per page
Most mono lasers are around the 2.5 pence per page mark. Colour prints often cost around five times this, which is a huge difference. Here, thanks to the very high/high capacity cartridges, the cost per page drops to 1.4/1.2 pence. The cartridge delivered with the machine will give you 7000 pages. We like the fact that Lexmark is bucking the trend of supplying new machines with half-empty cartridges.
ISO lifespan for text
Extra high yield cartridge
ISO lifespan for text
Extra high yield cartridge
| Cartridge | Price |
ISO lifespan |
Cost per page |
| X463X21G (black) | £210 | 15000 | 1.4 pence |
| Cartridge | Price |
ISO lifespan |
Cost per page |
| X463H11G (black) | £105 | 9000 | 1.2 pence |
| Cartridge | Price |
ISO lifespan |
Cost per page |
| X463A11G (black) | £79 | 3500 | 2.26 pence |
Pros
- A well-furnished multifunction, wi-fi + double-sided included
- Excellent quality prints
- Big, colour touchscreen
- Low cost per page
- 3 toner capacities (3500, 9000 or 15000 pages)
Cons
- Frequent blockages
- No colour prints
- High stand-by energy consumption: 20 W
- Slow to come on after being turned off completely
- Costly
Conclusion
This is certainly an expensive model to purchase but is economical to run. It gives excellent print quality, is rapid and cost per page is low. If you don't need colour and you're looking for a high performance and practical model, without any budgetary restrictions, look no further.
OUR SCORE
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