The Lexmark Z 31 inkjet is not a printer to get excited about for its looks. As with many of the earlier Lexmark printers however, the curved and short design is at least practical, and allows for easy maintenance and change of toner. With just two buttons and LED lights making up the control panel, (to denote power and paper feed), and a simple folding paper tray the featureless casing does also allow for the product to be cleaned with no trouble.

As has become expected from the team at Lexmark, set-up and installation couldn’t be simpler. Whilst you may need to download the relevant drivers for your computer, you should have your test page printed within 15 to 20 minutes of removing it from the box.

In keeping with the very basic design and look, the printer has a neatly folding top paper tray, with a bin capacity of 100 sheets. In addition to this, there is also provision for single feeding of paper sheets and envelopes, etc. When printing, resolution can be up to an impressive maximum of 1200x1200dpi. At this level, speed is pedestrian, but the quality is close to laser good.

The highest resolution is only available in the highest setting, and whilst quality of text is excellent, and photos near laser quality, the speed of printing is exceptionally slow. The speed can be increased significantly, (up to 8ppm) by employing the “Quick Print” mode, which works well for text documents. However, colors do fade noticeably, and is not good enough for all but the smallest of images.

The Lexmark Z 31 is further hindered by its minimal connection via parallel port with no serial port option, let alone the popular USB connectivity. It is also only easily compatible with Windows operating systems, though as mentioned earlier, XP and Vista drivers will need to be downloaded from the Internet.

Whilst this sounds like the printer is a dinosaur, it isn’t entirely the case. The Lexmark Z 31 was amongst the first printers to benefit from Lexmark’s unique “Accu-Feed” technology, to help reduce blockages and paper jams. Still used today, it does help when doing volume printing particularly.

For an entry level printer, some nice photo options exist too, whilst printing on the maximum setting does deliver good quality, if slow copies. It is possibly a victim not of its own deficiencies, but how fast paced printer technology has become over recent times.

Out of the box, you will have everything needed to set-up and go, making it a great idea for a kid’s first printer. Included in the box are a black, and color Lexmark Z 31 Printer Ink Cartridge. Printer Cartridge is as simple to replace as you would expect from this user friendly piece of kit, being no harder than lifting the top, letting the print heads come to the middle automatically, and then switching the old ones for the new. Lexmark Printer ink is trusted worldwide.