Best printer brands Lexmark printers

Lexmark produces all-in-one inkjet printers and laser printers

Lexmark printers range in price from around £50 to £250 for a more feature laden model. Higher end models have touchscreens and access to print applications which you can download to the printer.

Testing Lexmark printers

We’ve tested more than 15 Lexmark printers and around a third of them are Best Buys.

Lexmark printers are often packed with features. For example, lots of Lexmark printers on the market come with built-in wi-fi and these models are often a lot cheaper than they would be from other printer manufacturers.

But printing isn’t just about features – it’s also about quality and speed, which we test and rate in our printers test lab.

Take a look at the best performing Lexmark printers in our tests.

Running costs and cartridges for Lexmark printers

Ink cartridges

Lexmark printers all used to use combined colour cartridges, but models launched since 2009 take separate single-colour ink cartridges - so most new Lexmark printers you'll find in show use separate colour cartridges. 

With a combined colour cartridge you have to replace the entire cartridge if you run out of one colour of ink. Separate colour cartridges mean you only have to replace the colour that runs out, which should save you money in the long run, particularly if you frequently find yourself using more of one colour in your prints.

This new breed of Lexmark printers use either code 100 or 108 inks which are available in standard or high capacity versions. A high capacity cartridge - marked XL - will cost more to buy, but should work out cheaper by producing more prints than a standard capacity ink cartridge. 

The Lexmark Pinnacle Pro901 is compatible with the cheap Lexmark 105 cartridge

Cheap ink

A small number of the most expensive models in Lexmark's range - such as the Lexmark Pinnacle Pro901 and Platinum Pro905 - are compatible with Lexmark code 105 black ink. This cartridge is extremely cheap at under £5 and produces some of the cheapest black text prints we've seen in our tests.

Historically, Lexmark's previous X series printers were fairly expensive to run - some models used more than £2 worth of ink when printing an A4 photo, but it's all changed now. The 'S' and 'Pro' ranges with their individual tanks are far more competitive in terms of ink running costs. 

Lexmark printer ranges

Lexmark inkjet printers are classified into two ranges:

• 'S' prefixed models - These printers are aimed at those with general home printing purposes in mind. They still include many of the photo printing features of other manufacturers photo targeted ranges - such as memory card slots and PictBridge. The first wave of S series printers all had names beginning with 'I' - such as the Lexmark Interpret S405.
• 'Pro' series - Printers in the Pro range build on the S series features by adding extras - such as an automatic document feeder - which should help with more advanced home office printing tasks. Model names begin with a 'P', such as the Pinnacle Pro901.