Complete listing of June 1996 reviews
By James Alan Miller
Lexmark's Optra E personal laser printer takes giant strides,
despite its small size-8.6 by 13.7 by 9.7 inches-and light weight,
13.2 pounds. Designed to meet a small office's needs, it features
easy installation, excellent drivers and speedy printing-all at
a reasonable $699.
Clear instructions help you breeze through the Optra E's setup
and installation. Press a navy-blue button on the printer's left
side to open it up, and slide in the photoconductor unit and toner
cartridge. Next, simply pull down the paper support and loading
trays, and load your paper. Six LEDs supply information about
your printer. For example, they tell you when to load paper or
if there's a paper jam.
The unit arrives with Lexmark's MarkVision Windows 95 drivers
and utilities, as well as those for Windows 3.1x and DOS. Once
the software's installed, you can have MarkVision launch on boot-up.
The software driver supplies you with an excellent and simple
method to manipulate the printer's numerous features.
The unit features a 150-page built-in paper tray, as well as an
output tray that holds up to 100 pages. For those with larger
needs, an optional 250-sheet tray is available. The Optra E handles
numerous paper sizes and types. The toner cartridge can print
3,000 pages at five percent coverage, while the photoconductor
has a 20,000-page life span. Other features include 600x600dpi
and 300x300dpi print quality options and a rated speed of up to
6 pages per minute. The Optra E incorporates 1MB of memory expandable
to 5MB. This small printer would be a gigantic desktop addition.
Info File
Lexmark Optra E
Price: $699
Pros: Size; installation; print quality
Cons: No cable; larger tray costs extra
Lexmark International
800-891-0331, 606-232-2000
WinMag Box Score: 3.5