Simplistic in design and function, this is typified in the Lexmark z32 inkjet printer by the presence of a control panel made up of just 2 buttons, and 2 LED lights. Respectively, these are for power and paper feed notification. The simplicity of the printer continues down to its small dimensions. Clearly a sign of the times from whence it heralds, this isn’t a show stopping piece of kit, but then, it never claimed to be.

As with all things Lexmark, the Lexmark z32 is nice and simple to plug in and play – as it were. No more than simply plugging the appropriate cables into their respective ports, and installing to the computer, things should be good to go as quickly as ten or fifteen minutes from taking it out of the box. There may be a slight delay in downloading drivers of course, though these are quite easy to find through your favorite search engine.

The front loading paper tray has a small capacity of just 100 sheets, which cannot be upgraded. However, it does benefit from automatic envelope feeding and auto paper handling. With Lexmark’s Drop & Go technology too, paper loading really couldn’t be a great deal easier. With various quality settings, the maximum of 1200 x 1200dpi produces excellent quality images. The speed of print at the highest setting is slow, but the quality produced negates much of this annoyance.

Dependant on the setting selected, up to 7 pages per minute (ppm) can be printed in black and white and 3.5ppm in color. Whilst these speeds are not going to break any records, the colors are vibrant, and the blacks deep – helpfully boosted by the integrated sRGB ColorFine printer driver software. Reproduction of black text is also crisp and clean, which is a real plus.

As mentioned earlier, whilst drivers for later OS need to be found online, the Lexmark z32 is compatible with both Windows and Mac – quite unusual for a budget Lexmark printer at the time. Also unusual in comparison to many other such printers, the z32 enjoys both parallel port and USB connection, which makes things a whole lot simpler.

The Lexmark z32, whilst a little aged, is far from being Ben Stiller’s next screen companion. This is particularly typified by the inclusion of the aforementioned Drop & Go tech and Lexmark’s Accu-Feed paper feeding system, which considerably limits the number of paper jams.

Being an entry level printer too, such features as the automatic optimization of Internet images, is also a real plus for this compact, easy to use and, just as important, easy to maintain machine.

Maintenance is so easy in fact, that as with many of the Lexmark printers, replacing the Lexmark Z 32 Printer Ink is nothing more arduous than lifting the front, allowing the printer heads to settle back to center and swapping old for new. Taking less than a minute, (including unpacking the new ink), it will barely interrupt your print runs. Whilst unsuitable for heavy use, the Lexmark z32 is perfectly fine as a bedroom printer for the kids. Lexmark Printer ink Cartridge is trusted worldwide.