I have always had a prejudice against what have become known in the industry as multifunction printers - - - ones that print, scan, copy and fax. Older generations of these do-everything machines always had one function that never passed muster, which meant I'd have to lay out more bucks for another office machine.

Well, welcome to the new generation of multifunction machines, where everything works (although you may want to skip the fax function due to the prevalence of fax spammers).

I've been playing with the new Lexmark X8350 Office All-in-One ink jet printer ($199.99) and, despite its relatively inexpensive price, it delivers all of these capabilities plus a few additional goodies, including a small LCD screen to enable you to edit photos and built-in slots for memory cards so you can edit and print photos without booting up your computer. It's also PictBridge compatible.

And for those of you who can only think in black and white, you might want to check out the new Lexmark E120n laser printer ($149), which delivers crisp, sharp black and white documents that rival the more expensive lasers.

Unfortunately there are a few weeds in Lexmark's garden. The most noticeable is the company's insistence on sticking with a tri-color cartridge, which means you have to replace it once one of the colors runs out, even though there may be lots of ink left for the other colors.

This reinforces my belief that printer manufacturers make their money from the sale of ink cartridges and not from the sale of printers.

Also, the X8350 is not as sturdy as its higher-priced competitors. But there is no way their foes can compete when it comes to extra features. Plus, the X8350's and E120n's smaller footprint means they take up less space on your desk.

Other key features include:

Lexmark 8350

• It prints up to 19 pages per minute in color and 25 pages per minute in black and white.
• You can view, edit and print photos without a PC directly from a memory card, a USB flash drive or from as PictBridge compatible digital camera.
• Built-in memory card slots support CompactFlash Type I and II, Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro, Memory Stick Duo (with an adapter), Microdrive, MultiMedia, Secure Digital, Mini Secure Digital, SmartMedia and xD cards.
• Lexmark's Productivity Suite software allows you to scan, edit, retouch photos and convert documents to PDF files.
• The fax function features 89 speed dials and 10 groups with 30 numbers per group, five quick-dial buttons, caller ID and distinctive ring selection.
• You can scan to e-mail or print using its 48-bit scanning function.

Lexmark E120n

• It prints at a rate of 20 pages per minute, delivering documents as fast as eight seconds per page.
• It's photoconducter kit lasts up to 25,000 pages. The number or pages you get from a laser cartridge depends on the print resolution settings you choose.
• It can handle a maximum monthly volume of 10,000 pages.
• Image quality is 600 x 600 dpi.
• The printer features a 183 MHz processor, 16 megabytes of memory, USB and Ethernet 10/100 TX Base support.

The output you get from these printers equals or surpasses those from the higher-priced spread and should top the list for those of you on a tight budget. For more information on these and other Lexmark products, check out the company's Web site at www.lexmark.com.

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