Lexmark Multifunction Laser Printer (25C0210) Review

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(More customer reviews)I recently purchased a Lexmark X502n colour laser multifunction printer, but returned it because of two fatal flaws that are not disclosed in any of the product literature I reviewed before making the purchase.
The first fatal flaw is that the X502n does not support scanning on a Mac network. In the words of Lexmark technical support (who I contacted after encountering difficulty using the scanning function) "scan to network is not supported on Mac." You wouldn't know this from the product literature, which states that a feature is "scanning directly to PC, fax, email, application or network folder" and "Apple Macintosh Operating Systems Supported: Apple Mac OS X." Lexmark sales staff don't even know that the printer won't scan over a Mac network -- before ordering the printer I asked my dealer about the support for Mac networks. She checked with someone at Lexmark, who told her that the X502n works with Mac networks.
The second fatal flaw is that the printer makes noise in "power save" or "sleep" mode. When the printer is in "power save" mode, it is not silent. One or more fans remain on and create a significant amount of noise. The fans never turn off, even hours or days after I last used the printer. In a busy office the noise might not be objectionable, but in my home office it was far too loud. It was louder than anything else, and was a major distraction and annoyance.
Before I ordered the printer, I checked the technical specifications on the Lexmark website and downloaded the user guide. The technical specifications describe the noise levels when the printer is operating and when it is idle, but do not mention the noise level when it is in "power save" mode. The noise level in "power save" mode is clearly different from the noise level at idle, but it is not described in the technical specifications. The user guide describes the "power save" mode as being the same as "sleep" mode. Based on this description, and because there were no specifications provided for the noise level in "power save" mode, I assumed that the printer would be silent when in "power save" or "sleep" mode. In the absence of any information to the contrary, this is a reasonable assumption, as other printers and electronics equipment which I own are silent when in sleep mode.
Apart from these two fatal flaws, the printer worked fine. The colour prints looked as good as any other colour laser prints I've seen. I did have some difficulty setting up the printer, as the user guide omits some basic information (including simple stuff like how to enter a space or the same letter twice using the keypad), which isn't provided on Lexmark's web site, either. Lexmark technical support eventually responded to all three of my e-mails, but the responses took two to four weeks.
Just because the X502n didn't work for me doesn't mean it wouldn't work for you. If you're using a Windows machine and you're planing to put the printer in a location where the fan noise won't be an issue, then the X502n may be worth a closer look.

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