Lexmark Z1300

The Lexmark Z1300's simple design reflects its basic functionality. The glossy white body measures 4.8 inches tall, 16.9 inches wide, and 8.4 inches deep, and weighs a featherlight 5 pounds. The paper handling system is typical for a basic inkjet printer the 100 sheet input support juts up from the rear and the output tray pulls out from the front.

The input area is fronted by a translucent gray shield that deflects small objects such as pens and paper clips. The only other feature on the body of the Z1300 is the power button. The Z1300 employs a two tank system, which is standard for low cost inkjet printers one black cartridge and one tricolor (CMY) cartridge.

For six color photo printing, you can swap out the black tank for a tricolor photo tank. Lexmark offers three tiers of ink tank pricing regular capacity, return program (using regular capacity cartridges), and high capacity. The regular black normally costs $22 (about 175 pages), but under the return program, you can get it for $18 if you send your empty ink tanks back to Lexmark.

The high capacity tank costs $25 (about 500 pages). The equivalent color cartridges cost $23 (150 pages), $19, and $30 (475 pages), respectively. Using the high yield cartridges for best value, we estimate that a black only print will cost about 5 cents per page, while a four color page will cost about 11.3 cents per page. These numbers are in line with print costs from other low end inkjet printers. The optional photo cartridge costs $25.