Design
Well, at a visual level, the Platinum Pro905 is a big, bulky and mostly grey unit, giving it a heavy business appearance. There's no doubt that's the market that Lexmark's shooting for with this particular multifunction, especially given the inclusion of faxing capability — fast becoming a rarity in the multifunction space — and an additional document tray that quite literally sits underneath the printer body if you choose to install it. One slight catch here is that you can't mix and match paper types willy-nilly, as the lower paper tray will only detect A4/Letter sized paper. If you want to do photo printing or any custom envelope work, it'll have to be from the top tray.
Aside from the printer itself and its bulky paper tray — taking up total dimensions of 30.7x46.5x58.1cm — you'll also find a thick installation manual, driver CD for Windows and Mac, and one additional oddity. There are accessories that you might reasonably expect to come with a printer. Maybe a slim envelope with some photo paper to tease you, or a USB cable. The Pro905 comes with a cleaning cloth. No, really. It's a useful addition too, as while the silver printer body resists fingerprints, the same can't be said of the 4.3-inch touchscreen, which is naturally enough of a fingerprint magnet.
Features
Like the Prestige and Interact models, the biggest gun in the Platinum's arsenal is the inclusion of a 4.3-inch LCD display on the front of the device that fills in for every single button feature of a standard multifunction aside from the power button. It's also compatible with Lexmark's "Smart Solutions" widgets, which you can access from Lexmark's dedicated Smart Solutions web portal. Most of the Smart Solutions available to date have been very business-centric, and they're a decent match for the Platinum's presumed target audience.
From a speeds and feeds viewpoint, Lexmark claims that the Pro905 can manage up to 33 pages per minute (ppm) draft black and 30ppm draft colour. Switching over to normal coverage, Lexmark claims 16ppm and 10ppm respectively. The scanner is a 48-bit CIS type model with an optical resolution of 1200x4800dpi, while faxing is handled via a 33.6Kbps modem. Connectivity is via 10/100 Ethernet, USB or 802.11b/g/n wireless.
Performance
Installation of the Pro905 involved hauling all of its component bits out of the very large box, fitting them together and then switching it on. There's nothing too taxing, unless you find peeling off bits of sticky tape taxing.
Like the other touchscreen models in this range, you can follow through the installation process on your computer's screen or on the touchscreen itself. Or both. It's a great step, as it makes it simple to work out how to install cartridges, where you need to insert plugs and what the different lights and symbols actually mean. We installed the Pro905 on a PC running Windows 7 and an iMac running Snow Leopard and encountered no problems aside from a rather lengthy wait during the install process.
We found installing ink tanks on both the Prestige and Interact an exercise in hair-tearing frustration. We're not sure if we've become accustomed to them, or if the Platinum actually did have easier insertion, as they're the same tanks and the same snap in procedure. Be prepared for some delicate ink tank manipulation in any case.
Lexmark's Smart Solutions are simple enough to install once you've registered for them, and run the gamut of business card scanners to RSS readers. Whether these fit well within your business place, given the fairly obvious business case the Pro905 presents is left up to the buyer. The overall experience with the Pro905's touchscreen was, as with the other touchscreen models we've tested, very satisfactory, with nice large icons for each function, and a serviceable enough digital touch pad for sending out faxes.
It was really only in print speed that the Pro905 let itself down. Forget all about the claimed 33pm/30ppm draft black/colour claims, for a start. In our tests, an initial draft page took 18 seconds to spit itself out. Total average black draft colour speed was a leisurely 12 pages per minute. Heading into normal coverage slowed things down even more, with an initial page time of 20 seconds and seven pages appearing after a minute. Text quality for both draft and normal coverage was quite good for an inkjet, so perhaps this is a printer for those with more patience than us.
While the Pro905 isn't a dedicated photo printer, photo print quality was average without being particularly bad. Some prints were a little darker than we might have wished, but beyond that they were serviceable. Print speed again wasn't much of a priority, with a 10x15cm print coming out in one minute and eight seconds.
With black printing a priority, it's not surprising that Lexmark's big claim for printing costs revolves around black print costs, which it claims comes in as low as 1c per page. That'll depend on whether you buy a regular or high yield cartridge; Lexmark sells both for all four cartridge types the Pro905 can accommodate.
Conclusion
The Platinum Pro905 wasn't quite as frustrating as the Prestige Pro805, but there's no real getting away from the fact that the Platinum is essentially the Prestige with an extra paper tray and faxing ability bolted on. If you need those features and can put up with its slower than average printing speed in return for the smart solutions package and relatively inexpensive print costs, it's a worthwhile but not spectacular buy.
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