As one of four initial models in Lexmark's new Professional Series of all-in-ones (AIOs), the Lexmark X9575 Professional ($249.99 direct) is explicitly aimed at the small office and home office. With that in mind, it's important to understand that although the printer is packed with office-centric features, it also offers photo-centric functions for home use. This combination makes the X9575 appropriate for double duty as a home and home-office AIO.

Setup—mostly standard fare—consists of finding some flat space for the 10.6-by-18.3-by-15.1-inch (HWD) AIO, installing the black and color ink cartridges, loading paper, connecting a cable, and running the automated installation routine. The one unusual—and potentially annoying—touch is a complete lack of printed instructions. Instead, the setup program walks you through each step onscreen. Some people may prefer this approach, but I find it disconcerting to be unable to look over the setup steps beforehand. In any event, I was able to test the AIO using a wired network connection and Windows XP. According to Lexmark, the disc will also install drivers and a full set of programs for Windows 2000, Vista, and Mac OS X 10.3 or later.

The X9575's photo-centric features include the ability to print photos from memory cards, PictBridge-compatible cameras, and USB keys. You can also preview photos on the 2.4-inch LCD display and edit them using the built-in menus.

Office-centric features start with the ability to scan and fax, even over a network, and work as a standalone copier and fax machine. Even better, the 50-page automatic document feeder (ADF) takes the work out of scanning, copying, or faxing multipage documents. A built-in duplexer lets you print on both sides of a page easily—an important requirement for some kinds of business documents, and an easy way to save money by cutting your paper use nearly in half.

The input tray holds 150 sheets of paper. That's a little on the low side, but if you need a higher capacity, Lexmark also sells a 150-sheet tray ($79.99) for a total 300-sheet capacity. By comparison, the Brother MFC-685cw, intended for the same target users, holds only 100 pages. On the other hand, the MFC-685cw includes a separate 4-by-6 tray for photo paper, so you can have both photo and plain paper loaded at once. With the X9575, unless you get the optional second tray, you have to change paper when you want to switch between printing photos and documents.

Three features define the Professional Series as distinct from Lexmark's other AIOs: availability of a high-capacity print cartridge that ships with the printer, lifetime priority phone support, and a one-year warranty that includes next-business-day replacement. Lexmark claims a cost of 11.2 cents per color page and 5.2 cents per monochrome page with the high-yield cartridges.

Speed is not one of the X9575's strong points, to put it mildly. Its total time on our business applications suite was 22 minutes 7 seconds (using QualityLogic's hardware and software for timing, www.qualitylogic.com). That's far slower than, for example, the less expensive Editors' Choice Canon Pixma MP610, at 12:18. But the MP610 focuses more on printing, without as many AIO features. A more direct comparison would be to the Brother MFC-685cw, which offers a similar set of features and roughly the same slow, but tolerable, speed (21:51). Photo speed was also on the slow side, averaging 2:08 for each 4-by-6 and 4:33 for each 8-by-10.

Output quality is on the low side overall as well. Graphics are on a par with those of most ink jets, but text and photos are both below par. All of the fonts on our text test that you might use in business documents were easily readable at 8 points, but they all needed a size of 10 points or larger to qualify as well formed. Even then, they lacked the crisp edges you'd see in the best-looking text output. I'd call the text good enough for basic business documents, but not suitable if you need to use small fonts, or need documents that look fully professional. I wouldn't even consider using the X9575 for something like a resumé, for example.

Graphics have a tendency to lose thin lines, but that's a common problem with printers. As long as you stay away from thin lines, the output is easily good enough for almost any business use, including material like PowerPoint handouts.

For my photo tests, I used a photo cartridge to print using six ink colors rather than four. The results were just short of true photo quality: a touch too much contrast, and a touch too punchy for serious photographers or for showing off in a frame. On the other hand, they're good enough for printing snapshots to hand out to family and friends or display on a refrigerator or bulletin board.

The X9575's relatively slow speed and subpar output quality limit its appeal. But if your print needs aren't particularly demanding and you need the X9575's other features—scanning to and faxing from your PC, connecting by wired or wireless network (or both), and standalone copying and faxing, it's a more than reasonable possibility. If you're considering it, however, make sure you also take a look at the Brother MFC-685cw, which is even more limited as a printer but less expensive.

Check out the Lexmark X9575 Professional's test scores.

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