Lexmark Genesis S815 All-In-One Printer - Snap and Print

Introduction

Scanning Re-imagined

It’s not often that we get excited over a single-function printer, much less a multifunction one. The Lexmark Genesis S815 is probably an exception in recent memory. As you can see from the picture below, it’s shaped unlike most all-in-one (AIO) printers. But its refreshing aesthetics pale in comparison to another radical change that takes place under the hood. To be more specific, the S815’s scanner is powered by a 10-megapixel sensor, and works rather like a digital camera.

Termed Flash Scan by the Lexington-based company, the technology involves a lens, red, green and blue LEDs, and a 10-megapixel monochrome CMOS sensor. During scanning, the LEDs flash in quick succession; and through the lens, the sensor captures the images and composite them into a full-colored image. In layman’s parlance, instead of having the scanner moving across the document to be scanned, it takes photos of the document.

The radical scanning method aside, the S815 is a four-in-one (print, copy, scan and fax) multifunction machine with a 4.3-inch touchscreen LCD. It comes with built-in 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi with support for the Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS) standard for getting the AIO onto a wireless network easily and securely. Direct printing can be achieved via the PictBridge-enabled USB port and multi-card slot. The S815 also has something called SmartSolutions, which are little applets that you can add to the AIO and control via the LCD to streamline repetitive tasks. For example, there are "solutions" for scanning business cards, viewing your Google Calendar, viewing and printing your photos from MobileMe, Photobucket, and Picasa, and reading RSS feeds. If you're an Apple iPad, iPhone or iPod touch user, you can also download the Lexmark LexPrint app from the Apple App Store, which allows you to print wirelessly from the mobile device (the devices need to reside within the same network).