Lexmark's new Genesis S815 printer

Lexmark's new Genesis S815 printer

Lexmark's new Genesis S815 printer Review : It’s hard to get that excited about printers, isn’t it? But the new Genesis, just announced by Lexmark, is about the coolest-looking business device since the MacBook Air. Even better, it’s powerful and efficient so you can justify it to the bean counters on those terms rather than on its striking looks. It’s also exceptionally simple to use, and satisfyingly accessible when it comes to more complicated scanning and printing requirements, like multiple images on one page, say.

In case you can’t make sense of it from the photo, what’s new about the Genesis is that it stands vertically, as opposed to horizontally as other printers do. So when you want to copy or scan a document, you lift the front of the case forward and drop the paper in.

Inside the machine is a 10-megapixel camera sensor which enables the machine to scan much faster than most scanners and printers. Lexmark’s claim, borne out in our tests, is that it transfers “from document to digital” in about three seconds – it’s not unusual to wait a minute or more for this to occur with most printers. There’s no automatic page feeder, please note, which is about the worst you can say about the Genesis.

If you’re familiar with scanning documents you’ll know the most time-consuming and deeply frustrating part of the process is finding you’ve positioned the original in just-not-quite the right place, and you only discover this when the scanning is finished.

Here, the camera sensor puts an image of what you’ll get onto the colour display on the front of the printer. So you know instantly if you’re in the right place and can adjust accordingly.

The 4.3-inch display is also a touchscreen which you use to operate the printer. Along with the fast scanning capabilities, the machine also copies, prints and even faxes as well. It works wirelessly so you have flexibility as to where you put the Genesis. The touchscreen also features Smart Solutions which means you can download apps such as Evernote, Facebook and Twitter if you must.

Individual colour and black ink tanks, combined with well-priced refill cartridges mean the Genesis is economical to run. It has automatic two-sided printing options to save you paper, too. It's very much a high-end machine but it's not like some printers which are cheap to buy but expensive to operate.

This printer looks great and performs spectacularly. It’s a solid, feature-packed machine which, if you’re looking for a scanner that is fast and effective, is hard to beat.