The Lexmark X422 has both an Ethernet and an integrated automatic duplexer. In addition to faxing, it allows you to send and receive email messages with attachments or Web links.

The X422 has speeds that beat its competitors on almost every front. In our tests, the X422 shot out text documents at 16.9ppm and greyscale graphics at 8ppm. It copied a text document at a quick 6ppm. The X422 also scanned a 4" x 5" colour photo at 100dpi in just 19 seconds.

The fast speeds didn't bring poor results, either. Text looked dark and sharp, and graphics appeared better than those produced by many other MFPs. Though graphics printouts from the X422 exhibited slight banding, our test photograph showed good details. Narrow parallel lines in our line art test document printed distinctly. Copies of a greyscale photo, on the other hand, looked extremely dark, and as a result retained little of the detail of the original. Copies of a text document were very good, comparable in quality to those made by other laser MFPs.

The front panel includes buttons for copying, faxing, sending email, and printing, as well as a number pad for entering fax numbers. Strangely, the X422 lacks a scan button on the console. To scan our colour photo, we had to use a PC and go through Windows XP's scanning driver. While its colour scan quality was good, its greyscale scans were even more impressive. It was still not up to the standard of the Brother MFC-8840DN, however.

With the automatic document feeder, the X422 stands quite tall, so make sure to give it a lot of headroom. Adding an optional paper tray would make it even taller; it comes with a 250-sheet tray, and additional 250 and 500-sheet trays are available. The X422 comes with 128MB of memory, but accommodates up to 384MB.