Lexmark B3442dw Black and White Laser Printer, Wireless with Ethernet, Mobile-Friendly and Cloud Connection with Automatic Two-Sided Printing CarbonNeutral Certified Office Printer (4-Series)

I was worried when it didnt come with a cable to connect to the computer (wasnt sure my computer could hack wireless!) but it works! And its SO FAST!!! The duplex is a bonus. So far so good. I hope Im not giving 5* too early!

Great simple monochrome (black & white) laser printer. I got it to print work orders and documents so I don’t waste expensive inkjet ink on them. It works just as advertised. I had a little trouble getting it setup to print from my laptop over WiFi. There are no instructions with the printer and none available online. You basically get a piece of paper with cryptic images that go through the printer unpacking and setup but no detailed instructions on how it operates. The setup of connecting over WiFi is done through the a simple screen with 3 buttons. You need to scan through all of the functions and then through the alphabet to enter password. Its time consuming and frustrating that they didnt make a better way to do this. The printer ended up connecting to my home WiFi network without a problem but would not allow printing through my PC. It showed up in the Windows printer list several times and would bounce between “ready” and “error” states. I finally was able to determine which printer was the correct one in my settings and delete the others. After that it works fine. I also connected via Ethernet for testing and that also worked fine. Also had an issue printing from Apple iPhones or iPads. The phone would show and “out of paper” error on it even though the tray was full and printer was online. Ultimately, I found a work around where you change the paper from “letter” to “letter, plain paper” and it will print fine. So it looks like there are a few bugs to be worked out still on the part of the manufacturer. I still give this printer a solid 4 stars for price, quality and the fact that it does just what it’s supposed to which is quickly print black and white documents inexpensively. Just be prepared to work though some issues with the initial setup.

If you are looking for a nice printer for your home office, this one may be a good choice. First of all, this was simple to set up, even for someone who is still running Windows 7 Pro. I did use the disk to get rolling on the drivers - and it seemed to be updated drivers. The printer runs pretty quiet and quick. The biggest concern you may have is replacement toner cartridges, which similar printers at Lexmark are well over $100, although I havent seen any for sale anywhere as of yet - but since this is a new product, Im pretty sure they will roll out when the printer goes public. Im not sure if this cartridge can be refilled - some offices Ive worked in have had refillable cartridges, but Id have to investigate more to see if that is possible for this one.

Horrible printer. Very slow printing

This is the worst printer I have ever purchased. It constantly jams for no reason. It does not matter how much you fan the paper or what kind of paper you use. If you buy this printer you should expect to clean out paper jams on a daily basis. I will say once you actually get it to print, the quality is good.

I wish I had never purchased this computer. The only thing it’s good at is getting paper jammed. Purchase another printer, you can find better quality in this price range.

Purchase a pair of these for my woodworking shop, and just was amazed at the difference. Purchased a pair for my brother and son after installing these in my shop.

I’ve owned two other Lexmark printers which I really liked, so bought this printer for our second home. The hardware is great but as others have pointed out installation can be a nightmare. No manual comes with the printer and trust me you need one! There is a tiny two-line display that is extremely non-intuitive, although if you mess around with it long enough you can sort of figure it out. The app they tell you to download is very basic and does get you connected to Wi-Fi, although you need to go into settings on your iPhone and connect your phone to the printers Wi-Fi first...which isn’t obvious. Then when I tried to print it kept saying I needed to put paper in the tray, which was already full of paper. We tried everything and finally sent it back for exchange. The new one had the same problem! Arghhhhhh!!! After much more messing around with it I believe this is a driver issue. The printer is trying to print from the multi-purpose tray on the front rather than Tray 1 at the bottom. I’ve set the default tray to Tray 1 yet the problem persists. On my Mac I was able to change the tray setting to Auto and it works fine now; on my iPhone my son discovered that if you change the paper from “letter” to “letter, plain paper” it’ll work! You have to do that every time you print though. I can live with this, at least the printer is way better than the HP it replaces, which would never print wirelessly like it was supposed to. Hopefully a future iOS update will fix this! Be forewarned!!!

The printer does not seem to come with a USB cable. Same with the ethernet cable; if you want to connect this way, you’ll need to have an extra one on hand or buy one. Or at least mine didn’t come with any cables other than power. That was ok for me because I am using Ethernet and I have a bunch of spare Ethernet cables, and there is also wireless connectivity available. But USB likely the easiest way to get up and running for non-techies, so if this is you, have a spare printer cable lying around, or purchase one with the printer. Same with the ethernet cable; if you want to connect this way, you’ll need to have an extra one or buy one. Once unpacked and set up following the crude pictograms included, it was necessary to download the drivers and install them. The unit does come with a CD installer disk, but even if you have an antique computer with an optical drive, it makes more sense to go to the Lexmark website and download the latest drivers. Who knows how old the ones on the CD are? After plugging the printer into my switch using Ethernet, and running the installer, the software could not find the printer, nor was it listed by my router as being connected (though the Ethernet activity lights on the printer were flashing). Eventually, I noticed that the small LCD display on the top of the printer had some questions about time, date, and language that must be answered on the printer before it will even show up on the network. After completing the setup on the small LCD screen, the printer was connected but the installer still could not find it. Instructions would have been helpful here, especially for people who aren’t technically inclined, but you can probably find help online. It was necessary for me to go to my router’s web page, get the printer’s DHCP provided IP address, and plug that into the installer manually in the “advanced set up” area. Also, it asks for you to manually type in the port name. I typed in “Ethernet” (no quotes) and it worked, the installer was able to proceed. After doing this on my main computer, I went back to the router and assigned a fixed IP address to the printer so that I will have no trouble finding it when I install the driver on my laptop and other computers. The software itself is nice and compact. I have a Canon printer that came with software that’s all up in your face all the time… meaning, it came with a bunch of bloatware like scrapbooking apps and card making apps and a bunch of docks and control panels that I had to carefully remove after writing the review. In the case of this Lexmark, it’s all business and it’s not in your face at all, and I appreciate that. The printer is fast and quiet. Over Ethernet, when I send a page the printer, it’s done printing before I can even start wondering how long it will take. Coming from an inkjet printer, this is really nice. Also, the network connectivity is indispensable these days. It certainly is if you have two or more devices in your life that you’d like to print from. That network connectivity also makes it easy to tweak the settings as the printer publishes a web page that you can reach from any web browser (if connected to from your local network). Just type the IP address of the printer into your browser and the settings page comes up. By the way, this is another good reason to assign a static IP to the printer; you can then just add a bookmark to your browser. That administrative web page allows you to change many parameters in several categories. Some of the settings are beyond my paltry comprehension, but there is a lot there that is useful to me, and some of it I’m sure is useful to IT personnel deploying these things on larger networks. There are a lot of IT tweaks and settings available here. The printer is handsome looking and compact, and it feels durable and professional. I think it will be perfect for my home office. Every computer I have can now print quickly and quietly from anywhere in the house. The unit comes with a toner cartridge that is described as a “starter cartridge.” It’s not clear to me how many pages we will get out of this; also, at the time of writing this, I couldn’t find replacement cartridges on Amazon or on the Lexmark site. No doubt they will be rolling these out soon; I just hope it’s sooner than my “starter cartridge” lasts. When available, I expect the replacement cartridges to cost well north of $100 each. I remember when laser printers cost a couple thousand dollars each, and then you had to pay extra for network connectivity. The price of this one is very appealing. In fact, it seems like a steal at this price. Just don’t forget that they get you on the toner, same as inkjet makers get you on the ink. There’s still no free lunch. Other than that, I’m delighted with this little printer. It really is quite perfect for a small office.

Great printer. I read where you needed a cd drive for installation. I went on their web site and installed a driver from there with no problems. Works great as a simple black and white printer. Well worth the price if you do not need color.