There’s plenty to be said for the benefits of speed, especially in the current age of millisecond reductions to the likes of camera start up and autofocus times. All-in-one printers are rarely particularly rapid, instead offering sharpness and high quality as a focal point. The Lexmark Genesis S815 offers an extremely impressive 3 second scanning speed, alongside a number of other impressive features.

One of the major innovations is the design. Being an upright, rather than traditional flatbed, scanner the Genesis takes up far less desk space. This means each document must be clipped in place rather than simply laid on the glass panel. This can become awkward with documents prone to curling as they fail to remain in position. The scans are achieved using a 10MP CMOS sensor and lens, taking a still of the document allowing for rapid processing of the scans. The end quality was impressive, showing sharpness along the edges and a wide enough colour gamut to maintain contrast levels from the original image.

The 4800 x 1200 dpi print resolution produces some impressive end products, although only through paying particular attention to the settings. Going direct through the printer could produce some heavily compressed images unless the particular photo is magnified, then selected. Colour tests showed an accomplished amount of control over the likes of saturation, and a closer inspection more evidence of grain than a number of other models.

The control method is split between the 4.3″ touch screen and touch sensitive panel underneath. Although contact is accurately and rapidly detected the printer itself is often too slow to process the selection. There are plenty of SmartSolutions, which are apps aimed at doing the likes of posting images to Facebook or displaying rss feeds, to be downloaded from the Lexmark website extending the flexibility of the product.