I doubted the new Lexmark 7000 Color Jetprinter could touch the 694C in color rendition, but I hooked them up to the same computer and let fly a sample photo. The Lexmark blew it out of the water. The colors were crisper and sharper and the general tone of the photo was better and more accurate. So I tried some regular black print. The Lexmark won that battle, too.
Print speed is eight pages a minute in black, three in color.
Even besides that, it's the little things about the Lexmark that earned it my grudging respect. It came with decent photo imaging and manipulation software and in general a better software package. But best of all, it has a next-business day replacement warranty for the first year. If it breaks on Tuesday, you'll have a new one on Wednesday. When you're shopping for color printers, make sure you get one that has separate ink canisters for black and then for color.