There’s no getting around it: The most compelling feature of the Lexmark X1270 is its low price. At $50 it is, for the moment, the least-expensive all-in-one (AIO) you can find. The burning question is, exactly how much AIO does this buy? Unfortunately, not as much as you might like.

The X1270 is obviously aimed at the home user. Yet in addition to printing, scanning, and copying, the device offers two features that many home AIOs don’t. It comes with fax software (though it doesn’t have a built-in fax modem), allowing you to use your PC’s fax modem (that is, if your PC has one). The Lexmark X1270 also allows you to scan directly to email, adding a scanned image to your message as an attachment.

Photos, similarly, are good enough to pass for true photo quality at a quick glance or arm’s length. But I wouldn’t frame them in an effort to archive precious memories. Also, they aren’t waterproof. Even after they’ve dried, the X1270 prints are at risk for smudges from damp hands. Still, they’re good enough to hand out to friends as snapshots or to stick under a refrigerator magnet.

Though it’s hard to pass up its rock-bottom price, you might want to consider the Lexmark X1270 as a supplement to a printer you already have, or use it solely for its copier, scanner, e-mail, and fax features. It might also be a good unit for a child in grade school who needs to print out reports.