Laser Printer Roundup : Samsung SCX-4500W
5. Samsung SCX-4500W
Scanner and copier
The scanner quality is good and colours are fairly accurate. Digitalisation could be sharper and faster: 14 seconds for preview, 14 seconds to scan a 10x15 photo at 300 dpi; other models are twice as fast but how important is this? A black and white copy also takes about 14 seconds.
Samsung has come up with the goods again and is posing problems for the competition with this model. A nice-looking compact multifunction laser (33 x 39 x 16 cm) at the price of an ink jet. Oh, and it’s also a wi-fi model.
- SCX-4500W All-in-One...
| Specifications | ||||
| Resolution | 600 x 600 ppp | Number of Cartridges | 1 | |
| Speed B&W/Color | 16/ ppm | Number of Base Colors | 1 | |
| Ink Drop Size | Picolitres | Scanner/Copier/Fax | Yes / Yes / No |
Build and design
There are a few avantages to a laser machine: they are twice as fast as an inkjets (about 15 pages a minute) and printing costs are
much lower. The SCX-4500W is delivered with toner guaranteeing 2000 pages, whereas ink jets come with consumables for 400 pages at best.
An all-in-one laser however does not only have advantages. The biggest fault is the loss of colour. And a black and white webpage is straight away less legible. We also discovered another fault with this model: installing the wi-fi is a real nightmare. It’s simple: if you don’t want to succeed, just follow the incomprehensible manual. We resorted to instinct! Request the printer’s network configuration using the buttons on top, locate its IP, connect via the internet browser of a computer and organise the wi-fi activation settings. Simple, no? Why doesn’t it say this in the manual?
Print quality
Very good; better than many budget laser printers. You’ll have to settle for black and white though. At least the pages are nice with good greys and precise contours…
Our rating may seem severe but it's due to the absence of colour. We can’t mark it much higher when other printers do both black and white (just as well at times) and colour, though often imperfect. We like to be able to choose rather than to be limited from the start.
Speeds
This is a personal laser printer. This means that it hasn’t been designed to handle 10 pieces of work from ten different users simultaneously. It’s paper holder is proof of this: it only holds 100 sheets rather than the usual 250. Nor is there an automatic double-sided mode. Speeds are on the low side for a laser printer: 16 pages a minute.
Another limitation is that the first page takes a long time (this limits it in terms of use on a reception desk for example). If you leave it in idle for a while and launch a piece of work, you’ll have to wait 18 seconds between sending the document and waiting for it to print. Not very responsive then, but fairly quiet. Have a look at our video:
Cost per page
The printer is delivered with normal toner and not a reduced capacity cartridge as is too often the case. The SCX-4500W will do 2000 pages with the original toner.
Although at the upper limit in terms of cost per page for lasers, you will find costs much lower than with most inkjets (often double). Obviously however, this machine is not aimed at big volume users.
| Pluses | Minuses |
|---|---|
-A nice looking, economic, quiet all-in-one -Good quality prints -Speeds are ok for a personal printer -The scanner does the job -An easy to manage all-in-one cartridge | -A bit slow for first print -High cost per page for lasers -Paper holder limited to 100 sheets |
 This is a compact, nice-looking, practical machine that handles black and white well. This all-in-one (printer, scanner, copier) is very nice to look at. It’s faults: you’ll find faster and more economical elsewhere. | |
I have the scx-4500w and the review is pretty correct, setting up that Wifi make me want to pull my fingernails out.
My biggest pet peeve is the "scan to pc" button doesn't work as its said to. It will work, if it is in Ad-hoc mode, but if its on the network then you will need to open a program do it, it still works but it takes 5 times longer. Overall a great printer though, its certainly far from an eyesore and fits perfectly on my small filecabinet.
Quote from the Dell 2335dn page: "but when it's printing, that rises to an average of 850 W--contrast that to the 20 W required by an inkjet."
You probably meant 85 w? I'm pretty scared if you didn't.
I wouldn't doubt 850 watts, some of the others hit 600....
Any chance to do a review on the Brother MFC Series MFC-9120CN. It just came out and I can't find anything on it.
Precisely as the conclusions of the reviewer, I have tested the Samsung SCX-4500W and immediately run into several problems during configuration. I cannot see how the average user will get the machine to work with full functionality. Scanning is extremely weird, requiring you to start programs on the computer, click buttons and run back and forth to the machine to feed the document. It should simply scan to email or to a file share by pressing ONE button! For the record I have tested this device with Windows, Mac, and Linux.
I believe that the manufacturer of the SCX-4500W would clearly benefit from releasing the software of as open source. The original software and documentation has so many flaws and limitations despite the fact that the product has been on the market for perhaps more that a year. No updates seem to be available. Shall I conclude that further development has been stopped?
There is much more that could be done with a beautiful machine like this if the software and documentation are improved!