Laser Printer Roundup
1. Samsung CLX-3175FW All-In-One Printer
Scanner and copier
The scanner is reasonably fast, scanning a photo at 300 dpi in 13 seconds. A preview of a full document is, however, a little slower, at 18 seconds. The quality is decent, with contrast mostly respected. Once again, scanned images lack sharpness. The copier is also decent, producing color copies in 24 seconds and 15 seconds for black and white.
Build Quality
The CLX-3175FW is a multifunction color laser printer with a fax machine, which includes both WiFi and an Ethernet port. Unfortunately, the double-sided mode is manual, not automatic. You'll have to make to do with using Samsung's own SPL-C printing language. It includes Windows, Mac and Linux drivers.
- CLX-3175FW All-In-One...
The main paper drawer can include 150 pages, but the sheet feeder can only hold 15 sheets.
The CLX-3175 is an improved version of the CLP-315 (a colour laser printer without copying or scanning) that we tested recently. Both print at the same speed and quality.
| Specifications | ||||
| Resolutions | 600 x 2400 ppp | Number of Cartridges | 4 | |
| Speed B&W/Color | 16 / 4 ppm | Number of Base Colors | 4 | |
| Ink Drop Size | Picolitres | Scanner/Copier/Fax | Yes/Yes/Yes |
Printing Speed
The CLX-3175W is fast in black and white, slow in color and even slower when it starts from standby.
In monochrome mode, it reaches 15.9 pages per minute on our test documents, but just 4 ppm, in colour. That's not a lot, and even inkjet printers easily reach 7 ppm.
What we found more alarming, though, was the time it took to produce the first page of a document. If the printer is already warmed up, then this takes 11 seconds. If, however, it starts from standby, then you need to wait 32 seconds. And that figure climbs to 50 seconds when you first switch the printer on at the start of the day.
Printing Quality
This is a 600 dpi printer, and that's visible in the precision of characters and lines, which could easily be improved. Characters suffer from pixellation, and black text on a coloured background doesn't look very sharp. Despite this, draft mode is good enough for everyday use.
In graphics, shaded areas are even, with blocks of bright colour. However, some detail is lost, including some gradients. In the image below, the red bar should contain a gradient but that has completely disappeared.
Photos lack sharpness with blurry details. Contrast isn't really well maintained, and the colours are noticeably different from the original, with a red/orange tinge and shades that are much brighter than they should be.
Energy Use and Noise
When on standby, this printer requires 9.4 W, but can reach 660 W white printing, which is rather high. Noise levels, too, are quite high and the printer quickly heats up. There's also a rather unpleasant smell while printing.
Cost per page
Of course, most manufacturers don't supply a full cartridge with their printers, and Samsung is no exception. It ships its printers with enough toner to print 1000 pages in black and white and just 700 colour pages. Regular cartridges come with enough for 1500 and 1000 pages, respectively.
This gives a combined cost of 9.27 p per colour page.
| Pluses | Minuses |
|---|---|
-Text quality (in draft mode and normal mode) -Windows, Mac and Linux compatibility | -Ships with smaller toner cartridges -Lacks sharpness -No PCL6 or PS3 support -Graphics quality -Slow at colour printing for a laser printer |
 This Samsung printer is a color laser printer for the price of a black and white laser. If colour printing is what's important to you--and that's entirely reasonable--then it could be the printer for you. But remember that it uses more energy than some others, and that it's loud and slow too. | |
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!