Laser Printers

Samsung CPL-310 is slightly different from conventional laser printer that looks like a large box type machine. Though it resembles square shape, it looks smaller and compact similar to previous generation of colour laser printer you would have imagined. Samsung is known for well designed and attractive laser printers like Samsung ML-1630 and has a sheer amount of design appeal, which has been achieved with Samsung CPL-310 laser printer. The small size design is a perfect selling point for this colour laser printer, which puts back all other features in a desired list.

Design:

When we see the dimension of (W x H x D) 388 x 313 x 243mm, it is small enough for both home and office use. You can comfortably keep on home office desk or in the corner of the bookshelf. Printing speed is the most important factor that defines the performance of a colour laser printer.

Connectivity:

This CPL-310 compact colour laser printer can be connected through USB 2.0 port connection and there is no dedicated built-in network port for printing process. It is not a multifunctional printer and back side of the printer is designed with separate connection junction that gives room for potential options for any network connection. This office laser printer has low operating volume, which is equipped with NO NOIS print engine technology.

Noiseless Laser Printer:

Initially it is easy to setup this Samsung CPL-310 laserjet printer that delivers efficient printing using toner cartridges with simple installation. The NO NOIS print engine technology is not well accentuated the point of silent printing engine when this printer initially launched. It is quite noisy when you initially start the setup and install but later once everything is in place then the printing process will go smoothly without any noise.

Samsung has claimed that CPL-310 is silent laser printer and it is quite managed well. But being a silent printer it has to have extra qualities to claim that true position. When compared to the most competing laser printer in the market, this small business laser printer has a quiet operation. Even its bulky body structure also helps to absorb any printing sound in a powerful manner when compared to the most inkjet printer that comes in old fashioned body structure.

Performance:

When you feed the paper and start a draft printing this, Samsung laser printer would take around 22 seconds to initiate the first printing process. After the first print, additional pages would not take much time rather it would be quickly churned out in five seconds. This feature would end up with great printing speed and delivers nine pages per minute. The quality of the draft print is appreciable but it is not surprising to see the quality because for such print speed it has to deliver the expected quality. Samsung CPL-310 delivers 4ppm for colour prints and 16ppm for black prints. This print speed is well associate for small business groups.

Print Speed:

The quoted monochrome speed is more convincing for such small sized printer with efficient performance. You cannot expect exciting colour laser print speed but Samsung’s rated 4ppm is reasonable. Even if you try for a heavy colour output and photo print the colour print speed would be half of the above stated speed. So, using this colour laser printer for dedicated photo work is unfair and not advisable.

Verdict:

This Samsung laser printer is a simplest and smallest machine that you can own for your little business and home use. Thanks to Samsung, portability of this laser printer is very easy and it is a best alternative for consumer who got used to a style featured large laser printer. Samsung CPL-310 comes in an affordable price range and the print speed is little slower but it is acceptable for small business and home use.

Check other Samsung Laser Printer Reviews, Specs in this website.

Samsung CPL-310 Laser Printer - Technical Specification Table

HP being the world’s largest technology vendor in terms of sales has introduced a brand new LaserJet P2055dn laser printer. This monochrome workgroup laser printer, will meet all the expectations if you need to print good quality monochrome documents quickly. LaserJet P2055dn is inexpensive laser printer for its security features, resolution and speed of printing.

Features:

HP LaserJet P2055dn Network Laser Printer is available in grey colour and it has a two-line monochrome LCD display with the help of this the default density settings can be changed from the printer itself. Advanced options like cleaning mode is available which helps to eradicate the building up of dust on the printer’s movable parts. We can reset the firewall and several security settings to factory defaults are also present in this printer. HP LaserJet P2055dn is an economic printer which has a 250-sheet paper tray and an additional multi-purpose tray. This printer comes with a paper capacity of 800 sheets. It contains 128MB of memory which the users could upgrade to 384MB through a removable side panel. Ethernet and USB connections are also available in HP LaserJet P2055dn Network Laser Printer. Users can even go to the extent of choosing the printer’s web server protocols like HTTP or HTTPS (secure HTTP).
A network configuration report is mandatory to be printed to identify the initial IP address that has been assigned to the printer. The Web-based interface is sparse with the consumables status and statistics being the important aspects. Administrators can set up LaserJet P2055dn mono laser printer’s firewall policy and default print settings can be configured by using the interface. Security authentication, 802.1X is also included which are available competing printers. This monochrome printer comes with some print quality settings which are separated into 600dpi, 1200dpi FastRes and 1200dpi ProRes modes. 1200dpi ProRes mode produces documents with higher quality at a slower pace where as 1200dpi FastRes mode produces documents with relatively lower quality at a faster pace.

HP LaserJet P2055dn Mono Laser Printer can print the first page of a document in an average 9.5sec and subsequent pages at a rate of 35 pages per minute (ppm) by either using the 600dpi or FastRes 1200dpi setting. This setting provides the maximum print speed for this laser printer. HP has added an interesting feature of quiet mode on the LaserJet P2055dn mono laser printer which makes it less noisy but in turn affecting the print speed. It slows down the print speed from 35ppm to 17.6ppm. When using the ProRes printer quality setting we can also choose the preferred line density which is an essential feature that is reserved most expensive printers. The printer employs half tones to increase the number of lines that the printer can print in a given area when these settings are used. This results in highly accurate documents. Test characters printed using these settings are clean, fresh and have pinpoint accuracy. High yield cartridges are installed in the LaserJet P2055dn mono laser printer which costs very less per page. The box would include HP LaserJet P2055dn printer, Pre-installed HP LaserJet Black print cartridge (CE505A) with up to 2,300 pages yield (in accordance with ISO/IEC 19752), Getting Started Guide, CD (user guide, printer software) and a Power cord.

Performance:

The print speed of this P2055dn monochrome laser printer is 35 ppm, which is somewhat faster than some similarly priced lasers. It holds a duty cycle of 50000 pages. HP LaserJet P2055dn takes an average of 14.4sec for the first page to be printed while using the ProRes mode of print quality setting. This is because the printer pauses on every second page which causes the printer to takes 2.5sec to print a single page. The overall speed is close to 14.7ppm. HP LaserJet P2055dn laser printer offers fast print speeds where as costlier printers provide more networking and security features in addition to this. This printer could be classified as a reasonably priced mid-range model for high quantity printing with high line density settings. This printer has HP’s universal print driver which expands the ease of use and productivity. HP print cartridges comes with interactive intelligence which helps in enabling alerts when supplies are low, making management very flexible. With this high performance black-and-white HP LaserJet more can be done in less time.

Warranty:

HP LaserJet P2055dn Workgroup Laser Printer is in no way less than any other laser printer in terms of warranty also as it comes with 1 year warranty. As the user guide in the form of CD and getting started guide are provided with the box, it helps the users to install and figure out the common issues.

Verdict:

The Hewlett Packard LaserJet P2055dn monochrome laser printer is small, simple, fast and produces high quality documents. Hassle-free maintenance is possible with the extended user-friendly features. LaserJet P2055dn is great value at this price even though the costlier printers offer more extensive network features.

HP LaserJet P2055dn Laser Printer - Technical Specification Table

Samsung SCX-4300 is an all in one mono laser printer with copier and scanning functions. This mono laser printer has functional design with sleek plastic body that has a practical approach to enhance usability of the printer. It is specially made for home as well as office use and this printer looks smaller than other laser printer from competitor brands. When compared to rich featured model Samsung SCX-4500, this low cost laser printer has some changes but features same design as earlier version SCX-4200. The additional functions such as copying and scanning are an important selling point for this mono laser printer. Samsung SCX is considered to be a successful series in A4 monochrome laser printer category. Samsung SCX-4300 Multi-function laser printer is built with innovative features that accentuate the point of high printing speed and good aesthetics of the printer.

Design:

This SCX-4300 laser printer is fully made with durable black plastic body along with sleek finish and matte coating, which considerably avoids any fingerprint smudges. It is built with 406mm width, which is little wider than the other home laser printer but has the same height and depth when compared to rival brands. The extra width is made in order to include the scanning engine under its chassis. The A4 scanner bed is nicely sits at top of the machine and spreads from left to right side.

This SCX-4300 Compact Laser printer has wider area at the top and has different shape when compared to Samsung SCX-4500 laser printer. The control panel is at the front end, which feature 16 character LCD display without backlight but you can easily see the details under normal lighting condition. There are totally eight control buttons that gives easy navigational path for any print, copy or scan settings. The menu system can be easily accessed along with the display using controls.

Beneath the control panel there is a dedicated paper emerging slot, which comes with pull out to stop emerging paper falling on the desk. Even if you do not pull out the slot the paper would not fall on the desk. The output tray has capacity of 50 sheets. This mono laser printer has large paper feed tray that has the capacity of 250 sheets and it is double the capacity when compared with previous version of laser printer from Samsung. In this paper feed slot you can also find single sheet multi slot for any special printing purpose.

Connectivity:

The entire range of connection ports are placed at the back section of the printer, which includes power cable connection and USB port connection. It is the only connection facility for sharing data.

Printer Maintenance:

You can easily access drum cartridge and integrated toner, which can be revealed by opening front panel that hinges down firmly. This all in one laser printer comes with half capacity starter cartridge and you can expect nearly 1000 pages from this cartridge. You can extend the life of this cartridge until you buy new cartridge by simply activating lesser toner consumption option in the printer. When compared with higher range of laser printers, this Samsung SCX-4300 mono laser printer does not feature additional large paper input tray and optional duplex printing.

Inbuilt Software:

All the printing, scanning and copying operation can be controlled using in built SmarThru 4 software. A separate utility is provided to diagnose the printer problem such as Dr.Printer. The print quality setting is well supported by driver and you can easily handle this driver using simple navigational panel

Performance:

The print quality of this Samsung SCX-4300 Printer, Scanner and copier perform at fair level and not been accentuated with the point of excellence but considerably delivers 15ppm of print speed. Samsung claims the print speed to 18ppm in A4 and 19ppm for letter. The maximum resolution that this laser printer can achieve is 600 dpi with 256 shades of grey and well supported by 8MB of internal device memory.
The darker shade text prints are not up to the mark and it shows some curves and jagged lines that are visible on the text. Business graphs, when printed in greyscale, loses much of its details and looks with stripes on the printed sheet. The quality is not up to the expectation for graph prints with grey shades. The same results apply for photographic prints and it looks like a dot matrix print without details in shadow and darker areas.

Low Running Cost:

The important aspect of this business laser printer is its printing cartridge that cost around £40 and it well supports 2000 ISO pages. The cost per page including paper cost is more economic and comes around 2.7p. This mono laser printer uses normal toner and drum cartridge that keeps the running cost minimal. This cost is normal and applicable for mono laser printer and you are not charged with extra running cost when you use Samsung SCX-4300 multifunction laser printer.

This home laser printer gives balanced performance with scanning, print and copying function, which is suitable for moderate office use and home use. You cannot expect this printer to perform more printing volume of about 10,000 pages per month that is 300 – 400 pages continuously. Even if it does this job then the running cost is expensive. If you are looking for high volume printing capacity machine then you need to look for some high level laser printer that well suite your daily printing needs.

Photocopying:

All the photocopy functions are controlled using command buttons on the control panel. The same document can be taken with 99 copies using the option available in the control panel itself. You can easily perform resizing of documents that range from 50% to 200% from the original document. This mono laser printer has impressive photocopy print speed and shows up single page photocopy approximately in 11 seconds. It would take some extra time when you take photocopy of full sized colour photo. But for such low price laser printer this photocopy speed performance is considerable.
When you take a photocopy of a greyscale print in Samsung SCX-4300, the surface of the image and the text seems to be scrubbed off and not clear. Especially when the greyscale print is printed from the same printer the result looks very bad. The same result could also been seen with other branded all in one laser printers and from other models of Samsung. This effect is due to clash between dot print with scanning technology that comes inbuilt.

Scanning:

The closing door of scanner section that flips opens up to a moderate level and it is fully supported by internal spring mechanism. In case of any paper jam it opens up and gives enough space for easy adjustment. Normally in all laser printer the scanner section will opens up fully and stands in a vertical position but Samsung SCX-4300 does not feature such provision. It has optical resolution of 600 x 2400 dpi and comes with enhanced resolution of 4800 x 4800 dpi.

Verdict:

Samsung SCX-4300 is an honest laser printer with cost effective printing solution. This laser printer performs well in text prints, business graphics and chart prints. Only the photocopies of greyscale shades shows unclear and little scrubbed off. It has reasonable print cost and definitely fit in your budget. If you look for low priced mono laser printer with multifunction facility that gives reasonable running cost then this is your choice for both home as well as office use.

Check 2010 Latest Laser Printers, other Samsung Laser Printer Models, Reviews in this website.

Samsung SCX-4300 - Technical Specification Table

HP, the well known brand name for documentation service has simply designed LaserJet CP2025n keeping in mind small business work groups. HP has given importance to the network connection while designing this laser printer, so that the user can have reliable response from the multiple host computers. You can also expect some competitive print speed and print quality at the cost of accepting this printer as a space consuming unit that weighs around 50 pound.

When compared to its close contenders, this printer does have slow black print speed but produces high quality colour prints. HP has made this printer more user friendly by providing easy to understand instructions with comprehensive settings and features for user, which put together in an accessible tool box software. It is an efficient colour laser printer specially made for office usage.

Sluggish Design:

Being a 50 pound weighed laser printer, it does not have attractive design but holds the credit for well managed control panel and tucked in drawers. It has a standard colour combination with grey and black mix. With large working space on the printer, it is easy for paper handling on both feed tray and output tray and the space are well distributed between the panels. This laser printer has wide dimension and requires pair of hands to move around in your office desk. If you are looking for smaller sized colour laser printer then you need to sacrifice the quality of print. At the bottom of this printer you can find 250 sheet main paper output tray with fold down mechanism and has the capacity to hold 20 pound paper.

Additionally 50 sheet manual input tray is found at the bottom, which is equipped with adjustable paper guides suitable for various media. With added cost you can opt for additional 250 sheet tray to accommodate extra volume of papers and can be regularly used for particular paper media like letterhead. The control button is placed at the corner in front of the printer. All the connective ports are located at the back of the printer and this includes a USB port, power plug and an Ethernet jack for establishing simple network connection with the router.

Features:

Front Control Panel:
This CP2025n network laser printer has simple and useful control panel that is placed at the corner and it is difficult to have better visibility of the display. It would have been better if the panel is placed at the top for easy viewing like in Canon colour laser printers. This control panel has totally five buttons that helps you to locate the menu system and make quick changes to the printing process. These includes cancel button & directional pads and all the information would be seen on two line backlit LCD display, which also gives you alerts and details on toner level graphics. Additionally two alert LEDs indicates print error and low toner details.

Driver Software:
This HP CP2025n (CB494A) Colour Laser Printer comes with driver software and has comprehensive set of features that enables the user to know the status of the printing process. You can control the feeds in the input tray manually and ToolboxFX software gives you details on present toner level, shows no of pages remaining and usage trends. When the printer faces any malfunction you can also opt for email alert message. HP offers step by step video instructions through installation CD that instruct you on driver settings and tells how to optimise the print quality. This driver software is compatible with all Windows from 2000 that includes Vista and 64-bit XP, it also works well with Mac OSX 10.2.8 and newer version.

Lack of Important Features:
This HP laser printer does not have mechanical duplexer and automatic double sided printing facility is missing. Generally at this price range the duplex printing facility is an extra cost and normally available at higher end laser printer models. You cannot directly connect digital camera or other portable digital device like pen drive with this printer for taking instant prints due to the absence of PictBridge facility. All these drawbacks can be well compromised by its ability to connect with multiple computers using quick wired networking system without complex connection. The connection junction is strategically placed at the back of the printer, so you can easily access CP2025n from several PC without any hassle.

Installation of Toner Cartridge in CP2025n:
The toner cartridges can be easily replaced by opening the top front door of the printer, which show horizontally stacked four toner cartridges on the rack. It is easy to install the cartridge using single push to release mechanism for hassle free installation. This installation method is better than bucket style toner cartridge installation found in OKI laser printers. The cost per page for standard black prints comes in an average and for colour print not expensive. HP has given details on life cycle and cost of both colour and black cartridges but not mentioned about availability of high capacity cartridge. This laser printer has monthly duty cycle of about 40,000 pages, which is much suitable for large work groups and small office.

Printing Speed:
HP Colour LaserJet CP2025n Printer is good in output speed for colour prints and churns out 20 ppm but 20 ppm cannot be achieved when you run the print for 5 or 20 prints. The print speed does not even come close for shorter prints but when you print for long document CP2025n come close to 20 ppm. Similar case is applies to black text prints and it gives less than 10 ppm for five page colour graphics documents and black text prints. The print speed would be normally achieves for long print run. The black text print speed is not up to the mark and comparatively lesser then its rival products. HP CP2025n is mainly applied for business printing purpose where it requires to perform for longer print run, so obviously the quoted printing speed is automatically been achieved without any doubt.

Printing performance:
Black print produce more appealing look with sharp and crisp text edges. It has solid look and performs well for both colour prints as well as black prints. HP mainly speaks about the quality of the output rather then printing speed of the device. The black cartridge delivers clean and sharp edge for smaller fonts and produce better visibility even in graphical representations along with text. With total 600 dpi of resolution the quality is well maintained through out the printing cycle when compared to its close rival OKI C3600n.

Warranty:

This HP Colour laser printer comes with 1 year warranty with comprehensive online support.

Verdict:

Though this HP Colour LaserJet CP2025n priced at a little higher end it is well built for small work groups and business owners. You cannot expect double sided printing, since this printer does not have the facility for auto-duplexer. If you are more keen for mechanical duplexer and want a favourable environment for double sided printing to favour quick printing process then you can try for the another version HP Colour LaserJet CP2025dn with extra £40 cost. If you feel the cost of duplex version is higher then you can try Canon i-SENSYS LBP7200C that cost less than £40 in its duplex version. The lower black print speed is only minimal and it is not a major concern for small business printing purpose.

HP Colour LaserJet CP2025n Printer (CB494A) - Specification Details