The ML-2525W Mono Laser Printer from Samsung is pretty straightforward by nature and can only print black, nevertheless you can enjoy the many advantages that manual two-sided printing gives you.  In addition, you also have the advantages of wireless networking and single sheet printing tray. For all this and more, the Samsung ML-2525W is an excellent choice for students, small businesses and home offices. Its price tag of $150 is reasonable even if you are picky about the price. This price point obviously makes it the cheapest mono laser printers that we have tested till date. There are no real issues as regards the capability of the prints and it gives you an impeccable print in no time for quite a fabulous price.

We are pretty impressed with its high performance printing and the compact design of the printer should offer you a fast, simple and wireless connection. Users may adapt to their workspace without any sort of compromise on the quality of printing. Continue reading the review of the ML-2525W Laser Printer in the following review, but just a quick look at the highs and lows of the machine.

What is hot?

  • Reasonably priced
  • USB, Ethernet & Wireless connectivity
  • Can print high-quality graphics and text
  • Smaller footprints

What is not?

  • Ships with starter toner cartridge
  • Short of autoduplexing
  • Pretty small toner capacity

Design features:

Most Mono laser printer models have got a tarnished name for their ‘not too exciting design’ and though the  Samsung ML-2525W Wireless Mono Laser Printer (Model Code: MLT-D1052L/ MLT-D1052S) does not stray  much from the pack, the manufacturer has designed and built several bits and pieces of flair that makes the ML-2525W stand apart from the rest. The physical aspects and features have not changed a lot since the ML-2851ND, except that you can find a smooth black finish, besides, the covering on the top of the machine’s paper tray has a textured check pattern. Somewhere down the way, the manufacturer has managed to reduce the weight to 16.9 lb and that is almost lighter by 9 pounds when compared to the Samsung ML-2851ND. It is a bit smaller and the overall dimension goes like 360mm (W) x 389 mm (D) x 197mm (H). Coming to the output cover, it adds a bit of streamlined look to the machine, in addition to minimising disturbance and keeping the printing noise level fairly down.

Samsung ML-2525W Wireless Mono Laser Printer

Control panel:

The most impressive thing about the printer’s stylish design that it can suit any office environment, besides providing some practical advantages. You may find that the power switch is conveniently placed on the top and this means you will have no trouble turning it on or off. The two LCDs indicate network status and print activity. There is also a switch for cancelling a print job and another button meant for demo print.

Enclosed cassette tray:

The ML-2525W makes use of a cassette-type paper feed system. The printer’s input tray is designed to feed into the machine’s bottom. You can also find the customary manual tray placed just under the tonner-access handle that will allow you to supply single print media sheets directly into the machine.

Sleek exterior:

Another impressive thing when it comes to the design is the stylish streamlined exterior and the design of the machine is such that it can fit perfectly into any sort of professional business adding a touch of style.

Simple & quick wireless connectivity:

Samsung gives you a number of ways for connecting this printer to the machine. On the other side of the machine, there is an USB 2.0 connection port for the purpose of wired access; however you also receive 802.11b/g server meant for wireless network and an Ethernet port for the purpose of wired networking. In all the three methods, you need to link or connect the machine onto USB 2.0 connection initially before you sniff out networks. Did we mention that we had no problem establishing a link to our office’s wireless network making use of the step-by-step instructions on the driver? Samsung’s effort to provide its users, installation to hassle-free wireless connectivity is appreciable considering that it consumes only up to 30 minutes. But the ML-2525W makes use of a high speed connection providing all its users a single step process of installation in about 5 minutes. Not to mention that any installation process allows users in setting up the wireless printer efficiently and quickly.

Simple set-up:

Setting up with Mac:

We had no problem installing the machine to notebook with XP Pro. But having said that, Samsung should have been focussed on the installation instructions. The installation sequence is indicated with basic diagrams and theoretically should be simple stuff. If you are engulfed with any problem of getting the wireless connected, you may refer to the instructions as provided in the Samsung’s website. Though we had this printer up and running for several hours, our immediate impressions are that it is a little, great printer. We had users having concerns over using it with a Mac, but we had no trouble whatsoever. We had a MacBook Pro running 10.6.4 and setting up via WiFi or USB. At first, we plugged it directly into a USB port and the Mac was able to download driver and we were up and away in a couple of minute’s time.
For linking it to our home wireless network, we made use of the installation disc, following the instructions for establishing a wireless network. Having set it up on the Mac, setting up on the other Macs was pretty simple and straight forward. We then found the printer making use of the Print & Fax from System Preference. If you are a Mac user running Mac OS X Snow Leopard, connecting the printer via USB is simple enough. When you switch the printer on, Snow Leopard would automatically ask you if you want to install and download the suitable drivers (the machine’s specific model was automatically recognised). On doing so, the printer at once was available as a local printer and we did not need the driver CD.

Wi-Fi setup:

For Wi-Fi set up, we made use of the Wi-Fi Setup utility from the driver CD for selecting the Wi-Fi network and then enter the required password. The default configuration of the printer is linked to an access point and you will get an IP address through DHCP that worked absolutely fine and you also do not have to tweak any of it. There was a certain delay initially when you are waiting for the Wi-Fi utility to end; however we resolved it by simultaneously adding the printer through Bonjour on the iMac (System Preference -> Print & Fax).  The machine was available wirelessly and we chose to share the machine via the iMac and it was immediately available to all the machines on the local network, without any need for further configuration. The complete process from taking out the printer from the box to printing test pages consumed only about 15 minutes.

For AirPrint support:

For AirPrint support, we utilized Printopia, a third party utility (again on the iMac) which enables the printer or any other that are available wirelessly for printing from iOS devices (iPhones, iPads and iPod touches making use of the iOS 4.2 or later). This machine does not provide support AirPrint natively (only particular latest HP models at the time of writing). However Printopia lets you to slightly enable AirPrint for any machine that your Mac recognises, in addition to this one.

USB installation:

First, the USB installation is pretty lightweight. Secondly, the printer is set to use DHCP by default. This really is an issue for most of the users as there will be a change in the address on the network. The driver installation on client PC’s hard-wires into the set-up of the current IP address during the installation. The result obviously is that the moment you reboot the printer, the printer would no longer work and this is not at all smart. The obvious fix of assigning a static address and putting into port configuration on client machines is perhaps beyond the skill capability of most home users.

Once you set off things, you may access function, paper size, toggling auto-duplexing (helps to print on both the sides of the paper sheet), besides several other normal settings via the general settings or you could change the intricate option via the print driver menu including the print resolution (up to 1200 dpi maximum resolution), toner darkness, network information, security and lots more. A modest status monitor is automatically installed into your Windows taskbar; however it does not show up the status/progress of job or alert the users when the consumables of printer are running low.

Another downside to the use of ML-2525W Monochrome Laser Printer is the cost of consumables. The manufacturer provides an affordable cartridge of high-capacity which according to Samsung would last for 2500 pages, but one should do note that the Samsung ML-2525W is shipped with a ‘Starter Toner Cartridge’ of 1000 pages, a tricky cut that will persuade you to shell out more money on printer consumables sooner than you actually know it and that again depends on the standard print volume.

AnyWeb Print:

AnyWeb Print from Samsung is an easy and quick way of gathering web information together. This software helps you choose, drag and drop content from several web pages into a blank, new page on your screen. This helps you save this page as a pdf or print or tiff file.

Samsung ML-2525W Laser Printer Rear View

Excellent Performance:

Printing speed:

The Samsung ML-2525W Laserjet Printer is not the flashiest of printers on the market, however it surely has set the pace for several other monochrome laser printers when you take into account output quality and print speed. It is perhaps not often you see a machine crank out graphics, text, besides PowerPoint presentations, all at the similar speed, though the ML-2525W is able to maintain a reliable 20 pages/min all together which gives the same amount of speed as that of the Samsung ML-2851ND.  On the other hand, Samsung claims the printer to have been built with a FPOT (First Page Out Time) of 9 seconds, in addition to a 24-page per minute (ppm) print speed which is reasonably good under any standards. The sleek and compact design is integrated with a 250-sheet cassette input capacity and this means you do not have to spend more time on replenishing paper. The monthly duty cycle of 12000 sheets comes in quite handy for a small office environment.

Average cartridge yield:

It will be pretty interesting to see how closer it will get to the 1000 pages with the cartridge supplied by the manufacturer. If you are not a heavy user, we believe it should last for a while. Again if you are fed up with the unreasonable price of the Canon MP640 (a great printer though) and at the same time if you are a low volume user, you will end up using up a remarkable amount of ink via the print head clean cycles and this is a real waste of time when you are basically printing out monochrome documents. The wastage can be reduced with the ML-2525W.

Print quality:

The print quality of the ML-2525W is pretty good with a satisfactory warm-up time from a cold start and is slightly fainter when you are using Toner Save. Like most of the mono laser printers, the text quality results of the Samsung are excellent with bold fonts having even thickness, dark lines, besides large lettering. If you navigate through the print driver, you will find several options for printing all the text to black and darkening it and the printer does exactly what it says. They enable the machine to make the dark text and lines even darker, increasing solid characters for added emphasis which you can find right throughout the page, particularly on larger blocks of black colour.

The ML-2525W is an improvisation on the earlier iterations that did struggle a bit with graphic documents that were tested. The test page from the ML-2525W has fine movement from black-to-white gradations and the good thing is that it is well within the varying degrees of shading. We do not look forward to many users going for the mono laser version for photographs; however our samples comprising detailed images are pretty satisfactory particularly for use in a professional environment.

Service & Support:

Samsung offers toll-free technical support and its Online Support Centre provides an FAQ, how-to-guide, in addition to software downloads including manuals, firmware upgrades and manuals.

What is in the box?

  • Samsung ML-2525
  • 700 pages Black Toner Cartridge
  • CD/DVD (Utilities/Software/User Manuals/Drivers)
  • Setup & Installation Guide

Manufacturer warranty:

The ML-2525W is supported by Samsung with a limited warranty of one year.

Conclusion:

The Samsung ML-2525W mono laser printer is not packed with extra features. However, it gives you appreciable improvements over its predecessors in terms of quality and output speed. With lower noise levels less than 51dBA, the wireless installation was up and running, through the CD download for installing multiple languages. If you are someone who is ready to sacrifice quality for the sake of quantity, then you should have no problem going for this wireless workhorse!

Check all Latest Laser Printers,  other Samsung Laser Printers Reviews in this website.

Samsung ML-2525W Manual Duplex Laser Printer – Technical Specification Table

Manufacturer Samsung
Model Name Samsung ML-2525W Wireless Mono Laser Printer
Product Code MLT-D1052L/ MLT-D1052S
Printer type/Technology Workgroup printer-monochrome-laser
Dimensions (W x H x D) 360mm x 389mm x 197mm
Weight 7.3kg (16.09lbs)
Standard Memory 64MB memory /storage
Max. Printing Resolution 1200 x 1200dpi
Drivers & Utilities Yes
Max. Printing Speed Up to 24 ppm – (Black & White) – A4 (210 x 297 mm)
First Print/Copy Out Time B/W < 9 seconds (from Ready Mode)
Total Media Capacity Input capacity: 250-sheet cassette (One-sheet manual tray)
Output capacity: 80-sheets face down (One-sheet face up)
Supported Media Type Paper type: Thin, Plain, Punched, Bond, Recycled, Pre-printed,
Transparency, Envelope, Cardstock, Label, Letterhead,
Postcard, Cotton, Thick, Archive, Coloured
Paper size A4, A6, A5, JIS B5, ISO B5,  Letter, Executive,
Oficio, Legal, Folio, Custo
Media Feeder(s) Autoload – 250 sheets – Legal (216 x 356 mm)
PC Connection USB , Ethernet 10/100Base-TX, 802.11b, 802.11g
OS Support Windows 2000/Vista/XP/2008 Server/2003 Server/7,
Linux OS, Mac OS X 10.3~10.6
Power Consumption 360W
Connectivity Technology Wireless, wired
Processor 360MHz processor
Noise Level 50dBA (printing), < 26dBA (standby)
Language Simulation SPL (Samsung Printer Language)
Package contents Samsung ML-2525
700 pages Black Toner Cartridge
CD/DVD (Utilities/Software/User Manuals/Drivers)
Setup & Installation Guide
Average cartridge yield 2500 standards pages (plus 1000 pages Starter Toner Cartridge)
Monthly Duty Cycle Up to 12000 pages
Manual Duplex Print Yes
Manufacturer warranty 1 year

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