This day I’ll introduce you about Samsung CLX-3175FN Color Laser Multi-function Printer I make this product appeal to young people
BuZZ from Customer Shopping
Excellent Printer! Color copy is 96% of that of the Original!
I rarely write reviews, but I have always used Amazon’s site to preview products and read others’ reviews that I decided it was time I gave back.
So I purchased the Samsung Printer from another seller at $299.00, the price alone is worth 2 stars.
Just a little about my purchase decisions….I’ve owned 20 printers since 1994; the first Canon color inkjet, BJC-600, and then the Epson Stylus, and now 20models later, the Samsung Color Laser CLX-3175 … I never really thought I would buy a Samsung for a printer, usually I buy Epson or HP. Epson is better with inkjet and HP I feel is the King with laser technology. So…Why a Samsung….For 2 years I’ve been searching for a color all in one, it had to be laser, I was sick of the drying inks, I did not print much in full color but when I did, the tanks were empty or clogged.
Until I saw the Samsung I decided on either the HP all in one, like the Color LaserJet CM1312mfp or the Color LaserJet 2820mfp. The size of those machines delayed the purchase, I didn’t have the room for it so I figured I would wait until my older HP LaserJet 6p died and my Epson 980 needed a new cartridge. I was looking for a Plasma screen on Samsung’s website and that’s where my love affair began. Within 20 minutes I ordered it! It’s probably the fastest purchase decision on an electronic device ever for me. I usually wait until I read a dozen reviews etc. . But the price had me thinking even if it’s not what I expected, I would just sell it when it needs toner or, I could always give it to my mother as she needs an all in one as is not as picky as I am.
Anyway back to the review, I ordered my printer on Thursday and received it on Monday. I unboxed the printer and it was already assembled with the cartridges preinstalled. The unit was nicely taped in all the spots that would come affixed during shipping. You only must install the arm for the ADF. Earlier that day, before I received the printer I went to Samsung’s website and downloaded the drivers and software. Samsung did an extraordinary job with the software and drivers. The Printing software, The Scanner software, and the Printer Console software were all separate packages. So you did not have to install all three packages on all computers. Also, you have the option of installing a Mono printing software package, this is extremely valuable! This mean if you have children or co-workers who may waste your toner printing color documents, you can restrict them by only allowing them to print in black and white, and they wouldn’t even know HAHA.
The software is NOT bloated like HP software, the color drivers are less then 10mb and so are the Scanner drivers. The printer console software is about 80mb; this package is basically like a printer monitor and extended menus. Personally I did not find needing to install it since the entire Printer setup could be viewed by entering its IP number, web setup.
I have to give this printer another star just because the drivers are simple, to the point and consists of less than 100mb and 20mb if that.
System setup was simple! All I had to do was plug it in and connect the network cable as I use it over the network. I have setup my router set to use DHCP, so the TCP/IP settings are all done automatically. Assuming all your computers are configured properly. When you run the drivers the setup asks you if it’s a local setup meaning USB or Networked, after that it automatically finds your printer by IP number.
I choose to print a test page and 20 seconds later… a nicely printed demo printout. I was amazed. To test the copy quality I decided to copy it and compare. WOW that’s all I can say, it took me 15 seconds to figure out which was the original, I purposely mixed them up. If it passed that test, then I knew it was a keeper!
The next thing I did was setup the Scanning feature. I ran the second drivers package for the scanner and just like the print driver interface, so was the same, chose network setup etc. The next thing I did was go to the scanner’s pc interface and selected where I wanted the scanned documents to be stored. I then went to the printer, placed 10 sheets in the ADF, pressed the scan button, and then selected “scan to pc,” my laptop’s pc name was shown, and selected it by pressing “ok” then chose the resolution etc followed lastly by file type, which I chose for my test PDF. About a minute later, in my documents folder on my wireless notebook, there was a 10 page PDF! Now that’s what I love!
For around $300.00 this was an excellent purchase. I can now digitize all my documents in PDF, organize them so with a search and a few seconds, any document could be found. Printing is excellent too, I will not complain if this printer shoots out a color page in 20 seconds, because it really doesn’t bother me, because inkjet takes longer. The print quality from 1-10 I would have to say about 8.5. After all the resolution is 600 x 600 and that’s a given. I printed a picture and it looked amazing, why not a ten then? Well only because some color laser jets have 1200 dpi, and that means double the dots and precision so my rating is ONLY an 8.5 because higher resolution printers exist. If they didn’t exist I would rate the quality a 10.
I haven’t faxed yet, I usually receive faxes via email through a subscription based service. I mainly need to print and scan.
This printer is feature packed! Another two features I will write about are the Scan and Print via USB and the web based console. If you do not have your home or office networked it’s easy for others to print or scan, honestly all you do is plug in your USB flash drive and select the file, that’s it! Or choose Save to USB for scanned documents. Great for when you want to shut down your pc and others have to print and are not networked.
The web based console is awesome; you can setup the time, fax stamp, and ringer setup all over HTML vs. pressing the printer’s menu button a dozen times and key all the factors one by one. Also if there is a problem, tech support can look at the printer the same way you do.
The reason I am not giving this printer 5 stars is sadly because it does not have a manual feed slot and I really used it on other printers as I hate writing addresses on envelopes. The solution I have is to use labels. The added plus by not feeding envelopes is no jams or wear and tear on the rollers. I guess that helps with the disappointment. If you print Letterhead then either use the watermark and or Letterhead feature or you will have to slide the trey out when needed.
I hope this review helps!
ONE LAST TIP!!! USE COLOR LASER PAPER, SERIOUSLY YOU WILL NOT BE DISAPOINTED YOU DO NOT NEED TO PAY A TON FOR COLOR LASER PAPER EITHER, I PURCHASED A 500 PAGE REAM FOR $7.99 113 BRIGHTNESS!!!! 24LB. OFFICEDEPOT BRAND
UPC/BAR CODE 032476549257 I TRIED 3 PREMIUM TYPES AND THIS WAS THE BEST! FEELS EXPENSIVE!!! NICE AND SMOOTH AND OFCOURSE BRILLIANT!!
Good, but needs improvement.
I purchased this item from another retailer at $299.99, the price is great for a color laser multi function printer with a very different and unique design.
The size of this machine is amazingly small and the design, as I have previously mentioned is fantastic, very appealing and the quality of its construction is very solid.
What I do not like about this multifunction is the following:
1. It lacks wireless connectivity.
2. It lacks bluetooth connectivity.
3. It lacks an independent tray for envelopes.
4. It lacks auto duplex printing and scanning.
5. It lacks a better scanner, scanner drivers and software.
The most annoying feature, is the lack of an independent envelope feeder or tray, because you literally have to remove the entire stack of paper, in order to be able to adjust the tray to be able to insert an envelope.
This is extremely frustrating for me, because for every letter that I print, I must also print and envelope, which translates to the following scenario:
Get up, remove the tray, remove the paper, adjust the tray, insert the envelope (which often gets stuck), then adjust the tray, put the paper back in, insert the tray and repeat the entire process all over again for each letter and envelope that I have to print.
I am very surprised that Samsumg came out with such a high quality product, with an amazing design, but did not add wireless and bluetooth capabilities. Most of the HP’s have either one of these features built in and a lot of them actually have both.
Despite having an Auto Document Feeder (ADF), it lacks duplex printing and duplex scanning, and I would have been happy if it at least it had duplex printing. If you need one with both of these features, get the Canon MP830, which has superior scanning capabilities than even the newer Canon MP850, which uses ICS, as oppossed to the MP830′s CCD.
Copying was accurate and fast, both in black and white and color, as well as fast faxing capabilities.
Scanning, on the other hand was poor, very poor. Scans were pale, and I could never get 100% sized scans from the originals, no matter how many adjustments I made. They always seem to be smaller, especially when compared to other scans of the same documents made by a Canon MP830.
The low quality of the scan, is because, Samsung, and other manufacturers, including Canon, are now using cheap ICS (Image Contact Sensor) technology, which is much more cost efficient, as opposed to the Charge Coupled Device (CCD), technology, which produces extremely high quality, very accurate, crisp and detailed scans.
The difference between these two technologies is such, that a scan made by the Canon MP830 saved at a low PDF quality resolution, is better than one made by the Samsung saved at a Maximum Quality PDF resolution, yes it is that bad, but acceptable to most people.
Printing, on the other hand was extremely good, very crisp and sharp text, with extremely good color prints. This is an extremely affordable and very good color printer.
All in all, it is a good machine if you are not too demanding or simply do not know enough about this product and the lack of some very important features that are missing, like the ability to be able to print an envelope without having to waste so much time, by simply having added an independent tray for it.
I unfortunately had to return mine, primarily because I need one that can at least provide me with an envelope tray without having to remove the paper, duplex copying, printing and scanning, with good high quality scans.
So, I ended up with my old Canon MP830 again, wich is also missing wireless and bluetooth capabilities and is not as small, light and nice looking as the Samsung, but far faster, more functional, with amazing quality scans.
Small, Fast, no noise … Great All-in-one Printer
It is less than a week that I started to use with this printer at home. It is one of my best printers ever. The color print quality is not as good as our Xerox DC-242 workstation in the office, but if you compare this $300 printer to that $10,000 huge printer, you can see that this little printer is fantastic. The monochrome output is as excellent as a professional laser printer and fast enough for a home or a small business printer.
The network port is very helpful to print and scan wirelessly. Also there is a way to scan to emails.
The only think that I do not like is the second paper tray which is very small and has no slider to fit envelopes, so I have to replace envelopes in the main tray when I need to print on an envelope.
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