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Samsung CLP-510N Color Laser Printer Review

Color Laser printers have many advantages over inkjet printers for business use. This can include much faster print speeds, better color text, and lower long-term costs. For many years price has kept color laser printers out of reach for small businesses, home businesses, and even home users. In the last year the price has fallen dramatically and low cost color laser printers are now easily affordable.

Company:

Samsung, www.samsung.com

Price:

$385.00 US at NewEgg.com

Ratings

Price:
Install/Setup:
Usability:
Cost to Operate:
Average Rating:

Getting Started

Setting up the CLP-510N is simple and fast. Aesthetically, Samsung does a great job with the finish and exterior of the printer. This model even has a nice LCD screen to give you status and other menu options. There are also great setup and troubleshooting icons and guides on doors and parts of the printer to aid in setting up the printer, replacing cartridges, or clearing a paper jam if you happen to have one.

USB setup is easy to complete, but network installation is a little more difficult as it was in the past with the Samsung ML-2251N Laser Printer. I had hoped it was much improved, but still is more difficult that it needs to be. Fortunately a little experience with the Samsung network set up process helped and it wasn't as difficult as it was last time.

A great feature included in the CLP-510N is duplex printing. Printing on both sides of a sheet of paper is known as double-sided or duplex printing. Normally most users with a printer for their small office/home office don't have this option. If they need to print on either side of a sheet of paper, they re-insert the pages into the printer (carefully, making sure that the sheets are facing the right way and the right direction) and then print the second side. Samsung includes a great feature by adding duplex printing that some more expensive color laser printers do not include.

Click on picture to enlarge image

Usability

Using this Samsung printer is just like the others we have taken a look at. Great!! They have a fast warm up. Colors print clear and bright. Both black/white and color print speeds are fast with good quality. Upkeep costs can be high for general home use. Replacing all the cartridges at once can cost almost as much as the printer initially costs. But for small office/home office users that need quality color prints for presentations or reports or brochures, the cost is easily justifiable.

Growing up my dad always said to use the right tools for the right job. When running test prints with general inkjet paper, colors are a little blurry (or muddled to use a technical term...) because of how the paper absorbs the dyes. Using the right paper with a laser printer is very important to the quality of output. When reading printer reviews, I often have to question the results the reviewer had. Based on how they described the colors and output, it almost sounded as if they were using general paper instead of laser printer paper. Costs for the correct paper are comparable, it might just mean you keep paper for your inkjet, copier/fax, and your laser printer. But if all goes well, you will be able to use your Samsung color laser for all your normal printing and your inkjet for photo output.

Specifications

Pros:

• Great color for the price
• USB and Network connection on this model
• Duplex is built in

Cons:

• Replacing all the cartridges at once can cost almost as much as the printer
• Not quite ready for general home use yet

Adding It All Up

We recently took a look at the Samsung SCX-4720F, an all-in-one unit and we talked about the great benefits reliable equipment is to any business, whether it's 100 people in an officebuilding or 1 person working from home. There are no exceptions when it comes to choosing a printer. If you are a large business that could use a good quality color laser to proof brochures or flyers before sending them off to the printer or a small office/home office user who needs an affordable color laser printer to prepare quality color presentations or other marketing materials, the Samsung CLP-510n Color Laser Printer is definitely a great option for you at an affordable price.

If you are a home user hoping you can finally get a laser printer at home it's probably not quite time for you... yet... Give it some time. Prices will continue to fall and soon companies like Samsung will have a great quality color laser printer for you to take home that is well for the upfront and continued operating expense.

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