Thursday, July 23, 2009
Samsung's CLX-3175 Colour Laser Multi-Function Printer: Not a Good Choice
Posted by Jason Dunn in "Digital Home Printing" @ 07:00 AM
Late last year, I did a bit of office re-configuration, and retired my old Canon MP780 inkjet all-in-one in favour of something that would get the old "dried out ink cartridge" problem, and something that had a lower cost per-page. That something was a colour laser multi-function printer.
I had a specific space for the printer, and since most of them are quite large, I was seeking something as small as possible. The Samsung CLX-3175 fit the bill: it printed, scanned, faxed, and was much smaller than any competing product. It fit exactly where I needed it to fit, so I thought I was all set. It didn't turn out that well in the end.
The first problem when I set it up and did a test print was the horrible stench - I'm used to laser printers being a little oderous, but this was extreme. Thankfully, after a few days it lessened to the point where it was tolerable. What wasn't tolerable, however, was the print quality of the CLX-3175. The first sample print I did looked awful - the colours were horribly washed out. I thought perhaps I had it set on some sort of draft mode, but after triple-checking every driver checkbox and drop-down menu there was, I couldn't see any way to improve the quality. Read more...
