Samsung scores an all-in-one

The concept of an all-in-one imaging appliance for the small or branch office is certainly not a new one. But Samsung takes the idea to new highs (and lows--as in price) with its March release of the CLX series, which performs two-sided color copying, printing, scanning and faxing with ease and at attractive prices. The CRN Test Center evaluated the CLX-6250FX, which has a street price of US$899. It's identical to the US$699 CLX-6220FX except in output speed, duty cycle and a few options. The tested unit is an excellent value and is a Test Center recommended product. If there's no need for the 6250's optional Wi-Fi or internal hard drive, customers might do just as well paying US$200 less for the 6220, as long as they don't plan on printing more than its rated 65,000 pages per month.

Right out of the box, the Samsung printer was impressive. Of the many large color laser printers that have come though our labs, we have yet to find one easier to set up than the 6250. Toner is contained in four clearly labeled and dust-free cartridges, one for each CMYK color. Each is about the size of a loaf of bread and each is inserted into corresponding CMYK slots in front of the unit, which stands at a relatively tall 35.5 inches high when the glass is exposed. Its footprint is about 18.5 inches square, but access to the front-loading (letter-size) paper cassette and envelope/legal-size bypass mechanism will require another 12 inches or so.

Page emulation of the CLX printers includes PostScript3, resolution up to 1,200 x 1,200 pixels and an effective output of 9,600 x 600 pixels. Color quality in tests was on par with units costing much more, provided the colours are solid and images are of high resolution. Dithering patterns were obvious on smaller- and lower-resolution images, and tones of test images are not continuous. However, Samsung's font smoothing produces crisp lettering and extremely sharp lines at any angle and its gray scale printing is excellent.

Testers prefer a paper capacity of 500 sheets--a full ream--but that's optional on CLX printers. The included paper cassette holds 250 sheets, which is on par with all other brands in its class. The bypass tray can hold another 100 sheets. Included with the tested unit was a self-adhesive French-language control panel that's designed to cover the standard English panel. A USB port on the front of the unit enables direct printing of BMP, JPG, PDF and TIFF files from a USB drive. Once a stick is inserted, a dedicated control panel button tells the printer to read the drive. A list of files and actions is displayed on the unit's four-line LCD.