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.
Software included with the printer includes drivers for scanning, faxing and, of course, printing and color correction. However, for clients that just need to fax and print without color correction, Windows 7 drivers work just fine. After installing the Samsung drivers, we tested the company's claims of a faster time to first page and ability to copy and/or print at 25 ppm. Consider the claims validated. The first page of a 10-page job appeared after 23 seconds, and the 10th page appeared 23 seconds later. Then we started a 30-copy job and began timing once the first page appeared. After 60 seconds, there were 27 pages in the output bin.
The CLX printers come standard with USB 2.0 and 10/100 ports, as well as line and phone jacks, all at the rear edge of the right-side panel. The scanner unit automatically adjusts for books and other thick originals. The printer runs cool, and barely broke 80 degrees. However, there was a strong ozone smell whenever we printed. Testers attributed that to the absence of a carbon filter.
Energy Savings
Samsung claims that its fusion technology is more energy-efficient than traditional systems. Rather than the thick metal cylinder and heating element used in most fusion units, the Samsung fusion process employs a thin sleeve through which heat from a heat lamp can radiate more easily. This reduces the power required to perform the fusion and the shortens heat-up time. Our testing bears this out. While printing, the 6250 spiked at 1,394 watts for about a second before settling back down to its ready-mode consumption of 40 watts. The unit uses just 9 watts in power save mode. Power consumption tests of a similar color laser printer while printing showed a spike of 800 watts for around 9 seconds.
Available now, the Samsung CLX printers are covered by a one-year warranty on parts and labor. Toner cartridge pricing starts at US$89.99 for black and US$99.99 for color.
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