CRNTech: Seven best colour laser printers

Samsung CLP-315 (pictured)

Price: $319 Distributor: Ingram Micro

The CLP-315 is the smallest printer here.That puts it in some treacherous company, with the Dell 1320cn waiting eagerly for it to slip up.

But the CLP-315 is the ultimate in civilisation compared to other printers. Where the Dell is a bit too boxy, the Samsung's classy black casing makes it the best-looking printer on test. It sounds like a minor consideration, but for those furnishing a home office, the Samsung's good looks and low noise matter.

And before it could be accused of putting looks before talent, the CLP-315 produced excellent results in our quality tests. Our photographic test stood out in particular, with natural-looking skintones and no obvious banding. Our business graphics tests were also impressive. Our only complaints are that white text on a coloured background printed out a little blurry, and text quality is less refined than it ought to be. Still, viewed in isolation the CLP-315's document quality is easily good enough.

It's quick in monochrome mode. Our black and white test documents printed at a rate of 17ppm, while colour documents printed at 4ppm. That colour figure is less than ideal, but it's fine for occasional use. The time it takes to produce a first page is also good, at 14 seconds for a black and white page, and just under half a minute for colour.

The TCO is where everything falls apart, however. While the CLP-315 is well-priced initially, the lack of high-yield cartridges and the low page-per-toner return mean the costs edge higher than the competition and stay high.

If not for the TCO, the CLP-315 would offer a magnificent combination of aesthetics, speed, print quality and value. If you need a printer that will stand up to a few users throwing frequent colour jobs at it, you should consider the Dell 1320cn instead - it's a less sociable desk partner, but is faster in virtually all areas and offers equally good prints. But if you only need low-volume printing, the Samsung is a good choice.

This review featured in the February issue of CRNTech.