GREAT INK JET REPLACEMENT PRINTER
Written: Sep 04 '03
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Pros: great price, small footprint, easy setup, excellent output, works well with Macs
Cons: none
The Bottom Line: A great replacement for an ink jet at don't miss price. One of the best deals out there in computerland.
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| joelmar's Full Review: Samsung ML 1710 Laser Printer |
I want to start out by saying that my reviews are short and to the point. As a Purchasing Agent by trade I'll give you the info that I hope will help you make a decision.
I bought the printer for my wife who is an environmental consultant. She types lenghtly reports and has been using ink jet printers, an Epson 740 on one system and an HP 870 on the other. Every time I went to Office Depot to buy her ink refills the cost was out of site ( $25 to $30 per ink tank}.
If you are a high volume user and you are dealing mainly with text then the cost savings of using a laser vs. an ink jet is incredible, about 2 cents a page vs. 8 cents or more for the ink jet. Since color printing was not a requirement switching to laser was a no brainer.
Since she is running a Mac ( Imac) system 9 the options were limited to Brother or Samsung in the under $300 price range, since the HP 1000 does not support Mac ( I don't know why). At approx $200 the Samsung 1710 looked like a great buy considering it's fair rate of speed (17 ppm) and 8 megs of ram ( the HP 1000 only has 1 meg, and the low end Brother only 4). When I went to Office Depot to make my purchase much to my surprise the cost was only $99 after an instant store credit and a $70 mail in rebate. What was a good deal at $200 just became a great deal at $99.
Got it home and I was up and running in 5 minutes. I was a little apprehensive since some laser printers are not partial to Macs. The print quality is all you need for text at 600 dpi. If your typing black and white text anything more is overkill. The machine is fast and contrary to some reviews it is relatively quiet. The nice thing about it is the small footprint it occupies . It is actually smaller than many ink jet printers. I also like the fact that it uses a toner drum combo rather than separate elements. The 3000 page replacement toners sell at Depot for about $79. I have heard that refill kits are available at low prices if you are into drill and fill.
I've heard some complaints that the manual feeder is a problem. It's not an issue for me since I rarely use it. I've read in other reviews that it works fine once you read the directions. If you plan on doing a lot of labels and envelopes then you may want to investigate that feature further.
Overall if you are looking for a basic laser to replace your ink thirsty ink jet and your main application is text printing you can't really go wrong with this machine especially when you consider a set of ink tanks for your HP is about $60 alone.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 99
Operating System: Macintosh
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Epinions.com ID:
joelmar
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Reviews written: 3
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