Best Laser Printer for the Dollar
Written: Oct 21 '01 (Updated Oct 21 '01)
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Pros: Fast, cheap, high quality, integrated drum/toner
Cons: Vertical height requirement, location of on/off button
The Bottom Line: If you are looking for a value laser, this is it, and a much better value than any inkjet given cost of ownership.
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| jsnorman's Full Review: Samsung ML 1250 Laser Printer |
Summary: This is a 1200dpi class, 12ppm laser printer which retails for around $220. This is an upgraded version of the highly rated ML-1210. New to this model seems to be PCL 6, making Linux and other alternative OS' compatibility easy, as well as more memory expansion possibility (up to 68MB). I would highly recommend this printer for any home, home office, or workstation user. Its 12,000 page per month duty cycle, no jam design, crisp fast printing, and PCL 6 compatibility can't be beat for an under $400 printer. It includes both a USB and Parallel port, so MAC users will be happy. Of course, if you have more money, there are plenty of great printers especially in the $400+ range. But under $400, I do not think you can beat this one.
Quality: I have printed B&W photos, lots of text documents, web pages, artwork, etc. In each case, the output is nearly indistinguishable to my naked eye from the HP 5si that I use at work. That is pretty good.
Basics: This printer is really fast for its price. It is rated at 12ppm, and actual printing from Word I get about 9ppm+. Time from print to first page is only 13 seconds. Memory is standard at 4MB, and memory can be added (standard SIMM) up to 68MB! The printer is powered by a 66mhz RISC processor.
Setup: Setup is a breeze. Drivers are on a CDROM and after powering on the printer, Windows 2000 recognized the new printer and asked for the driver disk. I subsequently setup an ethernet print server for my home network (a D-Link 310) and now have the ML-1250 hooked up to the print server. I print from a Mac G4, 2 Windows 2000 machines, and a Linux machine all without any problems.
Toner Usage: This is one of the main selling points, IMHO. The toner cartridge and drum are combined in a single unit. It is very easy to pop this toner/drum in and out. The combined toner/drum cartridge yields 2,500 pages and costs only about $50 (which is less than a 2,500 page toner cartridge costs for most other printers, without the drum!!). This really sold me, because the reason I was in the market for a new printer was the fact that the drum on my old laser wore out (I am a heavy user for a home office -- about 2,000 pages per month, with many graphics). The drum alone for my old printer would have cost $125 -- half the cost of the brand new ML-1250!!! In addition, there is a toner saver mode which prints lighter and saves toner for drafts and non-critical documents. I found the output in toner saver mode to be acceptable and very clear, but a little light so I would not use it for any final output.
Linux Compatibility: I bought this printer primarily because I wanted a cheap linux compatible printer and I didn't want to have to worry about drivers. That meant that I wanted a PCL 5+ or Postscript printer. This one fit the bill as it uses the latest PCL (true PCL 6). Furthermore, Samsung includes a printer setup script specifically for Linux (RedHat) users. That fact alone made up my mind, as I always like to support pro-Linux hardware manufacturers (most of Samsung's home laser printer line seems to include Linux support as well). I have had absolutely no problems with the Linux compatibility. It prints perfectly in PCL 6 mode (there is no entry in Redhat 7 for the ML-1250, but you can choose any PCL 5 or 6 printer from HP's lineup and it works fine). Note, however, that the nifty Linux setup script that Samsung includes on the CDROM will NOT work with Redhat 7+ because RedHat changed its printer configuration utility/filter programs. It should work just fine with Redhat 6.
Physical: My only criticism of this printer is the vertical space that it requires. The specs list this printer as a compact 13x13.9x9, and it is small when you first open the box. However, you will need 16" or more clearance in height due to the "jam free" paper path design. The paper is loaded on top of the printer, towards the back, and stands up (vertically) in the paper tray. The paper then drops straight down into the drum/toner cartridge and out the front. This design reduces or eliminates paper jams since there is no need for a set of rollers to flip the paper around the drum. However, it means that you need a lot of clearance on top -- clearance that I did not have. I was able to adapt a workaround location, but you should be very sure you have enough room above the printer to load the paper if you are going to buy this!! Also, the power button is in back rather than on the side, so if you are going to tuck it away in a corner like I wanted to, it may be hard to turn off.
NOTE: My ***** rating reflects a comparison of this printer to others in its price range.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 240
Operating System: Linux
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Epinions.com ID:
jsnorman
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Member: Jeff Norman
Location: Chicago, IL
Reviews written: 11
Trusted by: 5 members
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