pinkskittle's Full Review: Samsung SCX-4200 All-In-One Laser Printer
I was planning to open a business and I had on my list of "things to buy," a printer/copier/fax.
My very first printer was a laser, when I lived with my mom still! That was a while ago! Anyway, after I moved out, I only bought inkjets. For one, they were cheaper, secondly, I could print in color! Now laser printers are so much cheaper than they used to be. Even the color ones are cheaper! I didn't really need a color printer, so I didn't bother with it since the cheap color printers have low-quality output.
My father-in-law had purchased the Samsung SCX4200 multi function laser printer for me as a gift (it was nearly 50% off).
Although this printer did not have a fax built in, it didn't matter, because all you really need to do is scan the document, open the image it made, choose to print it, selecting "fax" as your printer instead of your actual printer. This will bring up your fax software (I'm pretty sure all Windows systems have it). Check on your computer's help file for "fax" to learn more.
Anyway, up till now I was using an HP color inkjet. I was getting really fed up with it because of problems with jamming and costs of the toner. It was at the point where I had to print everything at super low-quality or else it would jam and make grinding noises. Then again, I have owned the inkjet for over 3 years!
Compatibility
Although it was nowhere to be found on the box, this printer is compatible with:
-Windows 98/Me/2000/XP
-Various Linux OS including Red Hat 7.1 and above
-Mandrake 8.0 and above
-SuSE 7.1 and above
-Caldera OpenLinux 3.1 and above
-Turbo Linux 7.0 and above
-Slackware 8.1 and above
-Mac. 10.3, 10.4.
My mother-in-law was actually looking to buy this printer but the salesman had no idea if it was compatible with her Mac! So basically he lost a sale because he was lazy and unknowledgeable. Anyway, that's not the point. The point is, Samsung should have some info on their boxes!
Features
- Holds 250 Sheets of Paper
- High-Speed USB 2.0 Connectivity (not included, you have to buy it seperately).
- The toner that comes with the printer yields 1000 pages, but the toner replacements yield up to 3,000 pages per toner change (but costs nearly as much as the printer did at $90)
- Can print on Transparency, Label, Post Card Envelope, Thick, Thin, Bond, Colour Paper.
- Copies and prints at 19 pages per minute
- The output tray holds 50 pages
- Scans in color at a resolution of 4800x4800.
- When copying, you can zoom up to 200%
- Prints and copies at a resolution of 600x600 dpi which is ok for the home user
- Print at Draft and Good. If you print on draft or toner saver, you use less toner. Good to use if you're printing for you and not to show someone else!
My experience
I love that this printer uses a USB!!! This makes for quicker communication between your computer and the printer (the older huge serial port plugs are slow). This printer doesn't come with one, but they're pretty cheap to buy.
Loading the printer was easy. A drawer pulls out, you stick the paper in, and you push the drawer neatly back in.
Same with the toner, you open up the front panel and the toner just snaps in place.
So far I really love this printer. It's twice as fast as my inkjet printer. It also takes up just as much space as my inkjet did, just might be a bit taller.
I keep having a hard time finding the on/off switch. I'm really not a dumb person, but the switch isn't very visible and on the side of something that juts out a bit in the back. It's also a very small switch. Warming up takes 30 seconds. Doesn't seem like a bad wait to me.
One of the first things I did with it, besides print a test page, was make a copy of what I just printed. You can't tell the difference! It's really nice having a copier, before I would just scan documents and save them as image files on my computer. Now I can do both! The copier display isn't backlit, which I don't like. It's hard if the room isn't lit well. There are lots of functions you can do from the copier panel, including zooming, increasing darkness, saving toner, cleaning the toner drum, optimize for photo/text copying, and more.
Another thing I like is how quiet it is! I'm so used to my grinding loud inkjet. I didn't even realize the printer had even started printing and then I realized my job was already finished. An inkjet doesn't make any noise if you just have it on and not printing, but the laser hums if you leave it on. Not a big deal, but just something I'd point out.
Scanning was pretty simple. I opened up my Microsoft Scanner and Camera Wizard and just kept hitting "next." It is super fast if you're scanning at the lowest possible resolution, but that's at 150 dpi and that's really bad quality even for a black and white document scan. So I guess the scanner is fairly slow if you need to scan anything of good quality. It's nice and quiet, though.
Figuring out how to fax something I had scanned didn't take long, but I'm pretty computer savvy, so some people might have trouble or might not want to be bothered with it. Basically, you scan a document. Then open the image file that the scanner creates. Select print from the menu, then choose "fax" from your list of printers. After that you should be able to decide if you want to fax additional documents/images. Then whatever fax program you have on your computer will be brought up. I think every Windows-based computer will have Microsoft Fax on there.
Printing onto envelopes and smaller things is pretty easy. There's a slot right on the front of the machine that you feed it into and it prints completely straight! With my inkjet, it was really easy to have crooked printing.
If you need to print on legal paper, it's a bit annoying because you have to feed it in one page at a time manually (same way as envelopes, etc).
What I don't like
- It would be nice if the copier display was backlit.
- Only scans and copies up to an A4 (standard letter) size. It would be nice to be able to copy a legal size page.
- No fax, but as mentioned before, you can scan your document to fax from your computer... it just takes a lot longer!
-The on/off button in the back is hard to find. I keep forgetting where it is! It's a bit hidden.
-Printing legal size must be done manually.
In the end
I will say it again, I really love this printer! I don't think I'll ever go back to an inkjet printer ever again.
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