Samsung CLX-3175N review

recommended

The cheapest colour laser printer here, Samsung’s CLX-3175FN is also the smallest. Although it has a 10/100 Ethernet port, its small 150-sheet paper tray means that the CLX-3175FN is best used as a personal printer. A two-line LCD display lets you navigate menus and change settings. It has a limited number of options, so is simple to use. If you want full control, you’ll have to use the web interface, which is equally easy to use. We were pleased to find features such as IP filtering, which allows you to restrict use of the printer to selected addresses on your local network, and a fax phone book. This is the only colour laser printer here with a 1,200×1,200dpi scanner. Unfortunately, scan speeds were slow. We had to wait 21 seconds for a preview scan, while a 300dpi A4 page took one minute and 22 seconds. Scans were detailed but rather dark. The scanner interface can communicate with the MFP via a network connection. A main window provides some useful presets and a button expands to provide a range of scan options. Print quality was excellent, with rich, intense colours, smooth shading and sharp detail. Business graphs and illustrations were bright and solidly coloured, and photo-quality images had precise shading and minimal grain. Print speeds were rather slow, at 14.6ppm for a mono text document and 3.8ppm for colour, but our first mono page emerged in a quick 12 seconds, which is helpful if you print only a couple of pages at a time.

The CLX-3175N’s biggest failing is high print costs. Only low-yield 1,500-page black and 1,000-page colour consumables are available for this printer and the cost of replacing them soon mounts up with heavy use. If you only put it to light use, however, it’s great value, with a TCO of just £366, but heavy users could spend thousands. Nonetheless, if you want to print great colour and need a personal printer that won’t take up too much space, this is an ideal Budget Buy.