The computer printer is very important in an office or business hub. Without it, paperwork tasks can be so complicated. From documents to colored images, the printer can get the job done.
For the Samsung CLP-510N Color Laser Printer, it does just that.
When it came to Technews for review, it was in a notoriously large heavy box, that it had to be carried by 4 Technews staff. Out of the box, we were all greeted with 4 CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, black) toners, and underneath them are the manuals, CD driver installer, power cable, and of course, the printer itself. One thing we noticed is that it doesn’t have a USB cable included in the package. Hmm, I wonder.
Anyway, one good impression, is that we liked the size of the toners of the CLP-510N, because they have a very small footprint, meaning they’re very pretty small, and storing them in a desk corner seem like they aren’t even there.
As we opened the toner access door of the CLP-510N, it showed the color-coded slots to slide the corresponding toners in. We had quite a hard time fitting them, but once it all slid in and installed, it was ready to rock and roll.
By the way, some may find the back of the CLP-510N not too exciting, but it does hold for some of the electronic boards for the printer, including access to add extra RAM, as well as IO cards, for other options.
The CLP-510N is user-friendly and easy to install. Just plug in a USB cable to the printer and your favorite PC, insert the CD installer in your CD-ROM, click the easy to do steps, and after 3-5 minutes, it’s done and the CLP-510N is ready for printing jobs.
Okay, let’s go to the fun part of the Samsung CLP-510N review.
We tested a 20-paged monochrome document file and a 10-paged color document file. And the results were, the 20-paged B/W printing took 2-3 minutes while the 10-paged color printing took 5-6 minutes. The printed pages showed true quality of printed texts, which has no signs of errors or unconformities.
There is one unique feature of the CLP-510N that is not present in its competitors. This is the built-in, automatic duplex printing function. We tested this feature, printing a 20-paged monochrome document file, and a 10-paged color document file. Both took 5-6 minutes and 8-9 minutes, respectively. Although it takes about double the time to print, the printed pages showed true quality texts with no errors.
We also tested the CLP-510N for full page image printing. We had different impressions to the print test results. For some of us, the image quality is pretty good but not “picture perfect” as we call it. Some of our artists find the colors in the print-out “a little off” and there are color inconsistencies caused by the toners. The “inconsistencies” were quite noticeable in the full-page pictures, but not noticeable in thumbnails. However, all of us agree that pictures printed using the CLP-510N looks good on a wall display or in a presentation.
Eventhough with several shortcomings, the CLP-510N is still a good printer to acquire, especially for small and medium-scale businesses. The color laser printer not only brings excellent print quality and speed, it also outperforms the competition by 10 pages per minute in B/W, and 2 pages per minute in color.
Although the initial cost of buying the CLP-510N is a little bit high, the everyday maintenance and usage is affordable and cost-effective.
The CLP-510N has a dimension of 20.1" x 18.5" x 15.9" (WxDxH) and weighs 70.5 lbs. It is equipped with a Samsung SPGPm processor, can be fitted with memory capacity of 64 MB (standard) and 192 MB (maximum), and has print resolution of 1200 dpi. Its standard connectivity is thru Hi-Speed USB 2.0, 10/100 Base TX and optional thru 10/100 Base TX + 802.11b Wireless LAN. The color laser printer supports Microsoft® Windows 98/Me/2000/XP/2003, Mac OS 10.3x, various Linux OS incl. Red Hat, Caldera, Debian, Mandrake, Slackware, SuSE, and TurboLinux.
Paper handling for the CLP-510N is up to a maximum sheet size of 8.5" x 14" (legal size) and handles 250 sheets and 100 sheets (Tray 1, Multi-Purpose Tray) with options of another 500 sheets. It has a monthly duty cycle of 35,000 pages and power consumption is less than 450 W (Printing), 160 W (Ready), 17 W (Sleep)
Gotta tell, the Samsung CLP-510N Color Laser Printer is an impressive printer. The paper handling and image quality is quite nice as well as the speed, a perfect combination!
