Customer Reviews

Samsung CLP-510 Color Laser Printer

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

Despite the high resolution numbers claimed this machine is a bit fuzzier for B&W printing than my 7-year-old HP laserprinter. On the plus side, the printer was easy to set up for Windows XP printing through a network-attached storage disk array. The pages are smear-proof unlike those from an inkjet printer. I don't think that there is any other printer at this price that will duplex (print on both sides).

Make sure that you have a friend named Bruno when it is time to hoist this puppy into the car or onto a desk.

I found the Samsung CLP-510 to be a great bargain, but only for 20-24lb paper. This is what I bought it for. What can you expect for $300? (from other site) This is fantastic for $300. I see crystal clear, colorful, well-defined print. I even printed an 8X10 photo of an electronics printed circuit board with components on it and found the quality excelent at default normal resolution setting. But I would not expect true old-fashioned optical printed photo quality from like a portrait photo, from a $300 laser printer, on any paper. I would be proud of the print quality to all my customers, but I do not print photos for them. Among other things like letters and agreements, and service reports; I print controller programming "ladder-diagrams" in color, all are crisp, clean, and impressive.

I noticed that a couple of CNET revewiers knocked it down because "The photo quality is awful, extremely grainy and jagged on one, a second printed photo had obvious blotches, "lines" and grain." Well, do your homework and download the printer manual before buying it. The manual clearly states on page E-5 ("Supported Sizes of Paper"):
"* 60 to 90g/m2 bond (16 to 24lb) for single-sided printing
* 75 to 90 g/m2 bond (20 to 24lb) for duplex printing"

And for the manual feeder ("Multi-purpose tray"):
"60 to 163g/m2 bond (16 to 43lb)"

Paper type is very important in a printer. I'd wager a weeks pay that said reveiwers were using paper heavier than 24lb. However, I will knock Samsung down half a point for failing to note this on their datasheet pdf, but only half a point because of the cheap price. Have you seen any photo paper 20-24lb? No. This printer is not for photos. I tried 58lb HP glossy laser photo paper in it, it did not work, the toner was not fused to the paper. This may cause a mess in there, and perhaps the other reveiwers tried this too much causing errant ink on subsequent 20-24lb paper as well!

I could not regester to log on to CNET to submit my review, they said it was my cookie settings, but even when I turned my security settings to "low" I could not. Their loss not mine.

You will not get $3,000 printer results from this printer, if you need to print on a variety of paper types like glossy photo paper and card stock, then you must expect to pay a premium price for your laser printer (of another more-expensive brand). Again, this printer prints much better than I expected for $300, and has a built-in duplexer to boot. Don't buy a Kia and expect performance like a Caddalac.

Before I buy *any* peripheral, I research it carefully for expert and buyer reviews, not just here at Amazon, but at c/net, epinions, and a couple others. Needing a color laser, I was about to buy the HP2600n when the Samsung CLP-510 came on sale at a local office supply store. With automatic duplex (2-sided) printing, and being a brand I knew from cellphones and TVs, I studied up. There was a lot written, both good & bad, and the bad definitely concerned me. In fact I almost didn't buy it. However the c/net editors gave it a 7.1/10 review, notably higher than the HP 2600n's 5.8/10, so knowing I could return it if I was dissatisfied, I held my breath and took the plunge. AM I GLAD I DID! For $150 less than the HP2600n ~ not to mention what will be FAR lower toner costs going forth ~ this printer has already exceeded my cautious expectations. The printer's test page compared side-by-side to other lasers' test pages (including the 2600n) is too close to pick a clear winner. The duplex capability is a gem, simply love it, works perfectly. I've yet to have a single paper-jam. I've now printed on el-cheap-o copy paper from Walmart, as well as higher-end HP multi-purpose bright white, and the print quality was perfectly fine on both. An interesting point ~ prior Photoshop images and graphics that I created at 150 or 300 dpi with my other printers in mind, will have to be recreated at 600 or 1200 dpi to take full advantage of the Samsung's superior resolution. I'm truly baffled by the naysayers and the slammer reviews I read ~ honestly I strongly suspect they're either HP salespeople, or don't actually own the printer, or perhaps got a lemon out of their boxes. I'm thrilled with mine and can strongly recommend the CLP-510 to others. The only drawbacks, are its size, I had to clear a new spot for it in my home office. At 70 lbs. it's also heavy, but personally I prefer a solid piece of equipment that doesn't shudder & shake while it works. It's definitely not a toy, it's one serious machine of a laser printer, and both looks and acts like it. When printing, it's noisier than I might like ~ rather like an office copying machine ~ but is silent in standby/sleeping mode. Though Samsung discourages the practice (of course, they want to sell more cartridges!), the toner can be refilled with supplies (including the chips) economically acquired on a certain famous auction site. This printer replaces my HP Officejet, and blows it away. It's 10 times faster, with superior print resolution, no more price-gouging ink cartridges to buy, and the duplex capability can't be beat. I strongly suggest following the setup instructions on the included CD (30 pages worth!) ~ take it slowly step-by-step, as you can actually damage the printer if you do something incorrectly (which might be another reason for the naysayers). But trust me on this one, if you see this printer for $200-300 new, buy it. Knowing what I know now it's a no-brainer. You'll revel in your discovery, just as I have, that it's a quality product at a sweet-sweet price.

I gambled and bought this printer instead of the HP 2600N; dispite a few bad reviews. Mainly because it has better all round specs, (double the DPI, much faster printing, toner is less expensive, less noise, and built in duplexer to name a few). When I printed a few pages from streets and trips I was very unsatisfied with the print out. It was faded/dull and almost no color except the highlights. I almost returned it. Then I turned the "color" - "calibration" setting (menu on printer itself) from "auto" to "run now" and printed a page. I was stunned by the color and quality of the print. I don't know why this has to be done or what exacly happened, but it works great now! I am glad I was not swayed by the neg reviews, I just wish I knew what to do. So now YOU know!

the graphics output is ok... but some text output is blurry. it is better if you print out your own text, because you can change the fonts to size 12, Arial to make the font less blurry. However, if you are printing out a PDF page or webpage, note that the font may come out blurry because you can't change the font easily.

so this printer printer is good for simple graphics printing and good for your own text documents, and especially you can print them out with automatic both-side printing.

however, if you need to print other material, then consider other color laser printers instead. i really hope samsung will fix the problem in the next version of the printer. because this printer is not bad for its features and price, just need to fix the blurry text problem.

I bought this printer for a couple of specific reasons - to do double-sided colour printing on plain paper and to print presentation certificates. I already had a B&W laser printer. I read the reviews, many negative, but bought anyway, reasoning that complainers always complain but satisfied customers stay silent.

This is a quality printer at a bargain price. It does everything I want it to and does it very well. B&W printing is a little heavy (much heavier than my HP) but looks good. Color printing is excellent; not as good, of course, as an inkjet photo printer, but good all the same. Default color is somewhat dark but easily fixed with a quick adjustment of the color histogram in the options settings. I have printed photos on light card to send to friends - they come out nicely. The brochures I print (double-sided color) are terrific. Color is a matt finish, not the part-glossy look of many color lasers, and is harder to pick as color laser output.

Duplexing works well - no issues. Envelope printing is good. Paper feed is straight - I print on pre-printed certificates and the alignment is perfect (better than my HP). Initial set-up took 20 minutes and was easy. Noise level is comparable with other B&W lasers.

Niggles? Hardly any. It's comparatively slow to warm up from standby (but acceptable). Occasionally a single sheet of 80gsm in the multi-purpose try fails to pick up and registers a jam. Putting half a dozen sheets in prevents this. It's heavy and takes up a fair bit of desk space.

Summary: For home use, small office or a networked business this is an excellent printer. Highly recommended.

After comparing several of the "budget" color laser printers, I settled on this one for 2 reasons: the price (under $300 after mail in rebate) and because the toner cartridges are separate and do not have HP's "not-so-smart" technology. What I have found after using this for a month is that the starter toner cartridges have lasted-- I just changed the yellow after atleast 2000 color pages being printed (mostly greens), and the other cartridges are still going strong. I have not had any problems with this printer, just make sure that you select the proper type of paper that you are printing on. I would definitely recommend this color laser printers to others.

I do not usually waste my writing reviews but the ones for this printer are outright wrong so I am going to make an exception.

Setup of the printer was easy and done in around 15 minutes following the instructions on the quick setup paper, so obviously the quick setup explains the procedure well enough. However, it could have mentioned that the color cartridges are not supposed to line up evenly in order to prevent people from trying to push them in with force.

The printing quality is good. Of course, I have seen more expensive lasers produce better output. I found nothing wrong with the sharpness of the text or the coloring. I did not have to do any color calibrating. Small 5pt text looks fine.

It does suffer from paperjams but this might be because I use cheap paper bought from walmart. It is heavy and requires a lot of space on the desk and it does get hot. This printer is by no means loud for a laser printer.

I'm happy with my purchase. It is great value for its price as there is no other color laser with duplex printing in this price range.

Everything seemed fine till the time came to print. I made sure I was using LASER paper, and wouldn't you know it, the color toner refused to stick to the paper. It would print out, but within minutes it would start flaking off like powder or else it was smeared across the paper. This wasn't a problem with the black toner, it appeared to be fine. I tried various types of paper, too...same result.

Another problem encountered was that the printer top could not be opened without using a prying device. It has a button on top to release the upper lid, but it only unlatches one side of the mechanism. A lot of good this is when attempting to clear a jam.

I contacted Samsung a couple times, but never heard back from them.

I have this printer for over 8 months now, and this printer has problems. The sensor that detects waste toner level is weak for many of the CLP-510 printers, causing it to report an error that waste toner bin needs to be replaced before it would print again. Even if the sensor is not weak, the waste toner bin itself is poorly designed where when waste toner goes in it, it gets on the section of the bin where the sensor detects the bin as full. I clean the bin, but it would detect it as full soon again after 50 prints. The waste toner is suppose to lasts for over 1,000 prints.
Search the internet for "CLP-510 Waste Toner Problems" for more info.

Other than that, text prints looks good. Color prints are good enough for non-business use and non-photo prints. I tried to print photos on photo paper, but after the 5th one in a roll, I think the printer got too hot that the toners wouldn't stay on the photo papers. Maybe before it was the thickness and the smoothness of the paper has something to do with it too. Now the rollers in the printer are dirty and leaves a black spot on my prints.

Another problem, it jams more than I would like. About once every 20 prints.

My advice, DO NOT BUY it. It seems like a great printer the first 2 or 3 months, after that, it's problem after problem.