Customer Reviews

Samsung ML-1430 Laser Printer

5 star:		(30)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

The GOOD:
-Print quality is excellent for both text and graphics . . . even compared with ... HP brand networked laser printers. Note that I'm making this comparison running the Samsung in "Toner Saver" mode.
-Easy to set up, including USB and printer drivers.
-Toner Save mode . . . supposedly saves toner, and output quality is not degraded significantly.
-FAST

The BAD:
-8MB of RAM (and this is NOT upgradable) If you print a lot of graphics, you might want to choose some other printer. Note that the ML-1450 comes with only half as much RAM as the ML-1430. . . but you can add an EDO SIMM to the 1450 to bump it up as high as 68MB! So if you print graphics, the 1450 would be worth the extra money.
-Will probably need to be replaced at roughly 50,000 pages printed. For more information, read the 'troubleshooting' section of the owner's manual, page 7.5
-Does not include a FULL toner cartridge. Samsung isn't the only manufacturer that pulls this stunt. The 'starter' toner cartridge is only about 1/3 full, apparently.
-No printed user manual. Reading the manual on the computer screen is a pain. Printing the manual is an option, but it will use a significant percentage of your "starter" toner cartridge.
-Ugly promo sticker on front of printer can NOT be removed without leaving a horrible gluey mess!
-No "sleep mode" indication (How do you tell it's sleeping when it looks like it's still on? Lights don't turn off, change color . . . or even dim when it sleeps.)

Considering the price, I'd have to say this is an excellent value in a laser printer. You have to think of it as a throw-away though. Evaluating it as a long-term workhorse, I'd have to give it 3 stars, at best. But as color laser printers are quickly becoming affordable, you probably won't need this printer to last very long anyway. In the meantime, it is a GREAT printer, with a few minor problems. So I gave it four stars.

I think this would be perfect for the average home user who uses the Internet, basic office applications . . . and needs to print a few resumes occasionally.

Mine worked fine for 2 years as well, but gradually stopped feeding paper. The issue is that the rubber pickup roller worn out.
The roller is plastic with a rubber band sitting on it. The rubber band needs to be either "rotated" or replaced.

Fix #1:
Disassemble the pickup roller. Rotate the rubber band 180 degree. Only half of it is used, so the other half is not worn out. Will work for another 2000 pages.

Fix #2:
Order a new one from [...], part number JC72-00109A.

Note: you have to be quite handy to be able to reassemble the printer. First remove the back panel (two screws and two latches). Then top panel (two screws.) Then remove toner cartridge. Then the piece that sits on top of toner cartridge
(4 screws.) Before removing it, note how the roller attaches to the black switch rod. Finally remove one screw from roller pickup assembly and disassemble the roller. Carefully pull the rubber band (it can tear easily.) Replace it or rotate it so that shiny side is not used for pick up.

We've been using the ML-1430 for three months now and absolutely love it. It's a great overall printer, excellent print quality even in Toner Saver mode (slightly lighter than regular mode). The toner drum supplied with the printer lasts about 1000 pages or so - even with the Toner Saver mode turned on.
This is hooked up to work with three PC's on a wireless network. (XP, Win98, Win2K). Setup was straightforward. All drivers, manuals etc are available on www.samsungusa.com.

Issues: The buffer is small - 8 MB and is not upgradeable. Poses a problem while printing large pdf documents - takes a while to spool to the printer.
No duplex printing!
Labels and envelopes can be a challenge with this printer. Envelopes sometimes get stuck.
Overall: Great little laser printer for home office use. Small footprint, fairly quiet operation, great print quality, economical - about 3 c a page. Would not hesitate recommending this outstanding printer.

This budget-priced laser printer is quiet and delivers your documents most expeditiously! Note to Macintosh OS X users: the latest driver can be downloaded from the manufacturer's website so you won't have to revert to OS 9 whenever you need to print. Hopefully this will save you some time and trouble, because there were no editorial comments or customer reviews before I purchased this! I selected four stars because there is a slight pause after issuing the command to print, but the pause is negligible and hardly worth mentioning.

Connected it to a computer running Windows 98SE OS. We had been using an ink jet but the cost of the ink cartridges had outstripped the value of the printer. Upgrading to a laser printer seemed economical at this point.

Setup was simple. It was easily recognized and our word processing program had no problem printing envelopes (a major issue with the prior printer).

We have a small but paper intensive business so this provided us with a good working laser printer for one work station at a reasonable price.

Pro:
1. Small foot print
2. Can print 2 up, 4 up, etc.
3. Low price point.
Con:
1. Not as sharp as the HP, NEC, Okidata even with the 600x600 resolution.
2. Longer warm up time compare to other printers
3. Poor quality.

I got this printer on 11/11/2002 and the laser unit broke on 12/25/02. The local Authorized repair center no longer takes care of Samsung products and I have to ship it to get it repaired. Samsung refused to replace this printer for free.

I have used (and still using some of them) the HP, Brother, NEC, and Okidata laser printers, this printer is absolutely the worst.

My advice to the potential buyer is to find out if there is a local service center before you purchase it on-line. The other alternative is to buy extended warranty from a local store (which negates the low price point).

So, consider your total cost for ownership before you jump in because the low initial purchase price.

I liked the first one of these so much I got a second one. The first one has given me no problems at all. It set up with ease, worked well with both parallel and USB hookups (I was switching between two computers), prints quickly (although the wait for the first page is a tad long), and has excellent print quality.

So, given the cheap price, I bought the second one because switching was inconvenient. It performs just as well as the first, EXCEPT it jams. A lot. Maybe every 25 pages, on average, if I use the top output. It doesn't jam much using the front/bottom output, but then the printed sheets fall on the floor. (I don't have room enough to set the printer back). The first one almost never jams either way. The second one also makes considerably more noise than the first.

I'd give the first one 5 stars, and the second 1 star, so I've split the difference. If I'd figured out the problem with the second one quick enough, I'd have exchanged it. I don't know how common problems are, but I'm suspicious of Samsung's quality control.

Incidentally, I had no problem removing the stupid stickers cleanly on either printer. Maybe Samsung has used different adhesives on other batches.

I bought this as my first laser printer after being an inkjet user for many years. I'm quite happy with it. Can print 30-page high-density print jobs almost as fast as it can move the paper, which is 10 times faster than any inkjet. So apparently the 8-MB memory limitation is not a problem.

Yes, the sticker on the front is a bad thing, but rubbing alcohol and elbow grease for 5 minutes does the trick. Another minor hassle is that the power switch is in back (lower right side if you're in front of the printer).

The price on this printer cannot be beat. Easy to install, dependable (even for a top feeder -I've had no paper jams yet), and has a very small footprint. The printer's toner saver feature works well, achieving surprisingly good text quality when activated.

Downsides: Very slow to spool and utilizes PC's resources while spooling much more than my HP 1000 LaserJet, which contains only 1MB of ram. The HP goes from spool to printed document in no time flat. This printer takes much too long to warm up to prepare for printing. Once warmed up and printing, the printer performs well.

Also, be careful of Samsung's rebate policy. I purchased two items on the same invoice; the rebate for the Samsung required the ORIGINAL invoice to obtain the rebate, I sent a copy. Long to short: no rebate for me!

If you are looking for laser economy at an economical price, this printer is hard to beat. For another $100, however, you can do yourself a favor and find a much better laser printer.

After years of suffering through expensive ink jet replacement costs, fuzzy print, and an early demise of several ink jet printers; we finally upgraded to this laser.

As other reviewers have mentioned, setup is a breeze. A quick-start guide right out of the box has you up in running in a few minutes.

Print quality is excellent and we have not had anything less than perfect performance in 3-4 months use.

A few things that you should know...

If the printer is in standby mode, it takes a few seconds to "wake up" and begin printing. This printer a bit louder than higher priced Laser printers.

However, when weighing the very affordable price and the quality of the output, this is a wonderful choice for a home or small business printer