Customer Reviews

Samsung ML-1630W Personal Wireless Mono Laser Printer

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I'm giving five stars for the unit itself, but getting it operational was another matter altogether.

Living in a smallish Manhattan apartment, I needed a compact laser printer that wouldn't look conspicuous on the bookcase of my multifunction living room/dining room/office. I figured its low profile and sleek design would actually camouflage it quite nicely with my stereo components. But the main thing was I needed it to be WIRELESS, since the computer itself is on the other side of the room, and I didn't want to run wires all over the place.

The unit came packed with a "Mac Quick Set-Up" diagram -- only pictures, not even words explaining how to set up the unit (I guess they figured they'd save the cost of multi-language translations). The diagram didn't explain much, so I popped in the set-up CD in my Mac and went through the steps. The software downloaded, but the unit wasn't working. In fact, the computer wasn't even recognizing that there WAS a printer.

So I called Samsung support, and after waiting on hold for 20 minutes, was connected to a woman named "Lisa" who could barely speak English. After stumbling through the language barrier and her insultingly simple troubleshooting questions ("Is your computer turned on?"), we finally got to the heart of the problem: she said I needed to HARD WIRE the printer to my wireless router. "But the printer itself is supposed to be wireless," I protested. "No, it's wireless because it goes through your router," she insisted. "But that's stupid," I retorted, "because if I wanted to hard-wire my printer to my wireless router, I could have done that with ANY printer! Where's the wireless functionality of THIS printer?"

Of course she couldn't help me, but she gave me another Samsung tech support number to call -- only, of course, between the hours of 8:00 AM and 5:00 PM Eastern Time, Monday through Friday. Convenient! Because we're all at home hooking up our computers during those hours, right?

I called Samsung from work the next day. The guy started walking me through the troubleshooting steps. "Hang on, I'm writing this all down," I said. "Wait," he said, "you're not in front of your computer now?" "No," I said, "I'm at WORK right now -- just like you."

Well, it seemed that English-challenged "Lisa" from the night before failed to give me the number for the support office that's open AFTER hours, which this guy shared with me. So I called later that evening, and was immediately connected to a guy in Seattle who sounded like he's barely out of high school. FINALLY -- someone who knows what he's talking about!!

"Steve" walked me through a labyrinthine maze of commands and menus in my computer, having me enter series of numbers and periods - closing this box, opening another -- entering more numbers -- reopening -- for about 30 minutes. Then he had me connect my wireless printer with a USB cable to my wireless router. Apparently the initial "handshake" with the computer requires this. Once the "handshake" is over, you can disconnect the USB cable, and VOILA -- the printer is now completely wireless forever and ever, amen.

Long story short, I ended up setting up my printer on a shelf in my hall closet, and amazingly the wireless functionality is strong enough to pierce my 8-inch thick prewar plaster walls, even with the heavy mahogany closet door closed.

I would highly recommend this printer to anyone who needs an attractive compact laser printer, as well as the flexibility of setting it up with no cords (except, of course, the power cord). However, Samsung should just do everyone a favor and rather than including a set-up diagram and CD, just tape a business card to the top of the unit with Steve's phone number.

Total set-up time: 4 hours.

I've owned HP and Lexmark laser printers for years, but needed a new wireless laser with drivers that would work with the 64-bit version of Windows Vista. I decided to take a chance on the ML-1630W because it is, without a doubt, the classiest looking laser printer on the market and most users of the ML-1630 (the non-wireless version) confirmed that it's fairly fast, very quiet, and looks even better in person.

My new ML-1630w arrived yesterday, and after unpacking it, I installed the software from the included CD-ROM and got busy trying to get the printer set up for wireless operation. What a frustrating waste of time.
After 3 hours of aggravation, I gave up and went to bed. This morning, I called the Samsung tech support line at 1-800-726-7864 and was pleasantly suprised when my call was taken by a patient, knowledgeable, and fluently English-speaking technician who instructed me to do a series of actions (which I was going to detail here until I realized how complicated that would get), and stayed on the phone with me until my printer was functioning perfectly via a new virtual port using a static IP address, and configured to connect to my existing home network with the correct SSID and network key. In less than 15 minutes, she had everything working perfectly!

I have since downloaded the appropriate drivers to my Dell desktop and an HP Pavilion laptop both running Windows XP, an EEE PC netbook running Windows XP, and two HP Pavilion laptops that are both running the 64-Bit version of Windows Vista Home Premium. Simply running the installer from those drivers was all it took to get EVERY SINGLE ONE successfully connected and printing without a hitch!

Now the bad news is that the ML-1630 and ML-1630w mono laser printers won't do envelopes, and have a small paper tray (maybe 85 pages or so) so those limitations might be a deal-killer for you.

IN SUMMARY: If you don't need to print envelopes or large jobs, buy this printer; it's gorgeous, quiet, fast, not terribly expensive, and works perfectly with both Windows XP and the 64-bit Windows Vista Home Premium operating system, but CALL SAMSUNG TECH SUPPORT AND HAVE THEM WALK YOU THROUGH THE INITIAL WIRELESS SETUP.

I set up the ML-1630W without too many issues, but here's the thing--You need to configure the wireless setup via a web interface on the printer, which means you have to cable it to a computer or a hub (they do include a crossover cable to get that done) to get to that configuration screen. A usable menu interface on the printer would solve this, but alas, I can't find any documentation of the menu interface. If you are going to put it in a wired LAN you won't have any trouble.

I suggest you set up this printer on your desk with a laptop before you put it in it's desired location. And just follow the steps in the (brief) manual and it will come right up.

One irritation, the printer comes with a "Starter" toner, which is a 1000-page cartridge, not the regular 2000-page cart. Half-filling a cart is theft.

On the other hand, complaining that it doesn't have a duplexer or a scanner is like complaining that it isn't color. Most laser printers don't have these functions either.

I'm subtracting a star for the useless menu interface, (creating the wireless setup problem), and a star for the cheapo toner cart.

I got this Samsung 1630W with Apple Macbook at one third the listed price because of mail order rebate. Setup of this printer to work with your network requires connecting with a NETWORK CABLE to the router. But once it is set up you can use it wirelessly.

Another problem I found is that you have to set the IP address to a fixed one, otherwise it keeps disconnecting from the network. I wish the quick set up guide was better and explained all this without me having to figure this out after spending hours. Samsung technical support is rather poor quality; their customer support techs are not very knowledgeable. In my experience calling Samsung Technical Support was a total waste of time because ultimately I had to fix the problem on my own. They had me reinstall the whole software all over again when all I had to do was change the IP address to fixed!

Samsung ML-1630W Printer Setup

NETWORK SETUP TO ASSIGN FIXED IP ADDRESS

1. Download and install SetIP program (from Samsung Web Site but also available at Dell)
2. Connect the printer with the router with the supplied crossover network cable.
3. Power Up the printer and press the cancel button (a Triangle) for 4 seconds and print configuration report.
4. Start SetIP program and click on new and enter the Samsung ML1630's Mac address without colons.
5. Give it a fixed IP address - depending upon the router something like 192.168.1.107 or 10.0.0.29 etc. Get the subnet mask and gateway values also from the router.

WIRELESS NETWORK SETUP

1.Once your Samsung Printer has a fixed IP address, enter that into the browser, something like 192.168.1.107
2. Click Network Settings menu on the top
3. Click Wireless menu on the left side.
4. Click "custom" and not the wizard and then enter your wireless SSID and WEP or WPA netowrk key.
5. Once your settings are accepted, unhook the network cable and you should be ready to go.

Setup and solving printer disconnection problem requires some tech savvy but once you overcome set up snags, it is very sleek, compact Apple style minimalist printer which is not noisy and at 5% coverage, the toner cost per page is 2.5 cents as of March 2010. So far, I have not had to replace drum. Paper jams are rare. Print quality from Windows os not as good as from Mac OS X.

Wi-Fi network printer is a great convenience. No cable clutter and you can keep it at any location you like: it does not have to be close to the router or the computer. Works for all network computers. After you have used one, you will never buy a wired printer again. Brother HL-2170W 23ppm Laser Printer with Wireless and Wired Network Interfaces is another wireless monochrome laser printer which is supposed to be faster at 23 ppm, less expensive and much better rated by lot more buyers.

Stay away from Samsung 1630W if you are not familiar with network configuration settings, otherwise, it is a nice printer with good print quality and reasonable cost.

It is a great printer but you have to be familiar with wireless networks to set it up correctly. I was able to set it up for Windows, Mac and Linux with no issues. You can set up the printer to send you an email when it is running out of paper or when you need to order a new toner. I do not recommend the printer if you are expecting to be plug and play.
The printer is very quiet and simple to use. It has a minimalism design with just one button. Everything else has to be set up on the printer's website. (As soon as the printer is connected to your network you can change the settings by going to the printers' ip-address using your browser)
The toner last forever! And the price per page is very low compared to inkjet.
One thing that you may not like is that it does not hold much paper. It is for small print jobs (less than 50 pages). I think it holds 100.

This is an amazing product.The setup was a breeze....I learned from previous reviews !!!!Wireless setup did required the printer to be hardwired to router for few minutes.
I was able to get Tech support on Sunday evening @8.00pm (EST)and it took me 5 minutes of waiting and around 5 minutes with the Tech and I was able to start Wireless printing.
Unless you are a computer/network genius, I will recommend to call Technical support.

It looks good, is quiet, and very fast. The only downside is the network set up. I had to go through installing the drivers and run the network settings many times before I got it to work wirelessly. The first problem was the IP address constantly changing, this was quickly fixed, then it was getting it to communicate wirelessly. They have excellent support which walked me through things step-by-step. If you are curious, I use this for the many papers I print out for school and workshops, while my mother uses it to print applications and forms for her job. It serves our purposes well.