Customer Reviews

Samsung ML-2851ND Network-Ready Monochrome Laser Printer

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

So far this laser has been great. i was looking for a laser that printed on both sides and network ready. The samsung filled the bill at a very attractive price (can be has for $160 with instant rebate). It was a breeze to setup on Mac OS 10.5 as a network printer. Bonjour found it and just use the Samsung driver. Also since it has native postscript support you can use the Generic Postscript Driver with it as well. Works fine under 10.5 that way as well. Printing speed is awesome, and printing on both sides is great. the smaller form factor is great too.

I've been using the printer for over 6 months. I print 1,000 - 2,000 pages every month. The Samsung ML-2851ND Network-Ready Monochrome Laser Printer works very well for my purposes.

I am running MAC OS 10.5.6 on a computer that is hooked to the printer via USB cable and MAC OS 10.4 on a computer that is hooked to the printer via network. Setup was intuitive. I have not experienced the print smear issues that other reviewers mentioned.

The availability of a 250 Sheet Second Paper Tray (ML-S2850A) <Samsung 250 Sheet Second Paper Tray for ML-2851ND (ML-S2850A)> was influential in my decision to pick this printer. Thus the printer cost quite a bit more, but it was worth it for me so I didn't have to keep switching paper types in the tray. As a writer I print out a lot of drafts to hand edit. I recycle paper that already has print on one side. I keep one tray with new paper for printing on one side or two sides using the automatic duplex feature and the second tray full of paper to reuse, printing on only one side. I don't print a lot of envelopes, but when I do I just feed them one at a time by hand in the manual feeder, which does not accept more than one page.

Paper jams occur occasionally, more often from the tray with the recycle paper, usually due to paper folding or other defect. On-screen instructions have been very helpful, providing detailed instructions on clearing the jam.

Print cartridge replacement is intuitive. The printer ships with the ML-D2850A Black Toner Cartridge, which prints about 2,000 copies. I've replaced it with the Samsung ML-D2850B Black Toner Cartridge <Samsung ML-D2850B Black Toner Cartridge for ML-2851ND>, which prints about 5,000 copies. I don't print a lot of images, mostly just text. I've not kept close records on how many copies I've actually printed, but I use the toner save mode for the majority of the printing and my impression is that I'm getting a good return on the investment with the larger cartridge.

I see that a cheaper high-yield print cartridge REFILL option is available <1 Black Samsung ML-2850 High Yield Toner Refill Kit, also for ML-2851 ML-D2850B ML-D2850A ML-D2850B INCLUDES RESET CHIP>. At this time the refill kit is not reviewed. I don't know if I want to go though the hassle and risk of funneling toner into cartridge or not, probably not.

The ML2851ND is capable of some nice clean copies, good grayscale and quiet, fast operation. It is easy to set up, especially with Macintosh. It's footprint is fairly small for use in tight spaces. The only problem is that right out of the box about 95% of my copies printed with a smeary toner streak about a half an inch wide all the way down the left margin. This prints with varying densities most of the time but seems the darkest when the printer is first used. After about 10 to 15 copies it starts to fade, but the defect returns as the printer cools. I don't know if this is universal with this model, but it reflects very poor quality control on Samsung's part. Samsung's customer service was responsive but offered no workaround. I assume they are aware of the problem since they directed me to a repair center immediately. So, I've owned it for less than a week, and either must pack it all back up, insure it and ship it back to the online seller (not Amazon), or leave it with a repair shop. It's a no win situation.

First, I had the same experience with the toner cartridge that came with the printer. The copies were smeared and awful. I spent hours trying to clean the cartridge and ran all the utilities over and over - very frustrating. I thought I was going to have to return the printer. After speaking at length with support - and against my better judgment - I purchased a new cartridge and the smearing problem was solved. But if it hadn't been, I would have been out $65.00. Samsung, "Get with it and pack a decent cartridge with your printers. You'll save everyone a lot of headaches and $ - yourself included." The second problem is with paper handling. I regularly get 2 pages slipping through together when only one should and each has a partial print. This is a problem for me because, in my business, I am constantly changing between forms and only put in the number of forms needed in any given circumstance. I have wasted a lot of expensive form stock.

This printer replaced a workhorse Lexmark that had been in daily use for 12 years. It is smaller and quieter and was easy to install but, I have to say not as trustworthy.

****UPDATE**** 03-21-2010
The fuser has blown out. This is the worst B&W laser printer I have ever used. Save yourself time and headaches; get a Lexmark or Brother. Sorry Samsung - love your monitors and TVs but this printer -> PU.

I had to buy a laser printer in a hurry to replace a previous laser printer that finally quit working. Because I am a student again, I had to really narrow my search criteria for the replacement printer out of cost consideration. The printer had to be a laser printer, fast, network-ready and, of course, low-cost. After searching various review sites including Amazon.com, I finally concluded that the Samsung ML-2851 ND printer most closely fit what I was seeking.

In no particular order, these are my likes and dislikes about this printer:
Likes: It's fast! Of course, I am used to a 12 ppm laser, so just about anything in the market today would seem speedy compared to it. The warmup time required after the printer wakes from sleep mode is very short compared to other printers I have used over the years.

The duplexer is a great feature for a printer at this price level. In order to bring the cost of production in line with the street price of the printer, I wonder if Samsung might not have used a cheaper, less reliable transfer roller in their duplexer? Time will tell...

It is quiet. I can barely hear this printer in operation and often find myself going to check it just to make sure the print job was processed. I guess that could be seen as a drawback, but I like the quiet of my house when it's just me and the dog working on my school homework.

Built-in Ethernet spared me from having to get another print server for my home network.

The Mac setup is easy if you are familiar with configuring a network printer. But, in the course of setting up this printer for a mixed Windows and Mac LAN, I did find a few little issues I didn't like.


Dislikes: The printer network settings allow for DHCP, but the driver looks for the printer by IP address only. This is a major issue if you want to let IP resources be managed by a DHCP server because of the number of network appliances on a LAN segment. Leaving the printer on in order to keep the IP address leased to the printer is not an option. It appears that when the printer goes into sleep mode for power saving, it doesn't request the re-leasing of its assigned address. If you are intending to use this printer on a network using the TCP/IP protocol, the only way you are going to get reliable network operation is to assign this printer a static IP address.

The Mac driver is already built into Mac OS X 10.6.x (Snow Leopard). Nothing in the User's Guide indicates this, nor were there any notes on the Samsung support web site about this. Using the install CD that is provided with the printer is not recommended except to install the Samsung Smart Panel. On the Mac, this utility isn't that useful.

Speaking of Smart Panel, I don't like that it automatically loads for the Windows driver when the computer is booted. I have not found a way to disable this feature. Fortunately, you can tell Smart Panel not to load on computer boot in the Mac version.

The printer preferences in the Windows driver are not as well implemented as I believe they could be. For example, enabling duplex printing does not necessarily enable duplex printing. The user also has to select if the duplex print should follow the long side or short side of the paper. In the Mac driver, duplex printing is a simple check box option.

Even though this printer has multiple feed paths (Paper Tray 1, Paper Tray 2 [optional], Manual Feed), the driver will only allow envelopes to be fed through the manual feed slot -- one at a time. For someone who is used to printing envelopes from my address book without having to go to the printer every time a single envelope needs to be printed, this is a big disappointment.

Print output seems a little light unless the printer is set to 1200 dpi with the toner save option disabled. I have been playing with these settings to see if there is a way to tweak my documents without giving up maximizing toner cartridge life.

Most of the dislikes are minor for me. I do wish Samsung hadn't put a DHCP setting in the printer when their own driver won't recognize the printer if the printer IP address changes. It would have been far better for me if they had simply instructed the user to set a static IP address and forget it. That would have saved me a few days of network issues.


Overall, I like this printer. It has met my most critical needs with a couple wants tossed in for good measure. It is a lot of SOHO printer for the price. Time will tell if the toner cartridges have enough print life to justify a higher rating for this printer.

The DHCP client seems to have a bug where it is static at 192.0.0.192. I had to set my computer on that network and set the IP to static to get it on my 10.0.x.x network (all other devices on my network get an IP address from my router). I like the build quality, it feels less flimsy than most printers. The web-based interface gets the job done, there's more options than I would need.

I have a Mac and the default Generic Postscript drivers didn't have a duplex option (this can be set in the web-based interface so it's not a huge deal). I tried the Generic Postscript 1.3 drivers and duplex worked but whenever I sent a job > 10 pages it would printer the first few pages then print the rest blank. I finally solved this by using the Generic PCL Laser Printer 1.3 driver which allowed me to set the duplex and side (long or short) and I tested it with a few large jobs and it seemed to do okay.

After a few weeks it started smearing. Samsung's support website is horrible! I had to upload a receipt, and it said if I didn't go through their troubleshooting guide online I would have to pay $50... the trouble-shooting guide online was a lot of 404 pages. I called support and they were very helpful. After about 30 minutes on the phone they sent me a replacement printer but only after I gave them my credit card in case I didn't send the old one back. The replacement printer arrived two days later). I am supposed to send the old printer back, but the link they sent me that had the return address is broken. I've emailed them back so hopefully I won't get charged for the second printer.

...oh, and the problem with the smearing also occurred on the new printer, I figured out it was a leak in the toner cartridge. I bought a new one (this time the 5000 yield cartridge) and that fixed the problem.

The good thing is once it's working it's working. Once it has an IP it was easy to set it up on a second Mac.

Would I buy this again? Yes, where else can you get a laser printer with networking and duplexing and no toner counter that forces you to replace the toner for this price? I think if Samsung could improve their online experience and quality they could really give their customers a great experience. I am going to ask them to reimburse me for the paper (about 200 pages) I used troubleshooting it and the amount of unused ink in the leaking toner cartridge. I'll leave it at 4 stars if they do that, if not I'll come back and lower the rating.

We just received this printer and I thought I'd mention what was/was not included with the printer (in case it's unclear to you, like it was for us):

-one printer cartridge (Samsung ML-D2850A Black Toner Cartridge, with approx. 2,000 page yield, not the ML-D2850B that has a 5,000 page yield)
-NO USB CABLE to connect to your computer (you need a Type A male to Type B male, the typical printer-to-computer USB cable)
-NO ETHERNET CABLE to connect to your internet router (if you want to print wirelessly)

Also, FYI to Mac Users: I had some difficulty setting this printer up to work wirelessly on our network and to print duplex (double-sided). The Installation CD provides the Mac-specific driver for the printer, but the "Smart Panel" application that is supposed to help Mac-users with printer setup never successfully downloaded from the CD, and even when I downloaded it from the Samsung site, I still couldn't open it. Luckily my computer is updated enough to be able to detect the printer (through a Bonjour connection) once it's connected to the router via Ethernet, and so I didn't need the Samsung application after all.

In general, I found that Samsung support for Mac-users to be quite poor. The instruction manual on the install CD describes set-up *only* for PCs (!), despite their marketing, which touts that the printer is very Mac-friendly. Online, the troubleshooting and support help is also only PC-oriented--all the images and instructions describe PC pop-ups and options. Grrr... So I found myself trying to set this up through trial-and-error (with minimal help from online forums).

Setting up the duplex-printing: I have a MacBook Pro (purchased in Sept '09), running OS 10.5.8. In other words, it's an up-to-date machine, and I'm average-ly competent when it comes to computer issues, but figuring out how to duplex-print took a while, too, precisely because the instructions in the manual and online show you the steps and illustrations only for a PC, *not* a Mac. Finally, I figured out on my own that the cryptic "iPSU" folder within the Samsung contents downloaded from the CD stood for "Printer Setting Utilities" (why not name it more clearly?!), and within *that* application, you have to turn Duplex Printing ON, select "Long-edge Binding", and only *then* will "Two-sided Printing" be enabled under "Layout" in the pop-up window for Mac printing. PHEW! (at least that's how it was for me)

That being said, once it's all set up, the machine works beautifully! It's got a nice cube-like compact shape (no parts jutting out--paper is stacked inside and prints come out on top), it makes beautiful print-outs, it's efficient, fast, and wonderfully duplex! (The printer itself is a 5--I just knocked my rating down 1 star because of difficulties with set-up.) My husband and I are both graduate students in the humanities and we constantly need to print out paper drafts, articles, PDFs, etc., and for us the duplex feature was KEY. It's very exciting to be able to print laser *and* duplex from home. Yay!

Overall, great product, but Samsung really needs to include Mac-specific instructions in their manuals and online support!

About me: I'm a college student, this printer sits in my bed room. I may not put it through the ringer like a small office would, but I do quite a bit of printing with it
Also, I used to test printers (and other electronics) as my job. I've seen many printers in my day that I thought were poorly designed, and only a small few that I thought were well designed. This one tops that second list.

I planned on reviewing this printer once the starter cartridge ran out, but it's been three reams of paper and almost a year since I've got it and It's still going strong. In all that paper and all that time I've had only one jam--which was easy to fix and probably a result of my sloppy paper-input methods.
After owning an inkjet for years--a $100 printer that was burning a hole in my wallet via cartridges--I am so glad I went for this printer. It's worth the initial investment for sure.
The duplexer works like a charm, a feature I don't expect at all on printers of this size.
The network capabilities are exactly what I needed. Keeps my USB ports empty, everyone in the house can use it, works for the Windows and Linux machines in the house, I love it.

It's no photo printer, but I don't need it to be
It's not quiet, but I don't need it to be.

Amazingly, the bundled CD included the necessary .ppd file for me to set this up in Ubuntu (worked automagically, by "set this up" I really mean "get the duplexor to work"). This NEVER happens, I was expecting a struggle--printer software is one area that machines shackled to Windows seem to have a particularly heavy advantage. I was so pleased to find that this was a 1 minute setup regardless of the operating system in question.

I bought this printer five months ago after looking at quite a lot of alternatives, and have found it excellent for my needs as a student. Home users should not be put off by the "smaller office" categorization; the speed, double-sided printing and high print quality are great for any user that prints at least moderately.

The network setup was quite easy with the SmartPanel software from the Samsung web site (I usually don't bother with installation CD:s or manuals), but some knowledge of how your home network works is probably useful. The Mac version of the software also seems to work well on my girlfriends computer. The printer properties dialog has had some thought put into it, with all the most important settings, including double-side printing and multiple pages per side (that actually works well), on the first tab.

The only real drawback with this printer from my point of view is that it isn't wireless. This put some limitations on where we could place it in our apartment, but once we found a place for it near our wireless router, we can print with it over wireless anyway. Wireless is mostly useful for the things you will be moving around, and a printer isn't one of those things.

Finally, if you are considering buying a cheaper alternative without double-sided printing (as I was), I'd advise against it. Double-sided printing is just so convenient (even if you're printing only two pages, having them on one sheet of paper is nice), and it also saves trees.

So to conclude, I highly recommend this printer to students and others with similar printing needs.

Pros:
- Fast
- Printer software works great
- Print quality is excellent for black-and-white text and graphics
- Two sided printing is very convenient
- Extra ink seems to be relatively cheap compared to some other printers

Cons:
- Network setup takes some patience
- Quite large, and not very stylish
- Not wireless

We bought this printer to replace our aging toner-hungry jam-prone HP. Like many other users here on Amazon and on the Samsung support pages, we had a great experience at first. Easy setup, good quality, and fast printing. As expected, after about a month the starter cartridge ran out of toner. After replacing it with the proper Samsung-branded cartridge, we've had similar problems to other users. Printouts have streaks of gray on the right and left edges of the page and dark lines throughout. Several of our computers now report that the printer is offline and cannot print to it. And all we did was replace the toner cartridge!

Samsung's support website just spins it's wheels; clicking links on their site just results in timeouts. Across the interenet there are lots of similar problems with this printer, but no solutions.

Also, it has a real hard time with stickers or cardstock from the tray, but they go through ok in the front bypass slot. A real hassle when you're trying to print multiple pages of address labels.