Customer Reviews

Samsung ML-1210 Laser Printer

5 star:		(68)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I bought my 1210 around New Year's, 2002, and its quality and value have impressed me from the get-go. My observations:

The pros
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* It's quiet. I can talk on the phone while it's printing, and it doesn't interfere.

* It's compact. With a footprint of roughly a foot by a foot, and vertical loading and unloading, you can wedge this thing into some fairly tight spaces. (It has a front output switch, but I never use it -- it seems like it's for making one of those old-school Printshop banners.)

* Mine came with a free toner. I'm sure there are different deals all the time depending on the retailer; at the time of this writing, Amazon's price is very competitive. It also has a toner save function that, if the hype is to be believed, saves you some significant amount of toner. Whatever the case, I don't expect to buy toner any time soon.

* It's compatible with USB and standard parallel. I have both, but I have a zip drive in my LPT. I have not had any problems with USB that I can recall.

* I don't know anything about ppm, but if 12 ppm is what the 1210 does, that's plenty fast. I'm a law student, and it is more than adequate for the ample printing I do. You could probably use this printer in a small office.

* The drop-in loading makes it really easy to recycle paper, and it keeps the printer from monopolizing half of your desk (i.e., you don't have to clear a path for a tray). In my opinion, the benefits of this feed method outweigh any accompanying drawbacks (see below), especially if space is scarce.

The cons
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There aren't many, and the following are of the "twist my arm" variety:

* Graphics don't come out all that well. (Fortunately, I don't care much about printing pictures.) Like I said: black prints clearly; cross your fingers for grayscale. I got sick of hyperlinks disappering on web printouts; luckily you can set it to darken all text, which solves that problem. I have no idea how or to what extent the toner save function affects graphics; if graphics are important to you, I suggest you play around on a demo model.

* The feeding method (drop in from the top) has two drawbacks, as I see it. First, it requires a little more confidence than would shoving in a tray of paper and forgetting about it. I find it helpful periodically to pull out the "on deck" paper an inch or two and drop it back in. This gets all of it even, and it also makes the printer warm up, so it's ready to print when you are. Regardless, even if it looks like four sheets have dropped into the grabber and look set to jam it up, the thing still works properly.
The second issue with top-loading is that if you need to reinsert a page (e.g., manual duplex, recycling, etc.), try not to be drunk or, in figuring out which way to insert the paper, you will get angry and break something. Moreover, if you're doing something that involves a lot of this reinsertion -- a manual duplex job, for instance -- test out a few pages before doing a 50-page job. If you're printing something other than portrait/letter, it's a whole new level of fun.

* Somewhat related to this is the envelope feed. Forget trying to match up the picture on the printer with the one in Word. If Word starts printing envelopes all screwy, switch the feed style, hit OK, then switch it back to the default, and you should be good to go.

This is a perfect printer for a student: unless you do a lot of color printing for some reason, get this printer if it's in your budget. As a student you mainly want text to look good without having to use a computer lab all the time. That is this thing's raison d'etre. It is an obedient and reliable electronic servant that does your bidding and never quits, complains, or causes problems.

I almost bought the HP 1200 THANK GOD I DIDN'T.This printer is worth twice as much.None of the stores in my area carry this printer yet.I hate buying anything I can't see or test. So after many hours of researching and reading customer reviews I ordered it online.Setup took less than 10 minutes.Don't let the 600x600 dpi fool you.I went to office max and printed a sample out on the HP 1200 (1200x1200 dpi laser). I was not impressed.it also costs 399.This samsung blows the HP 1200 away.This laser printer is simply AWSOME.Don't let the price and dpi's fool you.I know it's hard to belive that a 189 dollar laser printer could be that good well BELIEVE IT DON'T BE FOOLED I ALMOST WAS.I f you don't believe me go to CNET and read the review.This baby "ROCKS"

I'm currently working on a Master's degree and needed a fast printer. I print out ALOT of research material! I ran across the Samsung ML1210 here at Amazon and read the reviews...in all honesty, I thought they were too good to be true. But I received the printer in a matter of days WITH the extra toner cartridge, and had the thing up and running in 10 minutes. No kidding! It produces nice, clean copies even when using the "toner saver" feature. I like the fact that there are no printer heads to be cleaned or aligned. It's also got a whopping 8 Meg of buffer memory. I agree with previous reviews: It takes a bit for the first page to come out; using a serial cable, about 30 seconds. But once it comes out, the following pages are printed about once every 5 seconds (continuous). The only other drawback is the fact that no serial cable or USB cable is included, but if you have a SAM's club nearby, you can pick one up for cheap. And while you're there, pick up a case of 10 sheaves (500 sheets each) of paper for about 20 bucks. In any case, do yourself a favor ASAP: Throw your old ink jet printer in the closet and order the Samsung ML1210...you won't regret it.

The Samsung ML-1210 is an excellent value if you are looking for a laser printer for under $200.00 retail. The consensus of test results for this printer vs. comparable units was that the Samsung has a lower cost per printed page than most competitive models. Some older reviews state that the ML-1210 comes with two toner cartridges, but now just one toner cartridge comes with the unit.

The setup program for the ML-1210 is on CD, and installs smoothly in less than a minute. You will need to furnish your own printer cable. There is no manual provided, so you have to go online to Samsung's website and download it in Acrobat format. The manual is 134 pages, file size is about 5Mb. The text is easy to follow and will probably provide all the information you need to operate, maintain and troubleshoot your machine.

When in operation, the unit runs smoothly and is pretty quiet. On the average the first page of your document will start printing about 10 seconds after the print command is given. Once it gets started, the printing speed is about the stated eight full pages per minute. Image quality is sharp, and of course a big improvement over an ink jet. The printer has a "toner save" mode which is activated by pushing a button in the front. Image quality in this mode is lighter, but still very readable. I plan to refill the toner cartridge to keep operating costs down. This is not recommended by the manufacturer, so you will have to decide for yourself if you want to do this too. Refilling will of course lower your operating costs significantly. This printer is primarily for documents, and does not have color capability, or photo quality.

The paper tray is not wide enough to accommodate number 10 envelopes lengthwise, so a second slot for manual feed, with adjustable guides, is provided for such non standard sized items. The printer settings will need to be reconfigured for each dedicated task.

No big complaints about the unit except for the location of the on/off switch. It is in the back, near the bottom, on the right hand side. This location could be very inconvenient, if like me you locate the unit below the work plane.

As a replacement for a flimsy inkjet, it is hard to beat this unit. It is ideal for the home user. The recent price reduction just makes it more attractive. Pick one up, you won't regret it.

I, like others, found the paper wouldn't load properly after a few years as the rubber band that pulls in each sheet of paper eventually dried out and lost it's tackiness and ability to grip the paper. Turning the rubber band inside out worked like a champ. Thanks to Hanlon for the great tip.

Here's how to do it yourself:

First, unplug the unit and place on a surface that won't be bothered by a bit of dust, excess toner ink and will catch the small screws you will inevitably drop (don't do this over a sink...)

Then, pull out the toner cartridge (watch out for excess toner).


Remove covers, laser unit and metal plate to access the cam:

First off, you need to remove two chrome screws from the back cover. And two chrome screws from the top (where the front cover meets the top cover). Then three black screws that hold the laser unit down, then four more black screws that hold the stamped steel part that holds the paper loading cam with the rubber band.

Unscrew one (of the two) chrome screws that hold the cam assembly together, pull apart the cam (it just falls apart when released) and flip the rubber band inside out.


Then perform the above steps in reverse order. Just be careful or you will end up like "forcor" who obviously put it back incorrectly and things won't work properly...

The entire "operation" took less than 15 minutes even when including the time to find a screwdriver, figure out which screws needed to be removed and how the printer was assembled. Unless you are a complete nimrod (forcor?) and can't turn a screwdriver or put things back in reverse order, this is an easy fix.

I'm pleased to report the printer runs like new again. Best $100 electronic item I've ever bought. Was sceptical about Samsung quality years ago but took a chance because of good reviews and the price was right. Now, I have no qualms about buying Samsung products....

Save the time, aggravation and money of taking to get serviced and do it yourself.

Happy printing

If you are considering your printing costs and are looking to switch from the ink jet to a laser printer, but are on a tight budget, than perhaps, you should consider this product.

Samsung ML1210 is one of the entry-level laser printers offered by Samsung. Yet, let not the term "entry level" deceive you wrongly. This unit is quite fast (offering a decent 12 pages per minute printing speed based on 5 to 15% of your page coverage).

The maximum resolution this unit can handle is 600 x 600 true laser quality. If you are looking for something of a higher resolution, than you perhaps should look into a ML1250 model which offers same specs as 1210 but it can handle the resolution of up to 1200 x 600 DPI true laser.

However, I have found, that for an average home and home to small office user, the 600 x 600 DPI resolution is quite adequate for most of printing needs. Thus, the somewhat decreased resolution capability of this unit should not of a major concern to you.

Furthermore to the above said, this unit is quite versatile as far as paper size and quality handling most of common paper formats (Envelope - C5 (162mm x 229mm), Envelope - C6 (114mm x 162mm,) Envelope - DL (110mm x 220mm,) Envelope - US # 10 (4.125" x 9.5"), Sheet - A4 (210mm x 297mm,) Sheet - A5 (148mm x 210mm,) Sheet - B5 (176mm x 250mm) and Sheet - US Executive (7.25" x 10.5")).

The tray loading capacity of this unit is about 100 to 150 sheet of regular cut A4 paper (150 sheet maximum capacity, 100 sheet recommended capacity), thus ensuring that you will have enough paper to finish small to medium sized printing project without the need to reload. Furthermore, to this, the unit comes with standard 8MB of onboard memory, thus further ensuring that your printing project and the accompanying printing process will undergo smoothly without your printer running out of the memory in a middle of handling of a larger printing job or without the need to split your printing job into smaller batches due to the insufficient printer buffer memory (how much information your printer can hold in itself once it has been sent from your computer).

Sizewise, this unit is quite compact and thus easily movable around your workspace. The unit measures 9" in height, 13" in width and 13.9" in depth and on average (without the toner drum and paper) weighs about 13.7 pounds.

As far as quality of workmanship and paper handling capabilities of this unit are concerned, I have had quite good experience with it so far. Clients, who have purchased this unit from me, reported to be quite satisfied with its performance (it is excellent in handling the paper, thus resulting in virtually minimum down time due to paper jams and other paper handling problems). Furthermore to this, I must also admit that I am more than impressed with its durability as well. I have rarely seen one of this units going down for whatsoever reason but the most serious user abuse, and even when they broke down, the abundance of affordably priced replacement parts and an extensive net of Samsung authorized repair depots, made it easy for my clients to repair unit in shortest possible time, thus eliminating the down time usually associated with the printer break down.

The unit itself connects to your computer using either Parallel - 36 pin Centronics (IEEE 1284B) or the USB - 4-pin Universal Serial Bus connection and is compatible with both Windows and MAC as well Linux based computer systems (Windows 95/98/2000/Me/NT, Linux (Redhat 6.0), Macintosh OS 8.0 and later)

The software and drivers supplied with it are quite straightforward and easy to install thus ensuring that you will have your printer connected and fully operational and ready to print in a minimum required time.

As far as supplies for the printer itself are concerned, the unit itself, uses the combined drum/toner unit that is capable of printing roughly 2,500 Sheets (normal mode)
or up to 3,500 Sheets (toner save mode). The cost of a replacement toner/drum unit is roughly $ 60 to $ 70 (depending where you shop), which is quite reasonable and much cheaper (cost per page of only 2 to 3 cents) than using your inkjet.

The unit is capable of printing of up to 12 000 pages a month (up to 400 pages a day), which once again is more than enough for a home or small office use, and comes with 1 Year manufacturer's warranty, thus ensuring that you will rest assured and worry free when it comes to your printing needs.

To conclude this review, this is quite excellent unit to consider, especially when you also consider that the cost of the unit itself is in sub two hundred dollars range (depending where you buy it). Thus, if you are looking for affordable yet durable printer for your home or small office, this definitely is the unit to consider.

After my 8 year old Personal LaserWriter LS died I tried using an Epson 780 as my full time printer. Inkjet just doesn't work for even medium volume B&W printing but I didn't want to spend the money for an "office duty" printer. The Samsung fits the bill. It is everything that inkjet printers aren't - fast, quiet and inexpensive (cost per page). Print quality is excellent even with the Toner Saver feature on. The 8MB memory and internal 66mhz processer gives it the ability to handle large, complex files without problems. There is a nice watermarking feature, seperate envelope feeder and the ability to print 4 up pages (4 pages of text on one page of paper). Samsung calls this a "low noise" printer and they are right. When it is not printing, its is absolutely silent. Printing is a low hum and the paper clicking sounds are quieter than the HP I use at work. I have mine sitting less than a foot from my keyboard and even in the middle of a large print job it never bothers me. Warm up is about 5 seconds if you haven't printed anything in a few hours. Print speed is advertised at 12 pages per minute and I believe it. Most of the time it prints as fast as the USB port can send the information. Toner cartridges are rated at 25K pages .... I have not used an entire cartridge so I don't know if that is accurate. Right now only Samsung makes replacement toner but if these printers keep selling for [the price] more companies will make toner. Two things keep me from giving the ML-1210 all 5 stars: First paper handling is not up to business standards. Many pages print slightly tilted left to right. Not a problem for most uses but not something you want representing your company or yourself (like on a resume). Second, Macintosh support is not 100%. In OS 8.6 I can not get background printing to work and OS X support is still in beta. This is minor compared to the tilted text but an issue to me as a Mac user.

Overall an excellent printer. Great value with excellent performance. I would recommend this printer to anyone who prints more than 10 pages a month on an inkjet. It will pay for itself in a year.

I've been looking at laser printers for a couple of years now, but never committed to buying one because of the high price. Finally, Samsung came along with the ML-1210 under $200. The price sounded too good to be true so I had doubts about the quality. I did more research on it by reading CNet review (it won Edior's Choice by the way) and all the raving user reviews. I finally decided to buy it.

My family has a home network of 5 computers all sharing the ML-1210 and it has worked great for everyone. The black & white text is crisp and machine noise is low. The quality far exceeds its price! Besides, we used to have an inkjet and were paying an arm and a leg for ink cartridges every couple of month. It's been half a year since I got this printer and I have yet to change the toner. Although the quality of colored text is jagged, it would be acceptable for leisure home use. Look elsewhere if you have to print colored text on-screen into black & white for business use. Since my first ML-1210, I have bought 2 more for my close relatives. They all agree that for anyone looking for cheap good quality printer you won't find anything better than this!

I bought an HP 920C and while putting in the cartridge the caddy broke. So I returned it and was shopping for a different printer. Then reading my PC World magazine I saw that they gave great raves for this particular printer.

So I went on the net and did more research on Cnet and indeed this printer was highly rated by the Cnet reviewer (Editor's Choice) and by other users. I found that CompUSA was the only retailer with this in stock so I rushed out and bought one the same day.

And I don't regret it at all. This printer performs like a [price] Laserjet and costs only [price]. It's fast and has great quality. And it's compatible with Mac, Windows 9x/2000 and even Linux. I'd recommend this to everybody!

After reading a couple of reviews and user opinions for the ML-1210, I decided to give it a try. The printer was simple to setup/install on my Wind 98SE machine. I then ran several print tests and could not believe the quality of the output on this inexpensive laser. Plus, the machine is quiet and adequately fast enough. The print driver also has some nice options. I noticed the cheap plastic tab that supports the front panel when replacing the toner cartridge but this is no big deal. How many times will the panel be opened? Only to clear a paper jam or to replace the cartridge but the cartridge is rated for about 2500 pages so that is not too frequently. I would not hesitate to print any document on this printer - including my resume. BusinessWeek recently ran an interesting article on Samsung - the company's aim is to become an elite brand. This further reassured me that this printer was a quality product. Why spend twice (or more) the price when this printer is up to the task?