80 of 82 people found the following review helpful:
Great printer, great price, terrible manual
Our TV is a Samsung, so we thought we'd try out this printer b/c of the price. Print quality is pretty good, setup is quite easy, and it's very quiet. It's also a networkable printer (Ethernet and WiFi) so it was a no-brainer on which one to get.
The only "gripe" I have w/ this printer is the wireless setup--it is not very easy to do and the manual wasn't...
Very expensive printer to own
I was pleased to find the Samsung color laser because it was the perfect size for the space I have for it on my desk and because I had hoped to save money on ink. I had been using an HP Photosmart 2527 All-in-One for years. Although I was pleased with the quality of the HP's printing, I found I was spending a lot of money on ink. So I switched.
This review is from: Samsung CLP-315W Color Laser Printer (Electronics)
Our TV is a Samsung, so we thought we'd try out this printer b/c of the price. Print quality is pretty good, setup is quite easy, and it's very quiet. It's also a networkable printer (Ethernet and WiFi) so it was a no-brainer on which one to get.
The only "gripe" I have w/ this printer is the wireless setup--it is not very easy to do and the manual wasn't as detailed as it should have been. Basically, the printer uses 802.11b/g to connect to your wireless base station.
The easiest way to setup the printer that I've found is to do the following...
Install the software (Mac or Windows)
Change the IP address to a static one on your network that is compatible w/ your router (ex. If your router is 192.168.1.1, then make the printer 192.168.1.2).
Set the gateway to point to the router(ex. 192.168.1.1).
Restart the printer, and you're in business.
This was NOT how it was explained in the manual... it ended up taking longer following the instructions in the box, than it did to just do it myself. I'm no genius, but you can tell that the people who wrote the manual were not the people who were using it, or had done it so many times that they forgot a few steps.
Excellent printer, just tread lightly when setting up the network/wifi connection.
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This review is from: Samsung CLP-315W Color Laser Printer (Electronics)
Purchasing supplies for my inkjet printer was running up the $$$. Remembering the old days when we had the office Laserwriter, reminded me how many prints you could get on one cartridge.
We stopped by the local Office Max to see what was available. I thought I was in the market for a mono laser printer. The knowledgeable sales person showed us the 315. I asked him to print a couple of pages and was satisfied with the output. I would have purchased it on the spot, however they didn't carry the 315W... and I wanted a wireless printer.
This gave me time to come home and check it out on the net. The reviews ran the gamete from "Great" to "Don't buy". After consuming reviews till I was dizzy, I decided to place my order on Amazon. I had the printer in 3 days...all in good order.
After trying it out for a few days here is what i Have found out.
Negative reviews. I really don't get this... Anyone who has been around laser printers knows that inkjet photos are far superior. I didn't purchase this with great color printing in mind. I'll use my Canon inkjet for that.
Set up for WiFi is very difficult. This I completely agree with. I have a Mac (long time user) and I finally had to give up and call Samsung.
Samsung tech support is worthless. I think they finally got tired of hearing this. I talked with a bright young fellow who nursed me thru the WiFi maze. Come to find out my cable has a dynamic IP and is always changing. He helped me switch it to a static IP. After that it worked perfect. Yes, he even knew all about the Apple Airport router. I would give wireless setup a try, then call before you blood pressure gets too high. It was a good experience.
After I got the printer going, I was able to connect my MacBook immediately.
Smell on start up... Yes it does, but by the next day it was gone.
Print quality poor. I don't get this one. If you are printing monochrome, It's as good as most laser printers. If you are printing a jpeg image that has black type in it... the image is seen as color and you get some haloing around the letters. Some documents are fine some are poor. I lay out my printed matter with this in mind and get great looking prints.
Toner... You can find pretty fair prices on the web. I've decided to give refilling a try. It doesn't look to difficult. It sure beats the cost of replacing the cartridges. We'll see what happens.
Instructions. Print out the PDF manual. Pretty good info there. The printed matter that comes in the box is next to useless.
There is plenty to be said on the plus side. How can you beat a color laser printer for $200?
I'm very satisfied with the quality of the printer and the looks of the printed page. Now let's see how much the cost per page drops.
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This review is from: Samsung CLP-315W Color Laser Printer (Electronics)
I bought this on 3 Dec through Amazon. Normal great delivery and packaging. Setup was ok - although minimal instructions like other reviewers have said. Used a Cat5 cable to my router, logged in, changed the IP and pw, and no issues.
Had a bit of trouble with the paper cartridge - didn't realize it stuck out (no pictures indicated that) and it's pretty cheap / thin plastic so I didn't want to use too much oomph. But eventually figured it out and I'm comfortable with putting paper in and out (needed for double sided printing).
Just finished printing 120 Christmas letters with color pics embedded - 2 pages, front and back, so about 450 pages total. And the black toner is hollering "low!" so I ordered another (supposedly 1.5k pages) from Amazon - $43. Seems a bit soon to me, but there it is.
Cyan cartridge now needs "shaking" every 10 pages or so or it doesn't fill in where it should - and the "guage" is still showing 30% available.
In summary:
+ No inkjet nozzles to clean
+ More moisture resistant printout
= Decent color - not inkjet quality (when they're good), but good enough
= Noise is less than my other lasers
= Slowish network awareness - 15/20 secs (and it's 10' from the router)
- Low toner volumn imho
- Toner replacements a bit pricey - same as others, though
- Instructions slim to none, although the included pdf manual is not bad
I'd look around, but might buy this one again if I were looking for the same features. Generally satisfied with reservation.
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This review is from: Samsung CLP-315W Color Laser Printer (Electronics)
I really like my CLP-315W. I didn't have any of the problems setting up the wireless network that others have mentioned ... I am operating Vista. I just installed the software, linked it to my wireless router, and I've been in business ever since.
One odd thing I've noticed that isn't addressed anywhere in the manual or online: about every eight hours or so it emits a high-pitched electronic sound, a kind of whistling, that lasts about a minute or two, then stops. Weird. It's not terribly loud - but it will call your attention to it.
I love the small footprint, the elegance of the design, and the quality of the printing. It's fast, once it warms up for the first time. I like being able to monitor the toner levels from right on my desktop. Like the first reviewer, I will wait to judge the consumption of the toner -- one set of replacements costs about as much as the printer.
But when I think back to a $2000 tractor-feed daisy-wheel printer that sounded like a machine gun ... just fifteen years ago ... this little box that sits on my desk and wireless gives me perfect color-laser copies? It's a bit of a miracle.
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This review is from: Samsung CLP-315W Color Laser Printer (Electronics)
OK, don't this long review scare you away - this is a GREAT printer and a true bargain. The only hitch is the setup...
I knew from reviews online that setting up the wireless on this printer would not be easy. In fairness to Samsung, I've never seen a wireless printer yet that worked out of the box. But SHEEZ, the manual is next to useless, and Samsung's phone support IS useless (they blamed it on my wireless router). Once you know how to do it, the wireless setup ain't so bad. HERE'S HOW:
Hook up the Samsung via ethernet wire to your router. Turn it on and wait a couple of minutes so it can get assigned an IP address via DHCP, then install the software. Look at your wireless router's setup screen to see what the printer's IP address is. Now enter the printer's IP address in your web browser, and the printer's setup screen will appear. Change the printer's IP address to a fixed address, then do the same on your router. You MUST use a fixed IP adress! Print a test page to make sure you are good so far.
Now go to the printer setup's network setting\wireless menu. Oddly, the printer software couldn't see my wireless router (which is 2 feet away!) with the "wizard", but could see my neighbor's weak signal. IGNORE this and any "not connected" errors - go to "custom" and manually enter in the SSID name of your wireless system, use the infrastructure setting, and apply. Unplug the ethernet cable, and you're done. Print a test page to be sure. Install the software on every computer that will need to print to the Samsung.
I used no encryption, although it is supported (I've read the Samsung prefers the WPA variety). One more tip: my manual didn't even say how to print a configuration page! Just hold down the big button (OK, the ONLY button!) on the Samsung for 10 seconds to print it. BTW, I use Macs, and it prints fine from OS 10.4, 10.5, and 10.6. The printer came right up in Bonjour when I went to add the printer on each Mac - it couldn't be easier. Setup should be about the same on Windows PCs, although probably not as easy as a Mac (like everything else!).
The Samsung printer works perfectly out of the box wired, and comes with the toner carts pre-installed. The carts are on the small side, I imagine they won't last long if you print a lot. There's no LCD or setup buttons on the printer, and you won't need 'em. B&W print quality is great and quick. Color quality was pretty good too, despite what I've read elsewhere. There was that copier ozone smell the first night I used the Samsung, but it was gone after a day. The Samsung is also WAY smaller than the competition, and I love having a built-in power supply. I'm very VERY pleased with it overall.
Hope this helps someone out there! And Samsung: I'm available if you need help rewriting your manuals - and you do.
Mick
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This review is from: Samsung CLP-315W Color Laser Printer (Electronics)
I was pleased to find the Samsung color laser because it was the perfect size for the space I have for it on my desk and because I had hoped to save money on ink. I had been using an HP Photosmart 2527 All-in-One for years. Although I was pleased with the quality of the HP's printing, I found I was spending a lot of money on ink. So I switched.
I've owned the Samsung for three months and have bought two sets of 4 inks at a cost of $40 per ink ($160/set). I expected the ink cartridges to last as long as the ink in my Canon laser printers, which would make it worth the expense. Today I replaced all the inks for the third time (1st set came with the printer, plus I've bought two additional sets.) That means I'm getting about the same number of pages out of the Samsung as I did from the HP, only I'm spending more than twice as much on ink!
I've realized that I can't afford to continue using this printer and will go back to the HP until I can find something that costs less to use.
Unfortunately, the print quality in color doesn't even come close to the print quality of the HP I've been using. I get a few clean color copies immediately after I change ink cartridges, then it's downhill from there. I can't use the printer for any professional communication. Black and white printing is good enough. It's about as good as the Canon laser printers we use.
The Samsung takes much longer to produce pages and is very noisy relative to the two Canon b/w laser printers we use and the HP inkjet.
One other difference between Samsung and Canon is that Canon provides a return label with each new ink cartridge so that it's easy to recycle them. Samsung requires you to print the label off their website (using more of their ink!). For this reason, and the very poor quality of their product, I won't be considering Samsung products the next time I'm shopping for electronics.
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This review is from: Samsung CLP-315W Color Laser Printer (Electronics)
Bought this last summer & thought it was an excellent deal. For the first few months all was great. As soon as the original toner got low I replaced them all in the same week. Then the paper jams started! Not just once, but every time, on regular bond paper. After a week of jams, 2 days(4 hours) on the phone w/ Samsung Customer Service & 3 repair shops, I needed to "bring it in". Outta 4 shops, only one would work on this model. The nearest shop was 2 hours away from me & they needed to order parts for the repair. That was 2 weeks ago... Shop could not provide a free loaner printer; Shop said the first part ordered & replaced did not fix the problem; Shop says it's still not ready. I am getting pretty fed up & have already asked Samsung to send a new one; they refused. I am without a printer for nearly a month & mad as hell. This is my first experience w/ Samsung.
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This review is from: Samsung CLP-315W Color Laser Printer (Electronics)
Terrible issues with paper feed and jamming and unfortunately Samsung customer service is embarrassingly poor( I have been hung up on, and repeatedly transferred to full voicemail boxes).I cannot believe I'm saying this but, Dell has better customer service!
Over the past month 4 attempts have been made to repair feed issues and still (even though under warranty) Samsung will not replace the printer. I would recommend not purchasing from Samsung I have had excellent experience with Lexmark, HP and Canon and would absolutely advice purchasing from them.
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This review is from: Samsung CLP-315W Color Laser Printer (Electronics)
Once I installed the printer, the computer said the printer was experiencing a Dev Home Error. I called Samsung since I couldn't print a single page and had just taken out of the box a few minutes earlier. They said the entire toner unit was defective and to return it. I googled Dev Home Error Samsung Printer (something you should do as well) and discovered that this was a VERY common issue. The printer is inexpensive, but isn't worth purchasing due to Samsung's poor quality control system. DO NOT BUY!
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This review is from: Samsung CLP-315W Color Laser Printer (Electronics)
Do not buy this if you have a Mac. It simply does not work with the latest drivers from Samsung and Apple's latest operating system update. I have replaced the printer once, called Samsung support (worthless) and surfed the net for over 10 hours looking for solutions. I tried to use USB and wireless. After connecting for a page, the printer then says it cannot be found.
I have loaded various versions of drivers, tried the CUPS (Unix Print System) utilities, rebooted my computer countless times, connected to USB, connected to my Airport Extreme - nothing works. Many people on the Apple message boards are having these problems, and very few are able to print.
I have really tried hard to make this printer work - the few pages I printed seemed of pretty good quality. However, if you are running MAC OSX, do not buy this printer.
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