Samsung ML-2851ND Network-Ready Monochrome Laser Printer

Product Description

,Canon PIXMA MP495 Wireless Inkjet Photo All-In-One ,HP Deskjet 1000 Printer , Canon MP280 All-in-one Printer ,Hewlett Packard 3050A Wireless All-in-One Color Photo Printer ,HP Deskjet 3050 All-in-One Printer Product Description The easy-to-use Samsung ML-2851ND Network-Ready Monochrome Laser Printer delivers high-quality professional print jobs at speeds up to 21 pages per minute. With a durable monthly cycle of 30,000 pages, this efficient printer is designed to meet the demands of smaller offices.
The dependable ML-2851ND monochrome laser printer features a time-saving one-touch automatic duplexing as well as image detail up to 1200-by-1200 dpi, resulting in sharp graphics and crisp text. Print single sheets in 8.5 seconds and 100 pages in under four minutes. Print on transparencies, envelopes, labels, post cards, and card stock, as well as standard letter-sized paper and legal paper stock. In addition, this hard-working 14.3-by-14.5-by-8.3-inch machine includes a 250-sheet cassette and a one-sheet multi-purpose tray, and is backed by a 400 MHz processor and a 32 MB memory, allowing it to start fast and stay strong throughout the work day. An easily accessible one-piece cartridge makes toner replacement a breeze.
The Energy Star compliant Samsung ML-2851ND maximizes output and reduces operation costs with its TonerSave mode that extends cartridge life up to 40 percent, and a built-in duplex feature to reduce paper consumption and decrease your business's cost-per-page ratio.


This review is from: Samsung ML-2851ND Network-Ready Monochrome Laser Printer (Office Product)
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!