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(More customer reviews)This is my first personal laser printer and I must say Samsung has achieved the impossible with the CLP-325W.
An excellent quality color laser printer, with the easiest network install ever, and a price that made my mouth water - an amazing trifecta!
Okay, with all that hyperbole out of the way...where do I begin?
1. The wireless install was absolutely painless. I powered on the printer, enabled WPS (Wifi Protected Setup) on my router (Netgear N600 Wireless Dual Band Gigabit Router WNDR3700), and then pressed the WPS button on the printer's console. In less than a minute, my printer was online and a test page rolled out! No hassles with specifying my network SSID or password. This was the first time that I'd used WPS, and was pleasantly surprised by how smoothly it went.
2. The software install went just as smoothly. I picked the custom install, opted for the wireless connection, let it search for the printer - which it promptly found, and then installed the printer driver and SmartPanel (which lets you monitor the printer's status) - both of which took less than 42 MB of space. Much much less than what HP printers tend to add to your workstation.
3. The printer's status can be accessed either via Smart Panel, which displays the amount of toner remaining (in %), etc. However, the web browser built into the printer is the bees knees. You can pretty much monitor every single fact about the printer from here. For instance, it tells you the rated capacity of the starter toner cartridges (1000 for black, and 700 for CMY); the usage of the fuser, belts, and rollers; networking information; etc.
4. The quality of the printing is not quite as good as the commercial color printers - but what were you expecting? The quality of photos and print however met and even exceeded my expectations. Text is very crisp and sharp even down to 8 points, and photos are very pleasing when rendered.
5. You do need 4 toner cartridges (C, M, Y, K) - but these seem to be reasonably priced compared to the competition, and are also easily available on Amazon. For e.g., Samsung Cyan Toner Cartridge for CLP-325W and CLX-3185FW (CLT-C407S).
Other comments:
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1. The smell for the first night is foul - and strangely enervating/nauseating. Fortunately it dissipates fairly quickly.
2. The user manual supplied with the printer is pitiful. A better one is available on the CD. Interestingly, while the manual didn't display at all in Chrome, it worked fine in IE and Firefox.
3. Ditto for the web browser on the printer. Use IE for a problem free experience.
In conclusion - this might very well be one of the best value-for-money printers out there. I was torn between this one and the HP 1525, but the lower price on this unit, and the reviews on its predecessor (the CLP-315W) tilted the balance in its favor.
I'll update this review should I encounter any problems, but for now I'm a very happy camper.
Updated 03/20:
When this printer's local IP address changes (usually when I reset my router, or also when I unplugged the printer to move it to a new location), my applications can no longer detect the printer. In such cases, the easiest fix is to re-run the 'Samsung Printers > Samsung CLP-320 Series > Maintenance' program installed during printer setup. This will locate the printer at its new address on the network.
Happy Printing!
~Damodar
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