Samsung's Simple, Inexpensive Laser
Basic monochrome laser printer a solid choice for text-heavy small offices.
The latest in Samsung's growing line of few-frills printers at great prices is the $150 ML-1740--the least-expensive monochrome laser unit we've seen. It's no graphics pro, but our tests found that it handles text chores well enough.
The ML-1740 is compact and boxy, with a white, shiny surface reminiscent of an old-style refrigerator. On top are two lights--one for power and one for toner save (the draft mode)--plus a cancel button. A 250-sheet input tray and a single-sheet manual feed in front, plus a parallel port and a USB port in back, complete the minimalist design.
Our shipping unit printed both text and graphics quickly and surprisingly quietly, outputting 13 pages per minute for text, about a page faster than the average of 12 ppm posted by the other small-office monochrome printers
Printed at 600 dots per inch on plain paper, text looked dark, sharp, and legible all the way down to 2-point type.
The printer managed fast output of graphics (about 7.5 ppm), but quality was lower. Our gray-scale test photo lost its fine detail and appeared grainy and overcontrasted on both plain and glossy paper. A basic logo-style graphic from a Word document exhibited noticeable cross-hatching.
A simple software interface lets you set options such as layout, size, paper type, and print quality. You can also add a watermark or an overlay.
Samsung includes a bare-bones manual that discusses setup and general use but doesn't offer software or troubleshooting instructions.
For anyone who prints text but few graphics, the ML-1740 is a solid--albeit unexceptional--printer at a great price.
Lisa Cekan
