Review by Guapo Gringo:
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.

Review by tamacn:
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 0?

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.

Review by C. Valadez:
Pros: Meets Expectations, Features, network scan with mac and pc great

Cons: Set up

I purchased this All-in-One color laser printer last night from my local Office Max. I was hoping to see in store how to function of the wireless actually worked. The sales guy was unable to demonstrate this after trying on one or two of the floor computers. As a leap of faith (and a few months of reading on the internet before purchasing), I bought the machine at the sale price plus the 2 year OfficeMax warranty.

I brought it home and unpacked and plugged it into the wall at a location not next to a computer or next to a router or wired network connection. My first idea was to set this up wirelessly so I can leave it a universally accessible location like my family room. Well playing with the 2 inch display and 10 digit keypad was becoming frustrating. The printer found my wireless SSID, I typed in the proper credentials but the wireless functionality never started. I then moved the printer next to the router and a computer which I should mention is a Netgear 802.11g router and an old G4 eMac running OS X.4.

Before I tried accepting this to my network, I decided to give it a static IP address on my router. I typed in the MAC address and the IP address I wanted. Then using the CLX-3175FW's 2 inch screen and on-board menu, I entered that static IP into the network configuration. I plugged the printer using an ethernet cable into my router and typed the IP address in my Firefox browser on the eMac. It immediately opened the SyncThruWeb page and I was able to configure some settings.

I immediately tried to setup the wireless function. I tried ever possible configuration and disconnection of the ethernet cable possible. I could not get the wireless function started. I plan on calling Samsung when I have an hour to kill. At this point I decided to move onto the next couple tasks, setting up the printer and scanner, and maybe fax.

I downloaded the software from Samsung's website: 1. Smart Panel 2. Print Driver and 3. Scan manager. I installed the Print driver first, then the scan manager, then the Smart Panel on the eMac. Once I did that, I opened up System Preferences and added the printer to the computer. Once that was done, the Smart Panel icon in the top right was active. I clicked it and was able to access all fucntions of set-up using Samsung Smart Panel. I decided to set-up scanning now.

Within the menu of the Smart Panel, there is an option for Scan Manager. On the eMac, I clicked this and I was able to locate the CLX-3175FW on my network. I set up a folder and two applications. First folder was just generic PDF scanning. My wife likes to scan bills and semi-important mail and documents. The ADF feeder will take 15 pages and scan a multipage PDF file. I then created an application prompt to open up Adobe Acrobat. I often use Acrobat to scan important work documents and need robust functionality to edit and review documents. I then set up a iPhoto application for when want to scan pictures from the flatbed, etc. Time to test.

I grabbed some mail, I had a 5 page wireless bill, and stuffed it into the ADF on-top. The Samsung beeps to let you know you are ready. I select the scan button and scroll right to select "Scan to PC" and click ok. I can see that it found my eMac so I click ok. It then sees the folder I setup called Bills/Mail so I select that. It then asks for color or gray, 300 DPI, etc. I click ok, ok, ok until it finally starts scanning. Immediately on a screen pops up on the eMac showing the progess of the scanned document. The scan finishes in less than a minute and immediately Preview opens up ans shows me my 5 pages scanned document....pretty slick.

I then decide to set up all this on my two laptops. I have a G4 iBook running OS X.4.11 and an Acer Netbook running Windows XP Home. As expected, the scanning function worked exactly the same on the other two computers. I am very happy with the scanning function. It works MUCH better than I could imagine. I use an MFP at work, Ricoh Aficio 161, and the Samsung software is much easier to use and gives better options for scanning to a networked folder. Kudos to Samsung on this one.

I then decided to try fax but I didn't have much luck here because I have a VOIP system at home. I've tried many configurations and even tried calling Comcast for some possible answers but to no avail. Basically I can plug the fax using a standard phone cord into the my Comcast modem, my MTA has two ports. The fax will dial out but it doesn't complete the fax. An error report will be printed out showing a No Answer error.

Overall, I am pleased. Having a network scanner and printer at home are great. If I can setup the wireless function I would be even happier so I can move this All-in-One unit to a more convenient location. But the network printer works great. The Samsung is set to sleep after 15 minutes and it wakes fast and responds to a network wake. I was able to send mulitple types of documents (PDF, Word, JPEG, internet prints) to the CLX-3175FW without a problem when attached to the network. I don't have the USB cord plugged in. There is no need. No need to have an active computer, it will run solo. If you want to network scan, you need to have a computer online or setup a drive or folder on your network to act as a server. I plan to setup my NAS (Network Attached Storage drive) which is primarily a backup disc as a server for scanned info but so far its great.

Review by R. Thompson:
So far, so good! JSamsung CLX-3160FN Color Laser Multifunction Printer

I haven't mastered all the functions,thus far, but am very happy with what I have used. It is SO quiet but it truly is LARGE! I am amazed at the quality of the color pictures. My old color laser didn't produce good color pics. I just hope and pray that it continues on as well as it has been to date.

Review by Lynn Boltz:
I avoided this product because of it's reviews. On Black Friday, after doing my homework, I went out and bought an HP which was incompatible with my Mac. (homework not so good on that respect) After spending a considerable amount of time with HP support I was notified that there was no driver compatibility.

I went back to the store and hesitantly exchanged my HP for the Samsung. It was cheaper after rebate anyways.

I have since burned off more than 40 presentations that have been of superb quality and I have no complants of the printer's effectiveness. I have full software control over fine-lines. The color representation has been great. There was a previous complaint of "smoke" which was probably mistaken for the warming of the toner.

My greatest concern is the cost of replacement toner which was quelled when I saw the price of the others.

This is my first review of anything ever and I would like to express my sincere happiness with this printer so far.

Scott

Review by W. Sprague:
I bought this printer on an amazing Black Friday deal thinking that it would be more economical than my inkjet for printing out the 360 pages I needed for my family's holiday newsletter. It was an unfortunate mix of good and bad...

GOOD: Small, looks nice, great price, toner relatively inexpensive, quiet, hooking it up to the Mac was a breeze. Full page photo print on premium laser paper was the best I've seen on a color laser, not as good as an inkjet running photo paper, but much better than an inkjet using plain paper.

These are all great plusses, but it wasn't all rosy.

BAD: When refeeding the paper back into the hopper to print on the back side, the printer jammed every couple of pages. The added friction of the toner on the bottom side really messed with it. The paper curled a bit and I tried to flatten as best as possible, but it kept on jamming.

Text: I thought the text was not as sharp as it could be and when I compared it to the text output from my cheapie monochrome Brother laser, I was blown away at how much more refined the Brother was. I did not get a chance to try the Samsung in monochrome mode to compare the difference, but in color mode, no contest whatsoever - slightly blurry and way oversaturated. It also printed with some odd white dot artifacts around all the high-contrast edges when I tried to use premium glossy LASER paper in it - had to stick with the mid-range paper instead of the high-end paper.

My biggest shock was how quickly the toner disappeared. I was printing a newsletter with a few small photos on each page, maybe 25% coverage, and two of the toners were completely dry after 250 pages and the other two were very low. I imagine that if I was printing full-page photos, which was my original reason for buying it, I would have been lucky to get 100 pages out of a toner set. At 0+ for a toner set, this works out to well over a buck a page for full-size, and around 50 cents for my newsletter-type stuff, a far cry from the 15 cents per page that Samsung claims. This was no longer an economical printer by any means, so after a restless night sleep, and a bit of guilt over using most of the toner, I reluctantly decided to return it. Between the double-sided jamming, barely acceptable text quality, and the high cost-per-page, I just couldn't live with this printer. (To be fair, the printer came with "starter" cartridges, and I hoped I could chalk its thirst up to that, but then I found out that Samsung's starter cartridges really have 70% capacity, so that didn't help much.)

Review by Jack McLaren:
I rarely write reviews, but I have always used Amazon's site to preview products and read others' reviews that I decided it was time I gave back.

So I purchased the Samsung Printer from another seller at 9.00, the price alone is worth 2 stars.

Just a little about my purchase decisions....I've owned 20 printers since 1994; the first Canon color inkjet, BJC-600, and then the Epson Stylus, and now 20models later, the Samsung Color Laser CLX-3175 ... I never really thought I would buy a Samsung for a printer, usually I buy Epson or HP. Epson is better with inkjet and HP I feel is the King with laser technology. So...Why a Samsung....For 2 years I've been searching for a color all in one, it had to be laser, I was sick of the drying inks, I did not print much in full color but when I did, the tanks were empty or clogged.

Until I saw the Samsung I decided on either the HP all in one, like the Color LaserJet CM1312mfp or the Color LaserJet 2820mfp. The size of those machines delayed the purchase, I didn't have the room for it so I figured I would wait until my older HP LaserJet 6p died and my Epson 980 needed a new cartridge. I was looking for a Plasma screen on Samsung's website and that's where my love affair began. Within 20 minutes I ordered it! It's probably the fastest purchase decision on an electronic device ever for me. I usually wait until I read a dozen reviews etc. . But the price had me thinking even if it's not what I expected, I would just sell it when it needs toner or, I could always give it to my mother as she needs an all in one as is not as picky as I am.

Anyway back to the review, I ordered my printer on Thursday and received it on Monday. I unboxed the printer and it was already assembled with the cartridges preinstalled. The unit was nicely taped in all the spots that would come affixed during shipping. You only must install the arm for the ADF. Earlier that day, before I received the printer I went to Samsung's website and downloaded the drivers and software. Samsung did an extraordinary job with the software and drivers. The Printing software, The Scanner software, and the Printer Console software were all separate packages. So you did not have to install all three packages on all computers. Also, you have the option of installing a Mono printing software package, this is extremely valuable! This mean if you have children or co-workers who may waste your toner printing color documents, you can restrict them by only allowing them to print in black and white, and they wouldn't even know HAHA.

The software is NOT bloated like HP software, the color drivers are less then 10mb and so are the Scanner drivers. The printer console software is about 80mb; this package is basically like a printer monitor and extended menus. Personally I did not find needing to install it since the entire Printer setup could be viewed by entering its IP number, web setup.

I have to give this printer another star just because the drivers are simple, to the point and consists of less than 100mb and 20mb if that.

System setup was simple! All I had to do was plug it in and connect the network cable as I use it over the network. I have setup my router set to use DHCP, so the TCP/IP settings are all done automatically. Assuming all your computers are configured properly. When you run the drivers the setup asks you if it's a local setup meaning USB or Networked, after that it automatically finds your printer by IP number.

I choose to print a test page and 20 seconds later... a nicely printed demo printout. I was amazed. To test the copy quality I decided to copy it and compare. WOW that's all I can say, it took me 15 seconds to figure out which was the original, I purposely mixed them up. If it passed that test, then I knew it was a keeper!

The next thing I did was setup the Scanning feature. I ran the second drivers package for the scanner and just like the print driver interface, so was the same, chose network setup etc. The next thing I did was go to the scanner's pc interface and selected where I wanted the scanned documents to be stored. I then went to the printer, placed 10 sheets in the ADF, pressed the scan button, and then selected "scan to pc," my laptop's pc name was shown, and selected it by pressing "ok" then chose the resolution etc followed lastly by file type, which I chose for my test PDF. About a minute later, in my documents folder on my wireless notebook, there was a 10 page PDF! Now that's what I love!

For around 0.00 this was an excellent purchase. I can now digitize all my documents in PDF, organize them so with a search and a few seconds, any document could be found. Printing is excellent too, I will not complain if this printer shoots out a color page in 20 seconds, because it really doesn't bother me, because inkjet takes longer. The print quality from 1-10 I would have to say about 8.5. After all the resolution is 600 x 600 and that's a given. I printed a picture and it looked amazing, why not a ten then? Well only because some color laser jets have 1200 dpi, and that means double the dots and precision so my rating is ONLY an 8.5 because higher resolution printers exist. If they didn't exist I would rate the quality a 10.

I haven't faxed yet, I usually receive faxes via email through a subscription based service. I mainly need to print and scan.

This printer is feature packed! Another two features I will write about are the Scan and Print via USB and the web based console. If you do not have your home or office networked it's easy for others to print or scan, honestly all you do is plug in your USB flash drive and select the file, that's it! Or choose Save to USB for scanned documents. Great for when you want to shut down your pc and others have to print and are not networked.

The web based console is awesome; you can setup the time, fax stamp, and ringer setup all over HTML vs. pressing the printer's menu button a dozen times and key all the factors one by one. Also if there is a problem, tech support can look at the printer the same way you do.

The reason I am not giving this printer 5 stars is sadly because it does not have a manual feed slot and I really used it on other printers as I hate writing addresses on envelopes. The solution I have is to use labels. The added plus by not feeding envelopes is no jams or wear and tear on the rollers. I guess that helps with the disappointment. If you print Letterhead then either use the watermark and or Letterhead feature or you will have to slide the trey out when needed.

I hope this review helps!

ONE LAST TIP!!! USE COLOR LASER PAPER, SERIOUSLY YOU WILL NOT BE DISAPOINTED YOU DO NOT NEED TO PAY A TON FOR COLOR LASER PAPER EITHER, I PURCHASED A 500 PAGE REAM FOR .99 113 BRIGHTNESS!!!! 24LB. OFFICEDEPOT BRAND

UPC/BAR CODE 032476549257 I TRIED 3 PREMIUM TYPES AND THIS WAS THE BEST! FEELS EXPENSIVE!!! NICE AND SMOOTH AND OFCOURSE BRILLIANT!!

Review by Will:
I purchased this item from another retailer at 9.99, the price is great for a color laser multi function printer with a very different and unique design.

The size of this machine is amazingly small and the design, as I have previously mentioned is fantastic, very appealing and the quality of its construction is very solid.

What I do not like about this multifunction is the following:

1. It lacks wireless connectivity.

2. It lacks bluetooth connectivity.

3. It lacks an independent tray for envelopes.

4. It lacks auto duplex printing and scanning.

5. It lacks a better scanner, scanner drivers and software.

The most annoying feature, is the lack of an independent envelope feeder or tray, because you literally have to remove the entire stack of paper, in order to be able to adjust the tray to be able to insert an envelope.

This is extremely frustrating for me, because for every letter that I print, I must also print and envelope, which translates to the following scenario:

Get up, remove the tray, remove the paper, adjust the tray, insert the envelope (which often gets stuck), then adjust the tray, put the paper back in, insert the tray and repeat the entire process all over again for each letter and envelope that I have to print.

I am very surprised that Samsumg came out with such a high quality product, with an amazing design, but did not add wireless and bluetooth capabilities. Most of the HP's have either one of these features built in and a lot of them actually have both.

Despite having an Auto Document Feeder (ADF), it lacks duplex printing and duplex scanning, and I would have been happy if it at least it had duplex printing. If you need one with both of these features, get the Canon MP830, which has superior scanning capabilities than even the newer Canon MP850, which uses ICS, as oppossed to the MP830's CCD.

Copying was accurate and fast, both in black and white and color, as well as fast faxing capabilities.

Scanning, on the other hand was poor, very poor. Scans were pale, and I could never get 100% sized scans from the originals, no matter how many adjustments I made. They always seem to be smaller, especially when compared to other scans of the same documents made by a Canon MP830.

The low quality of the scan, is because, Samsung, and other manufacturers, including Canon, are now using cheap ICS (Image Contact Sensor) technology, which is much more cost efficient, as opposed to the Charge Coupled Device (CCD), technology, which produces extremely high quality, very accurate, crisp and detailed scans.

The difference between these two technologies is such, that a scan made by the Canon MP830 saved at a low PDF quality resolution, is better than one made by the Samsung saved at a Maximum Quality PDF resolution, yes it is that bad, but acceptable to most people.

Printing, on the other hand was extremely good, very crisp and sharp text, with extremely good color prints. This is an extremely affordable and very good color printer.

All in all, it is a good machine if you are not too demanding or simply do not know enough about this product and the lack of some very important features that are missing, like the ability to be able to print an envelope without having to waste so much time, by simply having added an independent tray for it.

I unfortunately had to return mine, primarily because I need one that can at least provide me with an envelope tray without having to remove the paper, duplex copying, printing and scanning, with good high quality scans.

So, I ended up with my old Canon MP830 again, wich is also missing wireless and bluetooth capabilities and is not as small, light and nice looking as the Samsung, but far faster, more functional, with amazing quality scans.

Review by Philip Greenspun:
Despite the high resolution numbers claimed this machine is a bit fuzzier for B&W printing than my 7-year-old HP laserprinter. On the plus side, the printer was easy to set up for Windows XP printing through a network-attached storage disk array. The pages are smear-proof unlike those from an inkjet printer. I don't think that there is any other printer at this price that will duplex (print on both sides).

Make sure that you have a friend named Bruno when it is time to hoist this puppy into the car or onto a desk.

Review by John Alderson:
I found the Samsung CLP-510 to be a great bargain, but only for 20-24lb paper. This is what I bought it for. What can you expect for 0? (from other site) This is fantastic for 0. I see crystal clear, colorful, well-defined print. I even printed an 8X10 photo of an electronics printed circuit board with components on it and found the quality excelent at default normal resolution setting. But I would not expect true old-fashioned optical printed photo quality from like a portrait photo, from a 0 laser printer, on any paper. I would be proud of the print quality to all my customers, but I do not print photos for them. Among other things like letters and agreements, and service reports; I print controller programming "ladder-diagrams" in color, all are crisp, clean, and impressive.

I noticed that a couple of CNET revewiers knocked it down because "The photo quality is awful, extremely grainy and jagged on one, a second printed photo had obvious blotches, "lines" and grain." Well, do your homework and download the printer manual before buying it. The manual clearly states on page E-5 ("Supported Sizes of Paper"):

"* 60 to 90g/m2 bond (16 to 24lb) for single-sided printing

* 75 to 90 g/m2 bond (20 to 24lb) for duplex printing"

And for the manual feeder ("Multi-purpose tray"):

"60 to 163g/m2 bond (16 to 43lb)"

Paper type is very important in a printer. I'd wager a weeks pay that said reveiwers were using paper heavier than 24lb. However, I will knock Samsung down half a point for failing to note this on their datasheet pdf, but only half a point because of the cheap price. Have you seen any photo paper 20-24lb? No. This printer is not for photos. I tried 58lb HP glossy laser photo paper in it, it did not work, the toner was not fused to the paper. This may cause a mess in there, and perhaps the other reveiwers tried this too much causing errant ink on subsequent 20-24lb paper as well!

I could not regester to log on to CNET to submit my review, they said it was my cookie settings, but even when I turned my security settings to "low" I could not. Their loss not mine.

You will not get ,000 printer results from this printer, if you need to print on a variety of paper types like glossy photo paper and card stock, then you must expect to pay a premium price for your laser printer (of another more-expensive brand). Again, this printer prints much better than I expected for 0, and has a built-in duplexer to boot. Don't buy a Kia and expect performance like a Caddalac.

Review by J. Whealton:
I've been looking pretty hard at the sales flyers over the last few months waiting for a chance to score a color laser printer at a price range that doesn't make me have to eat bag lunches for a month to catch up. A local office superstore had two models I was eying, an HP 1600 and this one. They seemed pretty similar in most regards until [...] dropped the CLP-300 100 dollars below the HP. It was time to grab the bargain.

This is the second Samsung laser printer I have in my home office now, the first one being the little ML-1740. I've had that one for better than a year now and it has been wonderful. So I wasn't afraid to try the Samsung CLP-300 because its name isn't as big as HP's. So I get it home and commence to setting it up. As with the earlier ML-1740, it took about 5 minutes to unpack, route cables, plug in the toner packs, and fire it up. It didn't skip a beat and had a test page done in a jiffy. Drivers for the computer went just as easily. Overall a very, very simple set up.

Back to the toner "packs" (or cartridges) for a bit... I don't think I've ever seen a more simple toner system. This system is literally easier to deal with than inkjet cartridge replacement. The front cover of the printer opens to reveal 4 "holes" for the toner cartridges. Simply remove the protective covers from the 3 color cartridges and 1 black cartridge and pop them into their respective holes. This has to be a step forward for the laser printer world.

Anyway, I've only had this for about a week but have put maybe 200 pages through it already. It works like a champ and I'm really happy I picked it up. I'll list below some of the pros and cons as I see them (in no particular order):

Pros:

* Low noise when printing... very low noise actually. Its little more than a light whirring sound.

* Fast printing (about 20 to 25 seconds to the first high quality print and very fast once started).

* Great drivers giving you good printing options like double sided printing, booklet printing (on long or short side of page), watermarks, pre-generated letterhead, ability to print multiple pages per sheet, ability to print posters, etc... ...way too much to list here.

* Decent color photo prints. The quality isn't quite up to the photo quality of the better inkjet photo printers, but its good. And it certainly isn't poor enough to be a negative. I'd say though that if your primary goal is photo prints you might want to compare some other higher priced models before settling on this one. Otherwise, this should suit you fine.

*Size... it fits perfect on my printer stand. This doesn't over power the room by being overly bulky. Its not too much bigger than the ML-1740 and way smaller than its older sibling the CLP-510 (I liked the built in duplexing on the 510 but wasn't too crazy at all about its size).

Cons:

* Power... it seems like it uses quite a bit more than the little ML-1740 (no surprise I'm sure) because my battery backup makes a click every few minutes like a brown out spike happens. The ML-1740 makes the lights flicker on occasion but had no effect on the UPS. On a related note however, this printer has a user adjustable power saver mode that puts it to sleep after a set number of minutes.

* Low paper capacity. Only about 150 sheets in the paper tray. But its easy to remove and fill and I doubt I'll ever print more than that in a sitting.

* No front auxiliary feed tray (like the ML-1740) for feeding various sized papers into the machine. The CLP-300 does take various sized papers but you have to use the paper tray.

* Power switch in the back. The ML-1740 had this set up too. How hard can it be to put the switch on the front or even the front side to make it more accessible. Better yet, let the unit be powered on and off automatically by software like some other printers can do. The switch all the way in the back, on the bottom, is not a deal breaker but its an aggravation that I wish Samsung would address in their future models.

* Toner amount... Here's something I'm not sure will be an issue or not in the long run but right now I'm a bit concerned. The toner packs are small. The color ones are a bit smaller than a styrofoam cup while the black one is about as large as a typical ceramic coffee mug but a bit taller perhaps. The technical papers say you'd get about 1000 sheets of color printing per color. I'll edit this review in a few months with my impression of how true that appears to be. The silver lining to this issue might be that the toner packs are cheaper than the typical toner cartridges for other laser printers. And also, according to the Samsung website, this printer is supposed to be cheaper to operate in the long than other printers. A cent or two here or there adds up I guess.

So my score of 4 out of 5 stars represents the above pros and cons and my experience so far with this printer. Its not a perfect 5 because there is room for improvement but its a very nice printer that is great to have. And for the price, there is no reason why every home can't have color laser printing now. I can still remember when inkjets were replacing the dot matrix printers... move over inkjets, here we go again.

*** Follow Up Edit: 24oct06 (original post 9oct06)***

I'm coming up on a month now of useage and haven't had a problem yet. I would like to add to my comment made above though regarding the quality of the photo prints ... I've done a bunch of pictures so far and I would again encourage people who are looking predominantly for a picture printer to look at a level a bit higher than this one. For what I do, this is fine, but folks looking for photo quality printing would likely find this a bit lacking.

Also, along with the photos and numerous web pages, I've printed several good sized PDF documents with a lot of illustrated graphics and the toner indicators in my printer monitor (the software) shows negligible toner use. I can't confirm this by sight or weight of the toner packs themselves but if the indicators are correct, I'm happy with the mileage I'm getting so far.

Review by Alan Somers:
After much soul searching (and many futile review searches), I decided to take the plunge and purchase a CLP-300. I've been wanting a color laser for a few years, mainly because of frustration with the slowness of color inkjets and the fragility of the prints, especially when they get wet. Even though this printer is at the bottom end of the laser speed range when it comes to color prints, it still outpaces my inkjet by a large margin.

Hardware setup was painless, both mentally and physically. It's not a light printer by any means, but I had little difficulty moving it, unlike most color laser printers that practically need a forklift. After removing four pieces of strapping tape and a piece of cardboard, it was ready to put in place, connect up, and load toner cartridges and paper. One little detail that impressed me about toner cartridge loading is that the cartridges are keyed, with each cartridge having a ridge in a different location along its circumference fitting into a slot along the edge of the corresponding cartridge hole on the printer, which means that you cannot easily insert a cartridge in the wrong hole. The paper tray uses a sliding length adjustment mechanism to accept just about any paper size up to legal size. There is no manual feed slot, so the paper tray has to be used for that purpose, which means that a lot of paper shuffling has to be done to print on cardstock, envelopes, etc.

Software setup was almost as painless. I had previously downloaded the Mac OS X driver from Samsung's web site to make sure that it is CUPS-compliant like Samsung's other recent drivers, thereby allowing me to connect the printer to my Belkin print server and saving me the expense of buying the 'N' version. I added the printer as an IP Printer, specifying "Line Printer Daemon - LPD" as the protocol and specifying the IP address, queue, printer name, and selecting the driver from the "Print Using" popup. The driver provides options for Paper Type, Quality (Draft [600x600 dpi], Normal [1200x600 dpi], Best [1200x1200 dpi]; the dpi numbers were gleaned from the driver's PPD file) and Color Mode (Color, Grayscale), as well as supporting manual feed printing. Even though the Mac driver doesn't directly support manual duplexing, it can be accomplished by printing even pages back-to-front, reloading the pages, and printing odd pages front-to-back (I have defined two presets in the Print dialog for this purpose). For duplexing jobs of only a few pages, I set paper handling to print the first page automatically and subsequent pages manually and then I stand at the printer, reloading pages as necessary and pressing the feed button for each page after the first.

In the context of the intended audience (personal and home office users), the print quality is quite good. Solid-colored areas are continuous with no apparent banding and the blacks are sufficiently dark. Colors are fairly accurate, but the range of available shades is somewhat lacking, which means that color gradients appear with obvious lines where the colors change rather than being smooth. On the other hand, sharp detail prints very well. Dithering is also evident, although it's not nearly as bad as I expected and is really quite acceptable for my purposes.

The only real complaints I have about the printer are the lack of an automatic duplexer option, the lack of a manual feed slot, and the fact that the driver is a PowerPC-only application, which means it renders more slowly on my Intel-based MacBook Pro than it conceivably could if it were a Universal application. I can understand the first two shortcomings from the standpoint of keeping the size and cost down, but not supplying a Universal driver at this point in time is inexcusable.

All in all, I am very pleased with this printer in the week or so that I've owned it and would highly recommend it to home users wanting the advantages of a color laser printer in a compact package. Serious business users should look elsewhere. Note: My rating is based on the rank of this printer compared to others in its class and doesn't necessarily mean that it will fare as well vs. high-end business printers.

Review by J. P. Bogran:
I ordered these replacements cartridges, after reviewing the seller comments, which were overall good. The price on the items was also good and they were delivered as promised. I had need to replace the Black toner, since that was depleted. This is the first time I change toner on the machine and it had worked great prior to that. After installing the toner as per instructions, I have been getting vertical bands of light black print, the color has not been affected. Of course I have not exchanged any of the color cartridges as of yet. I am not happy about that, especially when I have a relatively new machine. I don't think its a hardware problem.

Review by sKurt:
After looking around for toner carts for this CLP 310 and finding they were in the EACH range, I came across this pack that was for the whole lot!

Worried for a bit that they would be inferior, but when I plugged them in and have been using them for a while now, I'll definitely be using this from now on!

Review by D. W. Dallam:
I bought this mail order from New Egg, not Amazon, but I wanted to review it here among other review sites in order to help others.

First, this printer is my third laser printer over the last 12 years. The first laser I owned was for college. It was a nice, small Okidata. It performed very well.

My second laser was a Samsung 1430, which I still have today and it still prints excellently.

My third laser was the 610ND. Everything this printer says it does, it does, such as printing 21+ pages per minute in both mono and color. The color is unbelievable right out of the box. I used Adobe 1998 for a profile and sent the image at 600DPI (which is the 610's native format) to the printer. The colors were near exact matches to the screen, and as a professional photographer, I have my 23 LCD hardware calibrated. Of course the colors aren't as vibrant as an inkjet or as smooth, but for plain paper 20lb, they are very excellent. The contrast between colors and shades is smooth and I see no banding or streaking. ON top of that, you can also adjust each color's saturation and contrast, among other settings that allow you to dial in the color matching for your screen.

Text is very sharp down to 3 points. The printer is easily set up in less than 10 minutes, including software installation. There are two pieces of software: (1) The driver and (2) The interface software. The interface software allows you to set the printer settings from your computer. Alternately, you can set the same settings on the printers front LCD panel.

I bought this printer exclusively to print tear sheet on plain paper, quickly and anytime I need them, to show models and clients possible poses and to give them ideas about the shoot. Sure, I could have used an inkjet, but inkjets don't shine on plain paper--nor do they duplex and that saves paper. This laser printer does both duplex and prints nicely on plain paper. I was thinking about fast printing and doing it cheaply. It also does card stock up to 48 lbs, cards, envelops, etc, all in color, (plus you get laser sharp text). You also get built in DUPLEX printing, which means you can print on the front and back of the paper automatically.

This brings me to my only problem, and why I will need to return the unit to New Egg. When duplex printing, one of the sides of the paper will have incorrect margins. So one page will print with say 1/2" margins all around, whereas the other side will be offset left and top.

Samsung tech support was pretty fast, about a 2-4 minute wait. A tier two tech asked me a few questions and said it was a hardware problem. They wanted to send a repair tech to my house, which is included in the warranty (14 months if you return the warranty card)--which was good. However, it's only 3 days old! So I told them to hold on to my ticket and let me see how much of a hassle it would be to get New Egg to send me a new one.

New Egg said it was no problem, but I'd need all of the original items plus the original packaging. So I said if you are missing one item that came in the box, or the box itself, the warranty is voided? The CSR rep said pretty much that was true for returns. She explained that Samsung requires those stipulations. So I said that was cool I needed to talk to their manager because it doesn't say anything about that on their warranty page, and that I was going to post our conversation all over the internet, like I'm doing now.

So she said she would check again to see if she could do it just this one time. About 30 seconds later she had the "ok," but said I needed all of the items including the text pages or I would not get a refund. So I dug it all out of the trash for them. Furthermore, they will not cross ship the items. They want me to repurchase the same unit and they will credit my card for the return.

I then asked her if I could buy another unit and when it arrives simply use that units box. She said no because each box has the units serial number on it. This sounded strange to me because the UPS box I'll be sending it back in will not have the serial number either. So it sounded like I was getting somewhat of a run around from New Egg--which you WOULD NOT get from Amazon. On the other hand, she explained that if they return the unit to Samsung with a box that does not match the unit's serial number, they would not refund it for them. Who knows? I initially wanted to buy it from Amazon, but New Egg beat Amazon's price by 100.00US at 299.00. (Sorry Amazon)

Other than the unit not working in duplex mode out of the box, I was very impressed with this printer. I can't see anyone not being satisfied with this printer if you like what it advertises it can do--which it does do, including print speeds and excellent color.

Oh yes, it is network ready also, or you can use a USB cord for single computer use.

UPDATE: 05/07/08

I had a feeling that Samsung Tech Support didn't do a very good job trouble shooting my problem, so I ran through my own trouble shooting steps. I cleared the printer settings and set them back to factory default. This set the margins for duplex printing at 5mm each for left and top. This time it printed with the image perfectly in the center of the page on both pages. I have no idea if there really is a problem using duplex margins or not, but it would seem more intuitive if "0" meant no offset. As it is, 5mm on both equals no offset. So now the printer is completely functional, and I tested more high DPI photo images. The color and smoothness across high contrast images is truly remarkable.

Review by Hamburger King of 9Th Street:
First I give credit to Amazon for taking this product back. The printer looks and works great. The Driver gives seamless printing and fairly quick. The problem is with amount of copies per cartridge. I assumed the starter carts would go quick, but the replacements that I ordered from Amazon would go the 2,000 copies as stated. I got 700 before they ran out. Only 10% coverage per document, if that much. My documents were text. Called Samsung and was told that the carts were possibly re manufactured and that they had problems with Amazon. Checked the carts, they were original Samsung with the seal on the box. Then they said there was something wrong with the printer they would either repair or replace, and could I send the receipt. Did that and called back again. Wait time is longer than expected due to unusually high call volume.......... don't you hate that. I digress. I finally get through to warranty department and a rep said that the number of copies was normal and Samsung would not be able to do anything. He explained that the 2,000 copy on the cartridge is based on 4-5 lines per page. WHAT!!!! When I asked for customer service or a supervisor he stated he is customer service with more power and no one could do anything. I called Amazon to take this piece of crap back. 0.44 cents per copy. I will go back and get an HP at 0.15 cents a copy. Samsung lost a customer in all its lines now. Stay away.

Review by C. Aponte:
this item arrived in good shape and on time. the laser cassettes are promotional version and not the individual type that contains more pigment. I still consider this a good value

Review by JOANNE DELBALSO:
This is a toner cartridge.. not sure how else to review it... it did its job!! so i guess i give it a 5 star rating.. no problems...