Samsung ML-1630: Most Aesthetically Pleasing Laser Printer

Printers rarely have aesthetic value, I mean, let's face it, their only function is to print your documents and it's not like you're going to carry it around with you. There are several ink jet printers out there, especially from Canon, which have a pretty good design but none of them could probably compare with the Samsung ML-1630.

The Samsung ML-1630 is your basic monochrome laser printer priced at around $300. True, Samsung does offer cheaper monochrome laser printers under $300 that can match the Samsung ML-1630's print speed but let's face it, they're not so much as an eye candy when compared with the Samsung ML-1630.

Design

The Samsung ML-1630 sports a sleek piano black finish, and a very minimalist design, consisting of only a touch-sensitive power and cancel buttons on the Samsung ML-1630's face with Blue LED indicators that enhance the Samsung ML-1630's sophisticated design. For a laser printer, the Samsung ML-1630 is very portable, with measurements of 14.76 inch deep, 4.78 inch height, and 13.07 inch width and weighs only 14.1 pounds. In fact, Samsung boasts that the Samsung ML-1630 is the smallest laser printer in the world.

Features

But aesthetics aside, can the Samsung ML-1630 be truly a great monochrome laser printer? For a $300 monochrome laser printer, the Samsung ML-1630 offers very basic features; the Samsung ML-1630 has USB connectivity and has a standard 100 page paper cassette.

The Samsung ML-1630 also offers 1200 x 600 dpi output and is relatively quiet compared with my other Brother monochrome laser printer, Samsung's product brochure says that the noise level of the Samsung ML-1630 is below 45 dBA when printing and though I don't actually have an equipment to test that, the Samsung ML-1630 purred quietly whilst working.

For the print speed, according to the product brochure, the Samsung ML-1630 has a print speed of 17 ppm when using a letter-sized paper. So I tried to print a couple of my reviews using the Samsung ML-1630 to test just how fast this beautiful baby is and I only came up with 12 ppm with print speed during first boot up clocking at 20 seconds compared with the advertised 15 seconds from sleep mode.

So the Samsung ML-1630 is not exactly the fastest monochrome laser printer compared with other laser printers in the $300 price range and even below that. I've seen other products that boast print speeds less than Samsung's advertised 17ppm though I haven't exactly tested those products to find out if their claims are true.

In terms of print quality, the Samsung ML-1630 does deliver. The Samsung ML-1630 is able to print crisp and sharp black text and black graphics. As for the number of pages that can be produced out of a single cartridge, the standard cartridge that comes with the Samsung ML-1630 will have a 1,000 page output but the replacement cartridge can print about 2,000.

Verdict

So basically, for a $300 monochrome laser printer, the Samsung ML-1630 is both slow and expensive in terms of cartridge replacement. Other monochrome laser printers can offer faster print speeds and more value for money but none of them will probably compare with the Samsung ML-1630's looks. The Samsung ML-1630 will offer you nothing more than the enjoyment of seeing a couple of people do a quick double take when passing by your workstation.