Friday, April 5, 2013
The Samsung CLX 6200 Color Laser 3 in 1 Printer
PROS:
The husky, 77-pound CLX-6200 has a height of 26”, with compact, square features that allow for placement without additional space. Sitting on a sturdy, low table, the height and size of the CLX-6240 is just right for someone standing next to it to manually use the on-screen display for making copies or to scan.
If you like buttons over a touch-screen display, you’ll get your wish with the CLX. All print, copy, and scanning can be performed without the need for a computer. The control panel on the CLX-6200 provides functions for the copier and scanner. To save on color toner, the “Black Start” button allows printing in B&W.
USB flash drive portal Scan to USB, printing from USB (TIFF, BMP, JPEG, PDF, PRN files). Information stored in the CLX-6200 memory can be backed up and restored using a USB Flash drive. The CLX also allows you to delete, format, or list properties of your USB drive.
A 50-sheet automatic document feeder can handle the copying, and scanning of your 2-sided originals, be they in color or in Black and White. On the front, a 100-sheet multi-purpose paper flip-tray handles papers and envelopes of various weights and types.
The CLX-6200 can print up to 21 ppm on single-side paper, with 7 ipm on both sides. 2400 x 600 dpi resolution with single-pass color printing allows color printing to be as fast as in B&W mode. Manual color registration adjustments can be performed to correct some minor alignment issues the printer has.
Having built-in Ethernet network support and a hi-speed USB, this multifunction is right at home either in the middle of an office floor or connected to a secretary’s computer. The built-in 256MB of printer memory enables the CLX-6200 to easily handle workloads as a network printer. To reduce workload on the printer’s RAM, print jobs can be queued into an optional 80GB hard disk drive.
Understanding the printing needs of today’s businesses in providing support for the major software applications, Samsung has installed print emulators that should satisfy the most diverse office. Emulators include PostScript3, PCL5 & 6, plus Samsung’s own proprietary print emulation. If you ever had to do try to print Adobe graphics on a color printer without PostScript, the “ghost” images that appear from transparency and drop shadow effects can drive you nuts.
CONS:
It takes 49 seconds for the CLX-6200 to warm-up, with up to 25 second delays between print jobs. Fortunately this Samsung series has single-pass color printing, keeping total job times reasonable. In operation, the 4-in-1 produces 54dB of sound and 32dB when idle. Think of 54dB as the sound of low conversations and 30 decibels as a quiet room.
For this to be the top of Samsungs CLX-6000 series, Samsung skimped on the cassette tray. A 250-sheet paper tray is woefully undersized for where this printer is likely to be used. It’s typical for even a small office to go through a ream of paper in a single day. If your office or department is going to depend heavily on this printer, it would be a good idea to buy the 500-sheet second tray.
Colors can be oversaturated and show a slight misalignment. The in maximum resolution, color prints on the CLX-6240 won’t be as sharp as with the higher resolution monochrome lasers.
Software support is weak for Mac OS; having to rely on Mac’s OS or 3rd party software for scanning functions and advanced printing features.
INK / TONER NEEDS:
Just like with color inkjet printers, when it comes to color laser printers, print yield is sacrificed for color printing. The CLX-6200 requires 4 toner cartridges—one for each of the CYMK colors.
Out of the box Samsung includes the standard 2,500-page yield black cartridge, and three 2,000-page yield color cartridges, one for each color (Cyan, Yellow, Magenta).
The cartridges can be purchased separately, especially if the black toner gets depleted at a higher rate than the other colors. High-yield combo-packages are available to save costs at 60% more capacity.
Other consumables you’ll need to consider purchasing are waste toner containers, and replacement of the Paper Transfer Belt every 50,000 pages.
SOFTWARE:
Being a multi-purpose printer, one would expect the software to provide all the functions across multiple computer platforms. The software in the CD-ROM is primarily for Windows compatible machines. For Windows users, the SmartThru software provides the most features, supporting not only scanning and printing, but offering an advanced printing section that allows for booklet printing, creating a large poster mosaics, and watermarks.
The Linux software package is not included with the CD and has to be downloaded from Samsung’s website to support printer and scanning functions. The Linux Unified Driver Configurator software allows for scanned images to manipulated and edited.
For Macintosh users, the CD-ROM has a couple of basic drivers for printing and a TWAIN driver for scanning. There is no additional software support: you either must have a 3rd party application that manages scanners or use the Mac’s own Image Capture (only available on Mac OS 10.4.7 and higher).
To remotely change network printer configurations and notifications, Samsung’s SyncThru Web service allows printer changes to be made using your IE, Safari, or Firefox browser. The software is not part of the CD and has to be downloaded from Samsung’s web site.
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