Low-cost laser printer that really makes sense (Samsung ML-2010R)

Member Name: Alfettaman

Product:	Samsung ML-2010R
Date:	12/02/09 (251 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Running costs, speed and print quality

Disadvantages: Printer cable not included, envelopes can be a bit tricky

The ascent of cheap inkjet printing technology in the late 1990s means that there's a whole generation (mine) that still thinks that "inkjet is cheap, laser printing is expensive". Our first laser printer cost 2000 GB Pounds back in 1992 - and that was one of the cheapest around.

As a freelance trainer I need to produce course materials and handout packs quickly for between ten and thirty people, and my typical print run is about three hundred pages. I'd been using an Epson C44UX colour inkjet printer and - in times of panic - also my wife's Epson RX500 "all-in-one" colour inkjet, although over-doing the latter was starting to cause some marital strife, as the ink cartridges for the Epson are expensive, don't last long and my print runs were sometimes taking all day.

So I bought the Samsung 2010R laser printer, on a recommendation and having had good personal experience of other Samsung products. Of course it only prints in mono (i.e. black & white, and shades of grey) but from there on it's nearly all good news.

Practicality and set-up? Very good.
Unpacked the Samsung 2010, pushed in the ink cartridge supplied and some A4 paper. A mains plug for the wall, a USB lead for the back of the computer, and it worked! I was concerned it would take up half my desk but its footprint of 360mmW x 350mmD (including the paper tray) isn't too bad, and it's only 200mm high. It all feels solid enough to last for several years too.

Running costs? 25 percent of a colour inkjet.
Mine's cost 1.8p per page so far (i.e. over 3000 pages from a 60 GB Pound cartridge, part number ML-2010D3), instead of 7p per page for the colour inkjets. Saving 5p per page means that the Samsung 2010 paid for itself (i.e. saved me 60 GB Pounds) after 1200 pages. It's more tolerant of cheap photocopy paper too and the ink is immediately permanent, so no drying time, smudging, or ink on your hands.

Print quality? Can't fault it.
Crisp, high quality output up to 600 x 1200 dpi (dots per inch) that's easily good enough for professional/business use.

Speed? Genuinely fast
My inkjet printer claims 4 or 5 ppm (pages per minute) but actually does about 2.5 ppm. And sometimes it jams. And every 50 pages it runs out of paper and forgets how many sheets it still has to print, so sometimes you have to start again. In reality, you're printing one or two pages per minute.

In contrast, the Samsung 2010 does a genuine 20ppm, holds 150 sheets of paper and "remembers" where it was up to: just load more paper into the empty tray, and it picks up where it left off. Printing at the highest resolution doesn't seem to slow things down very much either. Ask a cheap inkjet printer to do that and you could be left wondering if it's still working, or is just humming to itself...

Downsides?
1. "USB A to USB B" printer cable not included, which is a bit mean. Talk to your supplier and ask them to supply one for free with your order.
2. I've never really got the Samsung to work properly printing envelopes, but maybe that's just me. It should certainly be able to do it.

Overall?
A dependable workhorse, that's saved me a lot of time and money, and has played a useful part in restoring domestic harmony too. If you run a small business, need fast turnaround, high quality and can live with mono/greyscale printing, then this could be just the printer for you - and it could pay for itself in a matter of days or weeks.

LONG-TERM UPDATE:
I've now owned this for over a year, so thought it might be helpful to add a footnote. My Samsung 2010 has behaved faultlessly in that time, and I've also started using high-quality after-market toner cartridges from cartridgepeople.com. These are half the price of the Samsung ones and seem to work perfectly!

Summary: A truly practical black & white printer for the sole trader, club or small business

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