Samsung SCX-5530FN All-in-One Laser Printer

OVERVIEW:

Now days, most of the “all-in-one” printers in stores today don’t have “all” the features of their older brethren. As printers have gotten smaller and sending scanned documents via e-mail has become acceptable in many businesses, the fax feature has been replaced with slots for Flash memory media. However, there are still times when you run across a client or a business that will only accept faxed documents. The Samsung SCX-5530FN is a full-house, all-in-one monochrome printer that not only offers faxing, scans, copies, printing, but also direct USB flash drive printing, duplexing and network connectivity.

PROS:

If you don’t want to turn on the computer every time you want to make a copy, a fax, or e-mail a scan, you don’t have to. The SCX-5530FN has a full control panel with an on-screen menu for printer setup and operation without the need for software. A pass-through external phone jack on the back of the printer allows for plugging a telephone or an answering machine. 15, one-touch programmable keys allow speed-dialing for up to 30 fax numbers. An address book function allows for more frequently used fax numbers to be stored and retrieved. To protect unwanted access to the 500 fax pages that can be stored in the SCX-5530FN’s 32MB memory, a 4-digit security password can be activated. It even has a USB socket that allows you print files directly from a USB flash/memory drive.

The SCX-5530FN comes standard with a 250-sheet cassette tray that can support letter or legal-size sheets. The flip-door reveals a 50-sheet multi-purpose tray to handle transparencies, labels, post cards, envelopes, 3” x 5” postcards up to 8½” x 14” legal paper of various bond weights. On top of the SCX-5530FN is a 50-sheet automatic document feeder for quick single-sided scanning, faxing, and copying of multiple pages.

Two-sided printing is an economic and environmentally friendly way to save on paper. This feature, along with the options to print pages either Long Edge or Short Edge, enables the printer to be used for desktop publishing of bound booklets, catalogs, and calendars.

After a quick 20-second warm-up, the SCX-5530FN prints and copies at 30 pages per minute, with only an 8.5-second delay between print jobs. In operation, the 4-in-1 produces 53dB of sound and 39dB when idle. Think of 53dB as the sound of low conversations and 40 decibels as the level of whispering.

Decisions, decisions. With the choice of Parallel, USB, or Ethernet connectivity, no matter how old or new your computer is, the SCX-5530FN can support it. The 96 MB of built-in RAM allows this little multi-function printer to easily handle the print demands of networked computers.

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 office requirements. Emulators include PostScript3 and HP PCL6.

CONS:

With the speed, memory capacity, and network ability the SCX-5530FN has right out the box, a 250-sheet paper tray is woefully undersized for this unit. It’s typical for even a small office to go through a ream of paper in a single day. It’s also common for offices buy paper in 500-sheet reams, if not a 10-ream cases. For all you office folk out there: How many times have you taken a ream of paper from the supply cabinet to fill an empty printer, only to find the printer’s tray only has the capacity to hold half that amount? Now here’s the $24,000 Question: What usually happens to the rest of that ream? By the end of the day you’ll see the remaining ream somewhere near the printer, sheets pulled haphazardly by people who needed just a couple of blank sheets. By the time the printer needs to be refilled again, the state of that paper is now so uneven and disheveled it’s likely to jam in the printer. For personal and home use, a 250-sheet tray is sufficient, so long as you’re not someone whose home is their office. A second add-on tray is available as an optional purchase, but it’s still limited to a 250-sheet capacity. Having a tray that you can dump an entire ream of paper into would be an option any office would invest in.

INK / TONER NEEDS:

The SCX-5530FN’s toner and drum are integrated in a single cartridge, making it easy to maintain. Right out the box, the printer comes with the standard size toner, able to print up to 4,000 pages. An 8,000 double-capacity toner option is also available to double the time between toner replacements.

SOFTWARE:

Being a multi-purpose printer, one would expect the software to provide all the functions for all the computer platforms Samsung claims it supports. The software in the CD-ROM is primarily for Windows compatible machines. For Windows users, the SmartThru4 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 3^rd 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.