Samsung CLP-500 Color laser printer review
With a retail price just over $600 the Samsung CLP-500 is part of the new wave of sub $1000 color laser printers. We were very impressed with the CLP-500 due to it's solid color print quality and speed. However, nothing in life is perfect and we did encounter a few gripes to take off some of the shine.
Samsung CLP-500 Color Laser
Low price and good performance, highly recommended.
Offering very sharp 600 dpi or 1200 dpi printing the Samsung impresses even more with it's vibrant color reproduction. We think 2004 is going to be a great year to buy a color laser.
With sharp text and a complete lack of banding in solid color areas we could not be more pleased with the print quality. There's an option for 1200 dpi printing but the improvements in quality are minimal and not really worth the extra print times, unless you have plenty of time to spare that is. You should remember that color laser printers including this one are not really suited to printing photographs for display from your digital camera. Color documents with images will look good but since color lasers cannot print on fancy gloss or otherwise coated paper the output quality will always be limited.
Print speed was also impressive out pacing it's price rivals the Minolta-QMS Magicolor 2300W and the HP 1500L Color Laserjet. Even while churning out pages the Samsung produces very little noise and this is another reason to put it ahead of it's competitors.
Samsung CLP-500 specifications:
- black: up to 20 ppm
- color: up to 5 ppm
- Total Media Capacity 600 sheets
- up to 1200 dpi x 1200 dpi for both black and color
- monthly volume: 35,000 pages
- 64mb standard memory (expandable to 192mb)
- USB 2 and parallel connectors (network an option)
Now for the things that weren't quite so impressive. Firstly this is a very large printer, all up it weighs about 80 lbs and measures 20 inches wide, 18.5 inches deep, and 16 inches high. Very big and not really suited to life on your desk next to your workstation.
Probably the biggest gripe is that the cost of consumables are high with the color and black toners shipped with the unit only last 1,500 pages before you have to buy. If you take this cost into account the price doesn't look quite so attractive. It's pretty lame to pull a trick like this but then with color laser printers reaching inkjet price levels the manufacturers have to make money some way.
With the cost of the consumables in mind and the rated duty cycle it becomes clear that this printer was not designed with volumes over 1000 pages a day. You will quickly enter realms of replacing parts as well as mounting consumable costs.
So if your volumes are not to high and you need good looking color documents then this is the printer for you. Print quality is great, speed is high and price is low. Highly recommended.