Samsung Joins the NFC Bandwagon with Newest Color Lineup

Coming soon to a printer near you: more NFC. Samsung said Wednesday that two color laser printers with near-field communication would be available in the U.S. starting next week. (The printers were announced in Korea last month.) The products are the Xpress C410W color laser single-function printer, which will cost $229, and the Xpress C460FW MFP color laser multifunction printer, which will cost $399.

NFC helps printers keep pace with mobile users

NFC is still most common in cell phones and tablets. But no matter how much content moves online, everyone needs to print once in a while. NFC is supposed to make it easier for that print to happen through a simple touch, though there’s also an app involved, of course.

Brother beat Samsung to the U.S. market with an NFC-equipped inkjet multifunction printer two weeks ago, the MFC-J870DW, but Samsung’s are the first laser-based models to arrive here. The C410W is your basic, low-end color laser for a home or very small office. The C460FW MFP is based on the same engine but adds a scanner and automatic document feeder for copy, scan, and fax functions.

Basic specs and probably pricey toner

Both products have top print speeds, per Samsung, of 19 pages per minute (ppm) for plain, black text and 4 ppm for color output. Paper handling includes a 150-sheet input tray and a 50-sheet output tray—best suited for low-volume use, in other words.

Here’s your other hint that these are low-end products: the toner capacities. The printers ship with starter-size cartridges that last for just 700 pages (black) and 500 pages (each color). Replacement cartridges last 1,500 pages for black and 1,000 pages for each color. A home or small-office user is assumed to print at fairly low volumes, so it may take a while even to get through those starter cartridges. But once you do, don’t be surprised if the replacement cartridges have high costs per page. That’s how it works with the cheap lasers: They get you on the toner instead.

NFC coming to business printers next

Samsung isn’t stopping there. The company says that an NFC-equipped business printer will be coming in early 2014.

To a large degree, NFC is a technology still seeking its destiny. At the same time, printers are doing their best to stay in the tech game. Adding NFC helps them keep pace, just as they all had to jump onto cloud printing a couple of years ago. For the moment, it’s a differentiator for these printers, but the truth is that unless near-field communication pops up in more products—and more services, it’s not going to get very far.

original article

HP LaserJet Pro MFP M521dn

BY M. DAVID STONE

The HP LaserJet Pro MFP M521dn ($899.99 direct) is a quietly impressive beast. Designed as a mono laser workhorse, with a 75,000 page per month maximum duty cycle and a 6,000 page per month recommended maximum, it can print and fax from, as well as scan to, a computer, including over a network, and it can work as a standalone copier, fax machine, and direct email sender. More important, it does well enough at everything it does to make it Editors’ Choice for medium to heavy-duty use in a small to mid-size office or workgroup.

There’s nothing flashy here, like super-fast speed. In fact, it’s easy to find printers, like the Editors’ Choice Brother MFC-8950DW$588.96 at pcRUSH.com or the far less expensive Canon imageClass MF4770n$129.99 at OfficeMax that are faster. On the other hand, the M521dn offers a combination of features that make it more usable than most MFPs.

MFP Features and Basics
In addition to the basic MFP features I’ve already mentioned—printing, scanning, copying, faxing, and email—the M521dn can both scan to and print from a USB memory key. In an unusual touch for a monochrome printer, it will even let you preview the photos stored on the memory key before printing them. It also supports printing though the cloud.

Much higher on its list of key features is its scan capability. Like most MFPs aimed at office use, the M521dn supplements a flatbed scanner with an automatic document feeder (ADF). As is common, the flatbed is limited to letter-size paper while the 50-page ADF lets you scan up to legal size. Unlike most of the competition, however, including some significantly more expensive MFPs like the Editors’ Choice Dell B3465dnf Multifunction Laser Printer$1,399.99 at Dell, the M521dn offers a duplex scanner for copying and scanning. (It won’t scan in duplex for faxing, however, which takes a little of the shine off the feature.)

Having a duplex scanner (meaning that it can scan both sides of a page at the same time) is different from having a duplexing ADF, which scans one side, turns the page over, and then scans the other. Either approach will let you scan duplex documents. And if the MFP also offers duplex printing plus appropriate copying commands, as with the M521dn, either approach will also let you copy single- or double-sided originals to your choice of single- or double-sided copies. However, scanning in duplex is a lot faster than scanning with a duplexing ADF.

We don’t usually time duplex scanning with MFPs, because most desktop MFPs that duplex use duplexing ADFs, which is more of a convenience feature than something that’s truly competitive with duplexing scanners. With the M521dn, however, I ran a test using a 25-sheet document just to get a sense of its speed. For scanning to disk, and including the time for saving the file to disk after scanning, the M521dn came in at 10.7 pages per minute (ppm) or 21.4 images per minute (ipm), with one image on each side of the page. If you scan duplex documents very often, this one feature can save a lot of time compared with using an MFP with a duplexing ADF.

Very much on the plus side for the M521dn is the 3.5-inch touch screen, with its particularly well-designed menu system. The combination makes it easy to both change settings in the printer and give commands for copying, faxing, and emailing.

One other strong point is the paper handing for printing, with both a 500-sheet paper drawer and 100-sheet multipurpose tray standard, along with the automatic duplexer. The 600-sheet capacity should be enough for most small to mid-size offices. If you need more, however, you can add a second 500-sheet drawer ($185 street), for a total of 1,100 sheets.

Setup and Speed
At 20.0 by 18.3 by 18.3 inches (HWD), the M521dn is too imposing to share a desk with. It’s also heavy enough, at 52.7 pounds, that you’ll probably want some help moving it. Once in place, however, setup is standard fare. For my tests I connected it to a wired network and installed the driver on a system running Windows Vista.

As I’ve already suggested, speed is not a strong point. HP rates the engine at 42 ppm, and I timed it as being a touch faster, at 43 ppm, for printing a text document with little to no formatting from Microsoft Word. On our business applications suite, however (timed with QualityLogic’s hardware and software), it came in at a surprisingly slow 5.3 ppm. Although that’s a tolerable speed, it’s significantly slower than most other mono laser printers we’ve tested. The Brother MFC-8950DW, for example, managed 10.6 ppm, the Canon imageClass MF4770n came in at 12.3 ppm, and the Dell B3465dnf hit 15.0 ppm

Output Quality and Other Issues
Output quality is a mixed bag. The good news is that the M521dn handled text in our tests particularly well, which is generally the most important kind of output for a mono printer. Text quality was well above par, making it easily good enough for any business use and even good enough for most desktop publishing applications.

Graphics output was a touch below par, but still within the tight range where the vast majority of mono laser MFPs fall. That makes it good enough for any internal business need. Depending on how critical an eye you have, you may or may not consider it acceptable for, say, PowerPoint handouts. Photo quality was also at the low end of par for a mono laser MFP. It was certainly good enough to print recognizable photos from Web pages. Whether you consider it suitable for anything more than that will depend, once again, on how critical an eye you have.

The one feature I wish this printer had that it doesn’t is the ability to fax in duplex. However, if you don’t need to fax duplex documents, that won’t be an issue. It also doesn’t leave you any worse off for faxing than with an MFP that can’t handle duplexing at all, making this oversight more of a missed opportunity than an actual problem.

Faster print speed would be welcome also. However, the time saved with duplex scanning and copying if you need it can more than make up for whatever points the printer loses on print speed. The text quality is a big plus too, as part of a highly attractive balance of speed, output quality, paper handling, and MFP features. For a small to mid-size office that needs to copy or scan (but not fax) duplex documents on a regular basis, all this can make the HP LaserJet Pro MFP M521dn a near-perfect fit, which is also enough to make it an Editors’ Choice.

original article

Dell B1165nfw MFP

by M. David Stone, 

One step down in Dell’s current line from the Dell B1265dnf Multifunction Mono Laser Printer that I reviewed last year, the Dell B1165nfw is Dell’s least expensive multifunction printer (MFP) right now. It’s also an obvious candidate if you need a personal MFP. It’s small enough to share your desk with comfortably, and it can be a good fit as a personal printer in any size office, or indeed as a shared printer for light duty use in a micro office.

The B1165nfw offers most of the MFP features you’re likely to need. It can print and fax from, as well as scan to your PC, including over a network, and it works as a standalone copier and fax machine. It also supports an assortment of mobile printing features, including Google Cloud Print for printing over the Internet and both AirPrint and Dell’s own app for Android devices for printing over a Wi-Fi connection. In addition, it offers Wi-Fi Direct, which lets you connect directly to the printer from a mobile device and print over Wi-Fi even if you don’t have an access point on your network.

Paper handling

One of the features that defines the B1165nfw as primarily a personal printer is its limited paper handling (with no upgrades available, either). The paper capacity is only 150 pages, which means that if you print more than about 30 pages a day, including copies and incoming faxes, refilling the paper tray can turn into an annoying chore. However, it should be enough for most personal use or for light duty use as a shared printer in a micro office.

Also missing is a duplexer (for two-sided printing). This can be an issue if you have to walk to the printer to turn over a stack of pages every time you manually duplex, but it’s not a problem for a personal printer sitting on your desk. For scanning, the printer offers both a letter-size flatbed and a 40-page automatic document feeder (ADF).

Setup and speed

Another feature that helps define the B1165nfw as a personal printer is its small size. At 402 x 293 x 296mm (WxDxH), it’s small enough to sit on your desk without towering over you. It also helps that it weighs only 8kg, which makes it easy for one person to move.

Setup is standard for a mono laser MFP. For my tests, I connected the printer to a wired network and installed the drivers on a system running Windows Vista.

Dell rates the printer engine at 21 pages per minute (ppm), which is the speed you should see when printing files that need little to no processing. I actually timed it at 22 ppm for printing a text file with no graphics or photos. On our business applications suite (timed using QualityLogic’s hardware and software), however, I clocked it at 7.5 ppm, which is a reasonable, but not that impressive speed for the rating and price.

As one point of reference, the less expensive Panasonic KX-MB2000 was a touch faster than the Dell printer at 8.0 ppm.

Output quality

The B1165nfw’s output quality counts as a plus, thanks primarily to its text and graphics. In both cases, the output is at the high end of the range where most mono laser MFPs fall. That makes the text a little short of what you would want for serious desktop publishing, but easily good enough for almost any business use. Graphics output, similarly, is good enough for almost any business need, including PowerPoint hand-outs and the like.

Photo quality is at the low end of par for a mono MFP, which makes it good enough to print recognisable photos from web pages. It’s not suitable for anything much more demanding than that, but if a mono printer is what you’re looking for, odds are that’s good enough for your needs.

Verdict

If you need a shared MFP in your micro office for even medium duty printing, this is clearly the wrong printer to get. You’ll be better off with the Dell B1265dnf Multifunction Mono Laser Printer instead. However, if what you need is a personal printer in any size office, or a shared printer for light duty use by micro office standards, the Dell B1165nfw Mono Laser Multifunction Printer is a potentially attractive choice, especially if you need a printer that’s small enough to sit on your desk.

Specifications

Manufacturer and Model Dell B1165nfw Mono Laser Multifunction Printer
Type Copier, Fax, Printer
Printer Category Laser
Direct Printing from Cameras No
Print Duplexing Manual with guidance
Rated Speed at Default Settings (Mono) 21 ppm
Type All-In-One
Color or Monochrome Monochrome
Technology (for laser category only) Laser
Connection Type USB, Ethernet, Wireless
original article

Brother MFC-1810 MFP

By Trevor Tan
Digital Life, The Straits Times
Sunday, Jun 30, 2013

Looking for an economical all-in-one monochrome laser printer that can print, copy, scan and fax?

The Brother MFC-1810 might just be the answer.

Weighing about 8kg and standing almost as tall as a 1.5l soft drink bottle, it is a little bulky, with a footprint slightly bigger than a copy of Digital Life.

To feed paper into the printer, you have to pull down its lower front casing and extend a paper tray which holds up to 150 sheets of paper. This expands the device’s footprint by almost 40 per cent.

This printer is not going to win any beauty pageant. Predominantly grey with the front half bathed in black, it has a long control panel just under the auto document feeder (ADF) and scanner lid.

The control panel consists of the Power button, Fax function buttons and Mode keys on the left. The Menu keys, Dial pad, and Start and Stop buttons sit on the right. In between is the monochrome LCD that displays date, time and status.

I found it counter-intuitive to have the Fax function buttons sited so far from the Dial pad. It might be better for these buttons to be housed closer to the Dial pad so that users do not have to use one hand to press the hook button and the other to dial the fax number.

At the printer’s rear, you will find a USB port with a phone port for faxing. It does not have an ethernet port or built-in Wi-Fi.

For this review, the MFC-1810 was hooked up to an Apple MacBook Pro via a USB connection.

It takes about 25 seconds to power up the printer before it is ready to print or copy.

Printing 20 monochrome pages takes about 64.5sec, which is pretty quick and in line with the advertised speed of 20 pages per minute. It printed five 2MB JPEG images in 18.2sec. The printer’s ADF does not support duplex copying, meaning that you can copy only one side of the document at a time.

It takes 45.7sec to copy five single-sided documents using the ADF, which is an average of 9.1sec per document.

On the other hand, it takes 10sec to copy a document using the scanner.

The quality of text is crisp and sharp, good enough for your resume as long as it does not include printing your photo on it.

The graphics or pictures printed with this machine tend to look slightly pixellated, with tiny dots visible on close examination.

Each print costs only about 5 cents, which is about the rate of most office laser printers. But the drum can support up to 10,000 print-outs, making it highly economical.

The Brother MFC-1810 offers a quick and fuss-free monochrome fax, copy and printing solution for home office and school projects.

Its rating would have gone up a notch if it had built-in Wi-Fi for ease of connection.

Tech specs

Price: $238
Cartridge: $52 (TN-1000 toner, 1,000 pages), $32 (DR-1000 drum, 10,000 pages)
Print resolution: Up to 2,400 x 600 dots per inch
Speed: 20 pages per minute (black)

Rating

Features: 3
Design: 3
Performance: 4
Value for money: 4
Overall: 3

original article

Brother MFC-9340CDW MFP

BY TONY HOFFMAN

The Brother MFC-9340CDW is the most full featured of Brother’s three new laser-class (LED-based) multifunction printers (MFPs). It includes all the features of the Brother MFC-9330CDW$446.97 at pcRUSH.com and Brother MFC-9130CW$349.99 at OfficeMax, and like them, it has a 35-page automatic document feeder (ADF) for copying, scanning, and faxing multipage documents unattended. But it’s the only one whose ADF is duplexing, able to scan both sides of a two-sided document—on a single pass, no less.

Features
The MFC-9340CDW can print, copy, scan, and fax. It lets you fax either from your computer (PC Fax), or standalone faxing from the MFP’s touch-sensitive keypad without needing to be connected to a computer. As an LED printer, the MFC-9340CDW uses LEDs as a light source instead of lasers. LED printers are typically smaller than the equivalent laser printer; and this model is reasonably compact at 16.1 by 16.1 by 19.0 inches (HWD) and weighs 51.8 pounds.

This two-toned (off-white and black) MFP is boxy except for a swept-back front panel, which includes a 3.7-inch color touch screen. The backlit numerical keypad to the right of the touch screen only appears when you press Fax or other functions that require data entry. The only physical button is the start/stop button. A front-facing port lets you print JPEG and PDF files from (and scan files to) a USB thumb drive.

Paper capacity is 250 sheets, plus a one-page manual feed slot, with no additional paper options. It has an automatic duplexer for printing on both sides of a sheet of paper.

The MFC-9340CDW connects to a PC via a USB cable, or to a network via Ethernet or Wi-Fi. It also supports Wi-Fi Direct, which enables direct printing between compatible devices without needing to go through a WiFi network. It supports mobile printing via Apple AirPrint, Brother iPrint&Scan (which allows you to print from or scan to an Apple, Android, or Windows Phone mobile device as well as Kindle Fire), Google Cloud Print, and Cortado WorkPlace. I tested it over an Ethernet connection with the drivers installed on a computer running Windows Vista.

Brother MFC-9340CDW

Printing Speed 
The MFC-9340CDW printed out our business applications suite (as timed with QualityLogic‘s hardware and software) at 5.8 effective pages per minute (ppm), a reasonable speed considering its 23 page per minute rated speed for both color and monochrome printing, which should be about its print speed when printing text only. (Our test suite includes text pages, graphics pages, and pages combining text and graphics.) Its tested speed was a bit lower than the Brother MFC-9330CDW (6.8 ppm), also rated at 23 pages per minute, and the Brother MFC-9130CW (6.5 ppm), despite its rating of only 19 ppm.

The Editors’ Choice Dell 2155cn$439.99 at Dell, rated at 24 ppm for both color and black output, tested at 5.9 ppm, while the Canon Color imageClass MF8580Cdw$479.00 at B&H Photo-Video-Pro Audio, rated at 21 pages per minute for simplex printing and 10 ppm for duplex, tested at 4.9 ppm in its default duplex mode, and 6 ppm in ad-hoc testing using simplex mode.

Output Quality
Overall output quality was a touch below par. The MFC-9340CDW’s text quality was typical of laser-class printers, which is to say it’s very good. It’s suitable for any business uses short of those requiring very small fonts.

Graphics quality was on the low side of average for a color laser. Though colors were generally bold and well saturated, some darker backgrounds looked slightly faded or blotchy. I noticed traces of banding (a regular pattern of faint striations) in many of the illustrations. The printer had some trouble maintaining distinctions between similar shades of colors, with little differentiation between them. Graphics are suitable for basic PowerPoint handouts, though perhaps not to clients you’re seeking to impress.

Photo quality was slightly sub-par for a laser-class printer. Several prints showed mild tinting. Dithering (graininess) was evident in a few of the prints, and there was a loss of detail in some bright areas.

The Editors’ Choice Dell 2155cn provides good speed and better output quality than the MFC-9340CDW, though it only supports simplex scanning and lacks an auto-duplexer as well. The Canon Color imageClass MF8580Cdw has both of those items—and an even larger-capacity (50-sheet) duplexing ADF, plus better output quality than the MFC-9340 (though not the 2155cn).

The addition of a duplexing ADF makes the Brother MFC-9340CDW stand out among the three recently launched Brother MFPs. Its speed and output quality are solid if unspectacular, and it has a good feature set and range of connectivity choices. It’s best for a small or home office that does mostly text printing but has occasional need for color for casual or in-house use.

original article

Brother MFC-9130CW MFP

BY TONY HOFFMAN

The Brother MFC-9130CW$349.99 at OfficeMax is the junior of three LED-based multifunction printers (MFPs) that the company recently introduced , offering a sparser feature set than the Brother MFC-9330CDW$349.99 at OfficeMax orBrother MFC-9340CDW at a slightly lower price. If duplex (two-sided) printing, copying, scanning, or faxing—or printing directly from a USB key—isn’t important to your small or home office, it can save you some money over the other two MFPs.

The MFC-9130CW can print, copy, scan, and fax. It lets you fax either from your computer (PC Fax), or as a standalone unit without needing a computer. a USB thumb drive. It includes a 35-page automatic document feeder (ADF) for unattended copying, scanning, or faxing of multi-page documents of up to legal size. Unlike the MFC-9340CDW, it doesn’t support duplex scanning, copying, or faxing; although you can still scan two-sided documents, you’d have to feed it side by side, a page at a time.

 

The Brother MFC-9130CW is two-toned (off-white and gray) MFP is boxy except for a swept-back front panel, which includes a 3.7-inch color touch screen. The backlit numerical keypad to the right of the touch screen only appears when you press Fax or other functions that require data entry. The only physical button visible is the Start/Stop button.

The MFC-9130CW uses LEDs in place of lasers as a light source. LED printers are generally smaller than the equivalent laser printers, and this model is no exception: It’s reasonably compact at 16.1 by 16.1 by 19 inches (HWD) and weighing 49.6 pounds.

Paper capacity is 250 sheets, plus a one-page manual feed slot. Unlike the Brother MFC-9330CDW and Brother MFC-9340CDW, it lacks an automatic duplexer for printing on both sides of a sheet of paper. The driver provides on-screen guidance for manual duplexing.

The MFC-9130CW connects to a PC via a USB cable, or to a network via Ethernet or WiFi. It supports Wi-Fi direct, which allows for direct printing between compatible devices without the need to go through a WiFi network. It’s compatible with Apple AirPrint, Brother iPrint&Scan, Google Cloud Print, and Cortado WorkPlace for printing from mobile devices. I tested it over an Ethernet connection, with the drivers installed on a computer running Windows Vista.

HP LaserJet Pro 500 Color MFP M570dn

Printing Speed
I timed the Brother MFC-9130CW, rated at 19 pages per minute for both color and monochrome printing, on our business applications suite (as timed with QualityLogic‘s hardware and software) at 6.5 effective pages per minute (ppm), a decent speed for its price and rated speed. It was a little faster even than the Brother MFC-9340CDW, rated at 23 ppm, which tested at 5.8 ppm, and just slower than the Brother MFC-9330CDW, rated at 23 ppm, which I timed at 6.8 ppm. The Editors’ Choice Dell 2155cn $439.99 at Dell, rated at 24 ppm for both color and monochrome, was a touch slower, at an effective 5.9 ppm. The Ricoh Aficio SP C240SF$410.26 at pcRUSH.com, though rated at only 16 pages per minute for both color and mono, nearly matched the MFC-9130CW, at an effective 6.3 ppm.

Output Quality
Overall output quality for the MFC-9130CW was a touch below par. Text quality was right on par for laser-class printer, which is to say very good. It’s fine for any business use short of ones that require very small fonts, such as demanding desktop publishing applications.

Graphics quality was par for a color laser. Colors were generally well saturated; some dark backgrounds looked a bit blotchy. There was mild banding (a regular pattern of faint striations) in many of the illustrations. It did not do well in showing a gradient between darker and lighter tones, as the printed output showed little difference between them. Graphics are fine for in-house business use, including PowerPoint handouts, though I’d be hesitant to pass them to clients I was seeking to impress.

Photo quality was below par for a laser. Prints were on the light side, with some colors muted. A monochrome photo showed a slight tint. Several prints showed mild banding. Posterization (an abrupt shift in color where it should be gradual) was evident in one photo that tends to bring it out. Quality is fine for printing out images from Web pages or files, but that’s about all.

The MFC-9130CW costs a bit less than the two other MFPs that Brother released at the same time, the MFC-9330CDW and MFC-9340CDW, and it has a more modest feature set. In particular, it lacks the ability to automatically print, scan, copy, or fax two-sided documents, and eschews a port for a USB thumb drive. Its output quality, though comparable to its two “brothers”, falls short of that of the Editors’ Choice Dell 2155cn.

In short, the Brother MFC-9130CW has decent speed for a small-office, laser-class MFP. Its relatively low price comes at the expense of some features like duplexing. Its text quality is fine for nearly any business use. Graphics and photo quality, though fine for most in-house use, are short of what we look for in a printer suitable for outputting basic marketing materials and the like. It’s a good, cost-effective MFP for an office with an occasional need for color printing, provided that high-quality color output isn’t paramount.

original article

Tap to Print with Samsung’s New ProXpress and Multifunction ProXpress Printers

Samsung Electronics Co today announced a new line of ProXpress mono laser printers and multifunction printers (MFPs) for small and medium-sized business customers and home office use. These new products offer fast print speeds, high print quality and versatility, and have been specifically designed for users who require low operating costs and high performance. The new M4020ND and M3820ND printers and the M4070FR and M3870FD MFPs offer an all-in-one integrated toner system, robust eco features and duplex printing for lower operating costs and higher efficiency.

“Small to medium-sized businesses and professionals who work at home are increasingly seeking lower operating costs for maximum profitability without sacrificing on high performance,” said Mike van Lier, Business Leader for IT Solutions at Samsung Electronics South Africa. “The Printer ProXpress and the Multifunction ProXpress series are built to offer an efficient experience with fast speeds and high-quality images at a reasonable cost. In fact, our ProXpress MFPs fall into what IDC calls ‘the sweet spot of the monochrome laser MFP market’, predicting that this segment is expected to post the highest compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10% compared with other speed segments in this market by 2017*.”

Powerful and efficient performance

With print speeds of up to 35 ppm to 42 ppm for letter size documents**, each of the new models provides fast, reliable and economically efficient performance for business users. The units enable document and image processing for increased workflow, through their Cortex A5 processors and up to 256MB of memory.

All models come with standard automatic duplex, which allows for printing on both sides of the page as well as a multi-purpose tray, which supports media of up to 220 gsm (58 lbs) in weight. Offering more printing choices for professional documents such as labels, cards and envelopes, the multi-purpose tray enhances the units’ versatility and usefulness to the users.

 

The Multifunction ProXpress M4070FR also includes a DADF (duplex automatic document feeder) feature, which allows users to easily copy, scan and fax double-sided documents. And with scan speeds of up to 24 ipm for single-sided documents, the MFPs can further improve office efficiency.

 

High quality and easy to use

For sharper text and clearer images, both series are built with Samsung’s image-processing technology, Rendering Engine for Clean Pages (ReCP). This technology improves the readability of printed documents by enhancing thin lines and sharpening the edges of negative text. Coupled with print resolutions of up to 1 200 x 1 200 dpi, the ProXpress series delivers unparalleled image quality in its class. All units come with the Samsung Easy Printer Manager, a powerful application that integrates all your print management into one easy-to-use system.

Cost control with integrated toner system and easy eco driver

For the small to medium-sized enterprise (SME) market, value is just as important as powerful performance and quality. With Samsung’s Easy Eco Driver and One Touch Eco Button, customers can effectively manage printing options. These functions help reduce paper, toner and energy consumption. The Easy Eco Driver can reduce toner use by up to 20% with the toner-saving mode. This mode allows the user to remove images, convert from bitmap to sketch, and remove bold text to save toner.

In addition, four different toner cartridges supporting different printing volumes are available, from the standard cartridge, which yields 3 000 pages and offers a low initial cost, to the ultra-high-yield toner cartridge, which yields 15 000 pages*** and offers an extremely low cost per page.

Secure and convenient

For additional security, all units feature enterprise-level security with Samsung SyncThru Admin, which offers greater control of user, document and network access. Customers can securely print with a built-in numeric keypad on all units, except for the M3320ND. By entering a PIN, a user can elect to send a confidential or personal print job right from the driver, ideal for government or healthcare customers who are printing secure documents. This option protects sensitive information and reduces the number of wasted prints if users decide they no longer need that print job.

Fully mobile

Samsung’s Mobile Print App enables users to print and scan from any mobile device with any Samsung network-shared printer and MFP without the need for a computer. The app can be easily downloaded to the user’s smartphone or tablet, and supports Android, Windows and iOS mobile platforms. With its capability to print Microsoft Office documents as well as support for Job Accounting and Secure print, businesses can improve the efficiency of their increasingly mobile workforces.

In addition, both the Printer ProXpress and the Multifunction ProXpress are Google Cloud Print Ready, allowing users to print remotely from any mobile device with their Google accounts. This is an ideal printing solution for Chromebook users, especially among the education market, where Chromebooks are growing in popularity for student and educator use.

Eco-sensitive

As part of Samsung’s commitment to the environment, all the latest models are ENERGY STAR qualified, along with having earned a Bronze rating from EPEAT, a global registry for greener electronics. Furthermore, all toner is eligible for Samsung’s S.T.A.R. Program, a free service that recycles empty Samsung cartridges into their major usable component materials, which are then reused for other products. Single and bulk returns are available.

original article

* The ‘sweet spot’ segment is the US 31 to 44 ppm monochrome laser MFP segment. IDC US MFP 2013-2017 Forecast, doc #240516, April 2013.
** M4020ND/M4070FR: 42 ppm, M3320ND/M3370FD: 35 ppm
*** Declared cartridge yields in accordance with ISO/IEC 19752 at 5% page coverage. 15 000-page Ultra High Yield Cartridge compatible with M4020ND/M4070FR only. 10 000-page Extra High Yield Cartridge compatible with M4020ND/M4070FR/M3870FW/M3820DW only.

Stopping a Print Job in Windows 8

By Mircea Gabriel Suciu, eHow Contributor

By removing a large document you do not want to print anymore from the printing queue of your computer you will save paper and valuable printer resources. You do not need to disconnect your printer from your computer or from the power source to cancel its current operation. Windows provides a feature that you can use to control the documents in the printing queue. This feature allows you to pause or cancel a printing operation.

Instructions

  1. Move your mouse cursor to the top right corner of your desktop and press “Search” from the Charms bar.
  2. Type “Devices and Printers” (without quotes), press “Settings” and select “Devices and Printers” from the list of search results.
  3. Right-click the icon corresponding to the printer that is currently printing the large document and select “See what’s printing” from the context menu.
  4. Right-click the document you want to remove from the printing queue and press “Cancel” to cancel the printing operation. Click “Yes” to confirm.
original article

The Actual Cost of Your Printer

Dennie Kawahara24 min ago
TechnologyTech Deals
Printer costs have come down dramatically in the last decade, to the extent that it is now possible to pick up a small home office laser printer or a multifunction printer for under $100. You can grab a printer while standing in queue at your local post office.

Even the prices of heavy-duty workgroup and departmental business printers have declined significantly.

But what many people fail to realise is that the price tag on your printer is only a small portion of the total costs that will be incurred by the device of over its useful lifetime.

To understand a printer’s total cost of ownership (TCO), it is essential to consider numerous factors including the cost of toner or ink, paper and service costs and even the amount of office floor space required to house the printer.

Keeping tabs on expense

Some of the first questions to ask yourself are: how long do you expect to use the printer and what will it be used for? Will it primarily be used for printing in monochrome or colour? Will you need to print in full quality every time, or can you use draft mode for some print requirements?

Try to estimate how much you will print each month. If you are replacing an older printer and your print needs aren’t about to change, volume information such as this should be available in your current printer service records.

Then find out from the vendor how much toner or cartridges cost, and how many pages they can reasonably be expected to print.

This is important because the capacity of consumables will vary greatly between vendors.

Don’t forget to ask about any components that you can expect to replace over the lifetime of the printer, such as the image drum. You’ll need to know likely replacement cost and frequency.

With all this information, it should be possible to work out broad monthly ink, paper and printer costs. You’ll also get an idea how often you can expect to pay for the machine to be serviced – another expense that needs to be added to your TCO.

One other (often forgotten) print-related expense is that of power usage. When evaluating a selection of printers, a slight difference in power consumption may not seem to add up to much over a 24 hour period, but over the printer lifetime, it can equate to a significant financial and environmental cost.

That’s why it’s a good idea to look for the internationally recognised Energy Star certification, and to select a machine that offers energy-saving options such as a deep sleep mode or duplex printing.

Compare and contrast

All of the above steps will help you to establish a level playing field upon which to compare different vendors offerings. It will also give you a solid understanding of the costs you are committing to with your new printer purchase. There are, however, a few additional tips to consider, if you want to minimise the TCO of your new printer.

Establishing a print policy which stipulates when colour printing is appropriate and when mono printing is preferable, or that lays down guidelines on the use of printers for personal content can help to reap large savings dividends.

Businesses can also consider the value of outsourcing their requirements by working with a vendor that offers Managed Print Services. In these circumstances, the vendor takes control of managing your printer fleet for a predictable monthly cost.

The vendor assumes responsibility for updating equipment, fine-tuning your print environment, improving service levels and minimising device downtimes.

They help you to better understand print-related expenses and work with you to uncover areas of waste and inefficiencies. By outsourcing responsibility, the business frees up internal resources and upfront capital costs are avoided.

The practice of automatically printing every email or document has helped office printing expenses to rise steadily over the years. According to industry analysts, Gartner, between one and three per cent of corporate revenues now go on printing costs.

Fortunately, there are ways of reducing the expense. Simply choosing the cheapest printer is rarely the most economical lifetime solution but by calculating a printer’s TCO and by implementing appropriate policies, or by partnering with a managed services provider, companies can take charge of their printing costs and reduce their impact on the environment.

Dennie Kawahara is the Managing Director of OKI Data Australia

original article

Canon ImageClass MF8580Cdw Color MFP

Canon delivers solid value with the Color ImageClass MF8580Cdw Color Laser Multifuction printer. For $599 list, the 8580 includes a two-sided color printer, copier, scanner and fax machine with network control and Ethernet, USB and Wi-Fi interfaces all standard. With its 40,000 page-per-month duty cycle, fast time-to-first-page and fairly high paper capacity, the 8580 is suited for the small office or busy department.

With its 17-by-19-inch footprint and 26-inch vertical clearance requirement, the 8580 stands a prominent figure. Its handsome black-and-putty design and sturdy look and feel instill confidence that the unit will well outlast its one-year warranty. For the cost-conscious home or small business (and who isn’t these days?), the Canon printer automatically enables two-sided printing and can tuck itself into a 2-watt sleep mode after a selectable number of minutes. It wakes itself for print jobs arriving over the network, but when making copies, a manual press of the sleeper button is in order.

Canon ships the unit with its four toner/fuser cartridges preinstalled, and sings the praises of combining the two functions to save on maintenance time and increase convenience. We found helpful the messages displayed on the color LCD control panel during setup, prompting for removal of protective tabs and toner tape materials before using the machine. Another nice touch was the panel’s offer to enable color correction and to connect via Wi-Fi, (both by default). We declined the first and accepted the second. We later enabled color correction, with mixed results.

Canon includes several useful features we’ve seen only on higher-end MFPs, including a secure print feature that holds print jobs until a unique number is entered at the control panel, and unique user IDs, which enable management to monitor usage and help limit costs and consumption. A trade-off is a lack of a PostScript driver; the unit supports PCL. The 8580 offers the usual scan-to-USB, server or email capability, and can accept walk-up print jobs through its front-panel USB port for printing without a computer. Mobile devices can output to Canon’s MFP using Apple AirPrint, Google Cloud Print and Canon’s own Easy-PhotoPrint for Android, iOS and Windows 8 and RT.

The Canon (NYSE:CAJ) Color ImageClass MF8580Cdw Color Laser Multifunctionprinter is rated at a maximum rate of 21 pages per minute when outputting letter-sized, single-sided pages in color or black. It lived up to its rating in tests, cranking out 21 of our black-only text pages and color with graphics pages in precisely the same time. The first of 21 test pages appeared after an initial delay of 21 seconds, and all 21 were in the tray after 1:19. The bad news is that Canon muffed its claim of first page in “15 seconds or less.” But what’s a few seconds at the printer, more or less?

We also tested Canon Easy-PhotoPrint for Android and discovered a few things about the printer in the process. We learned that the 8580 supports Ethernet or Wi-Fi, but not both at once. So to print from our Android test device required a trip to the control panel to switch from wired to wireless Ethernet. The app itself is handsome and responsive, and presents a simple, no-nonsense interface that gets the job done. Capabilities are limited to controlling the scanner and printing on-device pics and scans.

 

Canon MF8580

 

 

On the subject of the control panel, Canon’s is nicer than most and offers more convenience. Dedicated hardware buttons along the top provide instant access to the unit’s primary functions of copying, scanning, faxing and direct printing, and LEDs on each indicate which function is enabled. A bright, backlit 3.5-inch LCD shows the corresponding functions and is easily navigated with smaller buttons and keys that surround it. We never had a doubt about how to do anything or where to find a particular setting, thanks to logically worded menus and concise titles. Along the right edge is a pair of programmable “Scan to PC” buttons to which specific network destinations for scanned PDF, JPG and TIFF files can be assigned, plus copy and secure print keys. Well done, Canon.

For a deeper dive into the printer’s many capabilities (a report of its settings prints out to eight pages), Canon also provides a printed manual, something we’ve missed seeing in recent years as such documentation has been relegated to the less handy digital realm. There’s also a second, smaller networking handbook and configuration guide. Separate disks are provided for Mac OS X and Windows drivers and utilities. There’s also a Linux driver available for printing only.

For standard paper capacities, the 8580 offers a 250-sheet cassette plus a 50-sheet multipurpose bin. A second 250-sheet cassette is optional. The output tray holds 125 pages; duplex printing is standard. For the small office looking for an all-in-one with very good color and black print quality that won’t break the bank, the $599 list Canon Color ImageClass MF8580Cdw Color Laser Multifuction printer is worth a serious look.

original article