March 3, 2009

Samsung SCX-4300
By Luis Anthony G. Oliveros

P5,995
www.samsung.com.ph

The glossy black SCX-4300 is the sole multifunction printer in the triumvirate of Samsung‘s affordable laser printing solutions we received in the mail for testing. It’s intended to be a personal printer tethered to one computer which justifies the USB 2.0 port on its rear being its sole data connection; but if you want to hook it up to a network to share it with various other machines, you may want to look around for other printers or consider the Samsung ML-00D print server as an additional purchase.

The 250-sheet automatic document feeder practically lines the base with a manual feeder and the output tray right above it. Meanwhile, lifting the top lid reveals the scanner that bears a maximum optical resolution of 600x2400dpi that yielded clear and bright results albeit a little too rich on the reddish hues during our colored scan tests and lacked contrast by a certain degree because the blacks looked a tad bit pale on the monochrome scans upon close inspection. On the other hand, it produced nice contrast when we tested its copying capabilities, with the blacks appearing clearly although there was some amount of bleeding around the edges and hints of ink clumping when it came to the arches, loops and slants in the letters of the copied document. These, in retrospect, were barely visible, noticed only under our scrutinizing magnifying glass.

A control panel is also present at the top along with a two-line, 16-character LCD screen that displays a very user-friendly interface.

When it comes to printing, the SCX-4300 prints at a decent speed; it churns out at a rated 18ppm, completing our 10-page document a little past the 14- second mark, our text and graphics combo document in about 7.78 seconds and our photo a few nanoseconds past five seconds. It may not be as fast as most of the laser printers we’ve tested in the past, but frankly, if you’re docking this printer in a small office setup merely
for basic school and office needs, the few second discrepancies may not actually matter at all.

It produces good quality monochrome text outputs with clear blacks and clean distinct lines on optimal quality settings, given that  its maximum resolution is at a mere 600x600dpi. The quality faltered by just a little bit on the draft printouts though, by way of tiny bleeds outside character borders. Again, these were nearly imperceptible to the unaided eye. What isn’t very indiscernible however, are the tiny bandings present, awkwardly appearing outside the positively bold blacks and on top of the indistinct shades of gray that diminished the amount of detailing.