Samsung CLP-325W Toner Cartridges

Design

Samsung's latest entry into the consumer laser printing market is its CLP-325W colour laser printer. Because consumers are largely focused on ease of use and broad compatibility, it introduces at least one new feature that is sure to make it a hit among home users. Wireless networking with the CLP-325W is as easy as pushing one button on the front of the device. Using a new technology called "Wireless Protected Setup," or WPS, the printer communicates with the router on its own; the router then takes the printer's instructions and independently sets up the device so that it can be accessed by all computers on the wireless network. The process is short, taking only a minute or two, and then the printer can be used by each computer connected to the network. This eliminates the complex and time-consuming instructions that many earlier models required in order to properly interface with wireless networks.

Advantages

As for its printing prowess, the Samsung CLP-325W can crank out 17 pages of black and white text per minute. Not only is that excellent for a home laser printer, but it puts this model on par with some of the business laser printers that are currently on the market. Given how affordable this model is, it simply can't be overstated how great this speed is. One downside, however, is that the CLP-325W has a relatively tough time producing colour pages. While its text pages are impressive, it can only produce four colour pages per minute according to the manufacturer's specifications. And in tests, it could be even slower - at three pages per minute.

The Samsung CLP-325W is great for home users on both Windows and Mac OS X operating systems, and is compatible with the most recent releases of each platform. Also, unlike a few of its competing brands, the Samsung CLP-325W is compatible with Apple Airport Express and Extreme base stations.

Home users may find this to be a great colour laser printer. Black and white text is quick to print and, even though colour pages are slow to come out, their quality is pretty good for a laser printer. Combined with its strong networking and cross-platform capabilities, this makes the Samsung CLP-325W the cream of the laser printing crop.

Disadvantages

As mentioned earlier, colour printing is rather slow for a laser printer and no match for a similarly priced inkjet printer for quality.