- Average user rating: 1.5 stars out of 30 reviews Back to product review
- My rating: 0 stars
Full user review
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15 out of 15 people found this review helpful
3.5 stars
"Almost there"
Pros: Hardware performance, price
Cons: Poor software
Summary: This is an early review based on a few days? evaluation at home as a stand-alone printer. In general I have been very favorably impressed with the performance of the device. It prints quickly and clearly, it scans well, and copies are adequate. I am not impressed with the software. My rating would have been higher based only on the hardware.
At 46 pounds the printer is considerably lighter than most others in its class. The print, scan, copy and FAX functions all work as expected. Color printing doesn't set any speed records for a laser, but it's much faster than an inkjet inkjet, even though the machine is rated at ?only? 4 ppm. Color photographs look washed out on plain paper. As is typical for these machines, it does not handle paper larger than legal size. Color copies look somewhat faded compared to the originals, especially photographs. Because it does not have to rotate toner cartridges, the machine is fairly quiet when printing. Scanning is on a par with other units. The printer goes into energy saving mode when not in use and is totally quiet. When reactivated, it starts to function in less than a minute.
Paper handling is more flexible than on some competing devices, a plus for home users who do ?onesy-twosy? jobs. You can print special jobs such as an envelope or a nonstandard paper size or color without removing the tray ? just insert the material into the slot above the tray. I did notice that the envelope I tested had been squeezed vigorously and rolled on a short radius, but it was still usable. The machine can?t handle paper larger than legal size. I haven?t had any paper jams.
Scanning from the console is limited to 300 dpi maximum. Copies of photographs lose detail because of the limited scan resolution.
The 3160 features a USB port in the front. This can be used to print pictures from a digital camera or a flash drive, although some of the larger drives I tried resulted in a file error message. The supported formats include JPEG, bitmap, TIFF and PRN. The label surrounding the port lists PDF rather than PRN, but this is incorrect: trying to print a PDF results in a ?file not supported? message. There is no preview screen, but the name of the file to be printed is listed on the panel.
Samsung has included features to print multiple copies of a photograph on a page or to expand a photo into a poster by segmenting it and printing page-size sections that can be pasted together. I have not tried them.
The software accompanying the 3160 is not up to the level of the hardware. My problems started when I used the installation CD. Scanning, faxing and copying from your computer are controlled by a program called SmarThru. The installation program claimed to have installed it, but did not. I had to access the disc manually and go to the SmarThru directory to put it on my computer. SmarThru is also available on the Samsung website; it?s a 150 MB download.
SmarThru has serious problems. In performing black and white scans I found that the files it produced ranged from 8 to 32 times the size they should, depending upon the option selected. Color bitmaps and PDFs were also larger than they should have been. In addition, when I used Adobe Acrobat Reader to look at the files it gave me a message that they were damaged and needed to be repaired before viewing. SmarThru is the only program I am aware of that will allow you to scan at 1200 dpi or greater with the 3160. The TWAIN drivers work, so if you can scan using some other application you can get files that are the usual size. I am using the Windows Scanner and Camera Wizard until SmarThru is repaired. It is more awkward to control scan area, can only go to 600 dpi, and can?t produce PDFs, but the files it generates are not bloated.
I contacted Samsung both through their website (slow, poor quality, and does not work well with browsers other than IE) and through their help line (fast, courteous, and fluent in English) to make them aware of what I had found with SmarThru. The good news is that bad software can be fixed ? bad hardware is with you forever.Updated
I have downloaded the software posted on Samsung's website 1/30/07. It made no difference.
As I have tried more scanning options, I have come to believe that the TWAIN driver is limited compared to competitors' products. In a black and white scan there is no control over parameters such as black level, contrast, and sharpness; the result is that if you are scanning faded text the result can't be optimized unless you go to options that result in larger files such as grayscale or color.
It's a great printer, but if scanning is an important function to you I can't recommend this unit until Samsung gets their software fixed.
- 1 reply to this review
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The printer functions over the network are acceptable - faxing over the network is hard to set up and not stable - seems to be a software issue ( a request to fax from PC results in the blue screen of death - just what you want if you spend an hour typing a report just to lose it all ...
the Website XP smarthru software down load is faulty - just another sign that one sometimes gets what one pays for............... ;-(
Where to buy
Samsung CLX-3160FN:
$449.98
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