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Samsung ML-1640 Mono Laser Printer |
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Written by Branko Vrhovac
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Saturday, 13 September 2008 |
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 New Samsung’s trump card in “low-cost” section on the market of monochrome laser printers named ML-1640 has arrived in our test lab. Flat lines and black colour of the device follows the “fashion” trends in this segment of IT industry. Thanks to its looks, Samsung ML-1640 is in harmony with the rest of IT environment. Minimalistic look with complete absence of any decoration and visual signalization is expected from device that claims to be very accessible thanks to its low price tag.
Connection of ML-1640 and computer is achievable only through USB 2.0 interface. Connection and installation of appropriate software is simple and fast. Declared printing speed is 16 pages per minute, maximum printing resolution is 1200x600dpi and capacity of sheet cassette in/out is 150/100 sheets respectively, are quite suitable for home and small business users to whom is ML-1640 attended for.
The bad news, that became quite common for new printer models, is that you’ll only get the starter cartridge with capacity of 700pages with this device, which has half of capacity of standard toner that you can purchase later in retail stores.
Results of printing speed tests can be seen in table and these results are in range of declared values. But, we should mention that in situation when few minutes passed from previous printing, you’ll spend some time waiting for first sheet of next printing job to be printed. Reason for this is hidden in fact that after every pause in printing process ML-1640 needs a really noticeable period of time for warming up.
Quality of printed material, regardless if it is text, graphics or images, is quite well and above all adequate to needs of target group. There are some hardly noticeable lines on printed material when higher resolutions are used, but these defects are more a result of thorough search for faults than true defect that average user will notice. It seems that after all analysis and testing, Samsung ML-1640 turned out as solid product that is worthy of attention of users that need cheap device for small printing jobs that don’t expect fast printing speeds and top quality printing results.
On the other hand, this product like all other devices from the same category should be avoided if you have in mind large printing jobs on monthly basis. That’s because these models are neither robust nor economical enough for this type of exploitation. In case of Samsung ML-1640 one page will cost you 0.03€ (3 eurocents) when you start using standard cartridge. If we assume that you print 7 pages per day for 6 months period, you will spend one starter and one standard cartridge which will cost you around 125€ (printer itself with included starter cartridge plus standard cartridge).
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