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Are you tired of spending a lot of money on color ink for you inkjet printer? Samsung just may have the perfect solution for you – the CLP-510 Color Laser Printer.
INTRODUCTION
Printers have evolved a long way since the Epson 80 dot matrix of decades ago. Dot matrix printers are almost totally gone, and everyone seems to have an inkjet printer these day. Inkjets are fine printers except for a few little things: ink usually only lasts a couple hundred of pages and runs $30.00 to $40.00 per cartridge, and the ink can be smeared if the paper gets wet. So if you want to keep cost down, you get a laser printer. Here you usually spend about $60.00-90.00 per toner cartridge, and they print 5,000 pages per toner on average. The only problem has been that a color laser printer has cost $1,500.00 to $5,000.00, or at least that is how it used to be. Over the last couple of years, color lasers have been getting very inexpensive, and today I am going to look at one such printer, the Samsung CLP-510N.
The Samsung CLP-510 and 510N are positioned in the middle of Samsung color laser printer line. The difference between the 510 and the 510N is the built-in 10/100 network adapter found in the 510N. The price difference between the printers is that the CLP-510 is $100.00 less than the CLP-510N. So, if networking is not needed, save the money and go with the CLP-510.
SPECIFICATIONS & FEATURES
Specifications
| Â | Â | Model | Â | CLP-510 |
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| General | Â | Technology | Â | Laser |
| Â | Â | Print Speed (Mono,Color) | Â | Up to 25ppm, up to 6ppm |
| Â | Â | Duplex Print Speed (Mono, Color) | Â | Up to 11.5 ppm, up to 6 ppm |
| Â | Â | First Page Out (Mono, Color) | Â | Approx 13 sec., Approx 21 sec |
| Â | Â | Processor | Â | Samsung SPGPm |
| Â | Â | Memory | Â | 64 MB (Standard), 192 MB (Max) |
| Â | Â | Print Language | Â | SPL-C (Samsung Printer Language Color) |
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| Resolution | Â | Print Resolution | Â | Up to 1200 dpi class |
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| Connectivity | Â | Connectivity (Standard) | Â | Hi-Speed USB 2.0 |
| Â | Â | Connectivity (Optional) | Â | 10/100 Base TX, 10/100 Base TX + 802.11b Wireless LAN |
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| Paper Handling | Â | Max Sheet Size | Â | 8.5″ x 14″ (Legal Size) |
| Â | Â | Input Capacity (Standard) | Â | 250 sheets, 100 sheets (Tray 1, Multi-Purpose Tray) |
| Â | Â | Input Capacity (Optional) | Â | 500 sheets |
| Â | Â | Output Capacity | Â | 250 sheets face-down |
| Â | Â | Duplexing | Â | Automatic, Built-in unit |
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| Supported OS |  | Microsoft® Windows |  | Windows 98/Me/2000/XP/2003 |
| Â | Â | Mac OS | Â | 10.3x |
| Â | Â | Linux | Â | Various Linux OS incl. Red Hat, Caldera, Debian, Mandrake, Slackware, SuSE, and TurboLinux. |
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| Miscellaneous | Â | Standard Fonts | Â | n/a |
| Â | Â | Operating Acoustics | Â | Less than 49 dBA (Color simplex printing from 1st cassette), Less than 40.0 dBA |
| Â | Â | Power Consumption | Â | Less than 450 W (Printing), 160 W (Ready), 17 W (Sleep) |
| Â | Â | Monthly Duty Cycle (Mono) | Â | Up to 35,000 pages |
| Â | Â | Dimensions (WxDxH) | Â | 20.1″ x 18.5″ x 15.9″ |
| Â | Â | Weight | Â | 70.5 lbs |
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| Accessories | Â | Â | Â | Toners, Memory, Cassettes, PostScript, Network, Wireless Network. |
A full list of features and details about them can be read at Samsung’s web site.
SUPPLIES & SETUP
The CLP-510N ships with all the supplies needed to run the printer except the cable to interface it with the computer or hub. The printer ships with the standard toner cartridges while high yield cartridges can be purchased when toner needs to be changed. The differences in the toner are the standard color toners print an average of 2,000 A4 pages with 5% page coverage, and the black prints 3,000 A4 pages with 5% coverage. The high yield cartridges up page average to 5,000 A4 pages on the color cartridges and 7,000 A4 pages on the black cartridge.
Here is a complete breakdown of Retail Pricing of the supplies and projected life.
| Part | Price | Life |
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| CLP-510 OPC Drum | $149.99 | Drum yield is approximately 50,000 black pages (12,500 color pages) |
| CLP-510 Image Transfer Unit | $149.99 | ITU yield is Approx. 50,000 black pages (12,500 color pages) |
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The CLP-510 and CLP-510N ships with standard toner cartridges (3K black, 2K color).
| Prices for mono and color toner cartridges, both sizes of each. | ||||
| Part | Â | Price | Â | Life |
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| CLP-510 Standard Black Toner | Â | $69.99 | Â | Toner Yield: 3000 pages |
| CLP-510 High Yield Black Toner | Â | $99.99 | Â | Toner Yield: 7000 pages |
| CLP-510 Standard Cyan Toner | Â | $72.99 | Â | Toner Yield: 2000 pages |
| CLP-510 High Yield Cyan Toner | Â | $119.99 | Â | Toner Yield: 5000 pages |
| CLP-510 Standard Magenta Toner | Â | $72.99 | Â | Toner Yield: 2000 pages |
| CLP-510 High Yield Magenta Toner | Â | $119.99 | Â | Toner Yield: 5000 pages |
| CLP-510 Standard Yellow Toner | Â | $72.99 | Â | Toner Yield: 2000 pages |
| CLP-510 High Yield Yellow Toner | Â | $119.99 | Â | Toner Yield: 5000 pages |
| CLP-510S5 500-sheet paper cassette/feeder | Â | $299.99 | Â | Â |
Setup is very easy to do, and you can see an interactive manual on this page that shows you printer setup.
Basically, you just install the four toner cartridges by sliding them into the left hand front side of the printer. Then you remove the drum, which comes installed in the printer, pull out the locking tabs on each side, then install the drum back in and lock the locking levers in the printer. Then, you install the USB cable and insert the driver CD in your PC and install the software. I had the printer up and running in 15 minutes. At this time, I do not have a 10/100 network in the office to test that part of the printer.
TESTING THE PRINTER
For testing the printer, I created a 25-page double-spaced document and printed it three times and then took the average score. The resolution of the print was set to 1200DPI.
| Black Document Print Speed Single Sided: | 22 Pages Per Minute |
| Black Document Print Speed Duplex: | 9 Pages Per Minute |
As we can see, these are slower than the speed of 25 for single and 11.5 for duplex that Samsung mentions, but those are the highest rated speeds for the engine and may also be at 600DPI versus the 1200DPI I am using.
For color testing, I used Windows Photo printing wizard and created 10 pictures to print and set them for full page print. I ran this also three times and took the average score. I did not print the same picture the same time in case it was cached in the printer’s RAM.
| Color Print Speed Single Sided: | 4 Pages Per Minute |
| Color Print Speed Duplex: | 3 Pages Per Minute |
These speeds are again slower than Samsung’s rated speeds, but we are using 1200DPI versus 600DPI. Also in both cases, we had the engine warm-up time in the first run. So, this did lower the average speed some, but I feel it does need to be included. In both cases, the warm-up time averaged 16 seconds.
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Print quality is very good in both black and color on normal paper. To get the best print if you are doing color photos, I would recommend getting paper made for doing photo on color lasers. The results are an almost photo quality print when this paper is used.
CONCLUSION
Samsung has come out with a very good printer with the CLP-510/510N series of printers. The print quality of the printer is excellent on the black print, and the color rivals inkjet photo quality printers when using the glossier paper designed to print photos on.
The real question will be once you get to 50,000 pages –Â do you buy a new drum and transfer unit for $300.00 for the set or do you just buy a new printer? Almost all companies any more seem to be giving away the printer and then making money on the supplies.
Pros:
+ Very good print quality
+ Low Noise Level (Currently the printer is on 24/7 in my bedroom)
+ Low price – $499.00 or less
Cons:
– No USB Cable included
– When Drum and Transfer Kits need replaced it may be cheaper to buy new printer
Final Score: 9 out of 10 and the Bjorn3D Golden Bear Award
