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Samsung Monochrome Laser Printer ML-2855ND


Date
: 03/25/09 – 02:46:15 AM

Author
:

Category
: Printers

Page 1 : Introduction

Printers are essential to any small business or student still in school but more often than not, there are so many on the market that it's hard to tell which is best to buy. The main question to ask yourself is what features do you really need? If you plan on printing color material for a report then a monochrome printer is not what you need.

The Samsung ML-2855ND is a monochrome (black & white) printer with networking and duplex capabilities. For the average business or home network, a networked printer is a huge plus. You can plug the printer into your router and everyone can print to it at their own leisure. Similarly, duplex is a must have these days. Killing trees is bad for the environment and you can do your part by printing on both sides!

Page 2 : ML-2855ND Printer

The Samsung ML-2855ND printer arrived in a typical Samsung cardboard box adorned with blue text. It's pretty clear what you're getting once you read the label: Network Ready Monochrome Laser Printer.

Towards the bottom of the box we have a few key handling details and it's noted that the printer is designed for Windows XP but is Vista ready and also comes Energy Star certified.

Cracking open the box we can pull out the printer and accessories.

The printer itself is pretty basic. On the front you have a front loading tray for individual sheet feeding and there's also the front access panel for toner installation.

The side of the printer has a ventilation slot; a power switch on one side is an access panel for additional memory installation.

At the back of the printer we have all of our printer inputs. We also have a slide out tray for duplex printing.

On the top side of the printer, we have a paper collection at the output try and a very simple control panel. Directly below the LCD panel are 5 navigational buttons – menu, left, right, return and OK in the middle. Below the navigational panel is the print cancel button. The translucent ring around the navigational buttons glows blue during operation and the status LED alternates between green or red depending on the condition. The stop button also doubles as the manual print button each them you use the manual feeder for source. This is a great idea because the last thing you want is someone doing a network print and printing to your manual feed when you were saving it for your own job.

Flipping the printer onto its side, I was surprised to see the bottom not only has four solid rubber feet but also a strip of foam along the side. The foam will definitely aid in keeping the vibration chatter down.

Page 3 : Features & Specifications

Samsung has never tried to hide product information from you on their website; it's a matter of making a few clicks before you see the features and specifications of any product they currently sell. With the ML-2855ND, it only takes two clicks to get to the product page. From there, we immediately see a caption with key specifications and a detailed breakdown of the features.

The workgroup isn't working if everyone's standing around watching the printer. The SAMSUNG ML-2855ND mono laser workgroup printer features fast print speeds of 30 ppm. A 400 MHz processor and 64 MB memory minimize bottlenecks. A 250-sheet cassette, 50-sheet multipurpose tray and optional 250-sheet cassette gives you a total capacity of 550 sheets. There's also a 2-line LCD screen and compass navigation for intuitive operation. A 50,000 page monthly duty cycle means durability and reliability. With built-in duplex printing and our TonerSave feature, the ML-2855ND gives you one of the lowest TCOs in its class.

The full specifications show the printer with a footprint of 391mm by 217mm and stands 369mm tall. All things considered, it's a rather compact printer.

Page 4 : ML-2855ND Setup & Software Installation

Setting up the ML-2855ND is not a very difficult task, even if you've never setup a printer or changed the toner from a laser printer. The first step will be to pull the front lid down and grab the included starter toner package. You'll want to slide the toner in until it clicks into place.

From there, you'll want to plug in either a USB cable or a network cable, depending on where you plan on setting up your printer. If it'll be on the network, then you'll need a network cable. For a local installation, get yourself a USB cable. The next step will be to plug the printer into the wall and flip the switch to turn it off.

Paper needs to be supplied to the printer from the paper tray; if you purchased the extra 250 page tray, don't forget to plug in the data cable.

The last step only needs to be done to keep dust away from the printer. Included in the accessories is a duplex cover which you can slot onto the back of the printer.

After 50,000 pages of printing you will need to change the transfer roller/fuser. This is done from the back of the printer, follow the instructions etched in and the unit pulls right out.

Once you've physically setup the printer, it's time to install the software. Samsung has included the necessary drivers and troubleshooting software on their driver CD. The autostart will begin the installation and you only need to make a few choices before the installation is complete. Your choices included: language, printer location (Local or Network), test page print and registration.

Once the installation is complete, you will have access to the Samsung Smart panel to monitor supply status and change default print settings.

If you connected your printer up to your network, you also have some administration options over the network. There are actually more configuration options available to you, this includes firmware upgrades, contact information, network access and additional printer options. The only odd thing I want to report is that the IP kept changing when the printer was left to find its own IP with DHCP. I would install the printer with an initial IP of 192.168.0.128 and after the installation the printer would change IPs to 192.168.0.132. The next time I tried to update the drivers, the printer has *.135 as the IP. I eventually gave up and set a static IP of 192.168.0.199. This could very well be an issue with the firmware on the printer, an issue with my router and switch or the network cable.

With the printer all setup, it's time to get printing!

Page 5 : Power Consumption & Performance

The printer really only has a few modes of operation: powered off, sleeping, ready for print and printing, each with increasing amount of power consumption.

Using my new Blueplant EM100 Energy Meter, I made the following measurements:

When printing 10 pages, the power varied between 400 to 700W, occassionally peaking to the 750+ range. For the most part, I would guess the average power usage would ring in at 550W. The 700W spike is usually just as a fresh sheet entered the fuser. Once the print job completed, the power quickly dropped down to 8W.

To test the print speed, I created a 20 page word document. Each page had 50 lines and a total of 4079 characters. For single sided printing, I used my stop watch to record the time it takes for the first page to hit the output tray and the time for the entire job to be completed. The average page per minute print time will be determined by pages 2 through 20, 19 pages total. This will allow me to remove the spooling time for the print job. For duplex printing, I will follow the same procedures. I will record the time for the first sheet to hit the output tray and then the time for the entire job to be completed. The average page per minute print time for a duplex job will be determined by averaging the time for pages 3 to 20, 9 sheets total.

I did a couple test prints using various printer resolutions and toner saving features. Can you see the difference between pages one, two and three? These pages were scanned using my Samsung MFP at 200 dpi.

There's a small difference when you switch from 600 DPI to 1200 DPI and turn off the toner save mode. Personally, it's worth having Toner Save On just to get the extra pages out of your toner at the expense of a small quality loss. However, when you start printing black and white photos, it's a very different ballgame. The difference between 600 DPI with Toner Save on and 1200 DPI with Toner Save off is one worth making.

The left photo above is the original picture converted into black and white. To the right is a comparison between 600 DPI with toner save mode on and 1200 DPI with toner save mode off.

Page 6 : Conclusion

While we have moved into an age where e-mails and text messages flood our screens, a printer is still a tool any worker cannot live without. Features like duplex printing and network capabilities add value by saving the number of trees we cut down and by allowing everyone to print from their own computer instead of sharing a single PC or configuring a separate print server computer. Printing at a speed of 31ppm on letter size and 14.6ppm for duplex, you'll be able to spend more time working and less time waiting.

Samsung has released an affordable printer with a lot going for it. Its compact size allows it to sit unobtrusively on a desk but beneath all the plastic, the 400 MHz processor with 64 MB memory will be able to handle the biggest print jobs. While I had a minor issue keeping an IP, the easy to use menu and two-line LCD display makes navigating and setting a static IP a breeze.

Advantages

• Duplex & Network Ready
  
  
• Affordable for Duplex & Network Ready
• Good print speed for price

Disadvantages

• DHCP IP kept changing with DIR-655

Thank you Samsung for making this review possible.