BACKGROUND
After owning a series of inkjet printers - Cannon, HP, Lexmark and Epson, none of which lasted a particularly long time, I brought a Samsung ML1210 Laser Printer.
The problems with the inkjet printers usually stemmed from their flimsy plastic mechanisms- pieces snapped off and springs stretched, snapped or simply fell off. Further the price of the cartridges were astronomical, especially the colour cartridges that never seemed to last very long.
At the time of my transition to Laser printing, the majority of my printing consisted of essays for my degree and letters and invoices for my partners business. I had always believed that laser printers were too expensive as I had looked at them a couple of years earlier and could not find one below £800.00. However, on a chance visit to Office World I noticed the little Samsung ML1210 at a price of just under £169.00 (this was in 2002), and promptly purchased it.
MY SAMSUNG 1210
The most attractive thing about the Samsung 1210 is its simplicity: there are very few moving parts to go wrong. The drum (usually the most expensive part of the printer to replace in the laser printers) is integrated with the toner, which means that every time you get a new toner you get a new drum! This maintains the print quality of the printer. There are no fiddly bits of plastic, no fiddly springs to go wrong - all there is is the heating mechanism which burns the print onto the page. When you buy a new cartridge they are very simple to install, you simply take the old one out and slot in the new one. The whole printer case is much more solid than those of the inkjet printers that I had. Further with a inkjet cartridge, even with the most frugal use - I only ever got around 500 pages where as the Samsung ML1210 cartridge delivers around 3000. With my HP inkjet printer the cartridges were around £45.00 whereas my last Samsung cartridge (brought around 18 months ago) was £36.00.
My kids are now reaching the age where they want/need to use the computer for interneting , chat rooms and printing silly photos of their mates. I am coming under pressure to get a colour printer. I was surprised to find that colour laser printers are now below £200.00 - but I would need to investigate the costs of the cartridges before making a commitment.
I understand that you can now buy a Samsung ML1210 for around £60.00 - but hurry this model is being discontinued and replaced by the new Samsung ML4500.
For someone who simply wants a no -nonsense functional printer and doesn't require colour printing I would recommend the Samsung ML1210 or its successor.
This product has not yet been reviewed.
24.08.2006 22:45
Informative & concise