A stable workhorse, but no Stallion of mono lasers
 May 12th, 2004
Advantages:
Good performance, reliable, good quality, cheap to run .
Disadvantages:
Expensive, old, not the smallest or best .
Recommendable:
Yes
Detailed rating:
Picture quality
Printing speed
Colour sensitivity
Ease of use
Value For Money
more
  chris_ah1
About me:
YAY! I'm actually doing PPE at Oxford --> it's great with tons of familiar faces too. I came to C...
Member since:12.05.2004
Reviews:16
Members who trust:14
Review rated by 12 Ciao members on average: very helpful 
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I have been using this printer for quite a while now and already it has printed well in excess of 10,000 pages. Over all this time, I have barely thought about it. I press print, and it prints. However, this printer is not without its problems, but a review must also look at where it excels too. This mono laser printer is not one of the latest generation of LED lasers, and its printing mechanism closely resembles that of the ML 6060N workhorse. There are countless similarities in design, paper tray and toner cartridges. The key difference however is that this printer has overcome its aging predecessors’ flaws and then superseded it in other areas. Despite the electrophotography engine’s age, it remains a tried and true method of laser printing. Drivers:
I am often surprised at how many reviews do not mention the drivers of a printer first. This is the most critical aspect of a printer because without good drivers the printer won’t print, or will print below its capabilities. In this respect Samsung have done a very good job. Since this is not a GDI printer like its cheaper rivals there is good support for not only Windows, but also Mac OS 9 and X as well as Linux.
The Windows drivers are stable and offer tons of features – too many to go into in detail, but manual duplexing is available, all the necessary settings for half-toning, graphics versus text optimisation, black and white versus greyscale etc. There are also good selections for layouts of prints, which might not be as sophisticated as Brother’s pop up box, but all the flexibility is there. All this functionality
is especially enjoyed when printing posters, or booklets. There is a watermark feature too that works well, although it really depends on the background of your document whether it is usable. Other features include paper handling, general system monitoring and toner save function. The Macintosh drivers are less comprehensive, but still work. The most important functions missing that most users are shocked at is the ability for 1200dpi printing, and access to many of the image and text enhancement settings. This however is not as bad as it first seems because all the important layout and paper handling functions are present at qualitatively 600dpi is sometimes better than 1200dpi, which oddly can appear grainy with some banding. Similarly the enhancement technologies do not always improve quality, but at least the printing is of good quality anyway for it to matter very little. It works similarly well under Linux as with Macintosh.
The only problem however is that the networking admin tool is for Windows and is called SyncThru. Although it works, do not get this printer if you are looking for a proper networkable office printer with web administration from any remote (similar to the Epson or HP series). This does not have an inbuilt web server. The Printer:
It has a nice blocky design as far as I’m concerned. It is plain and is quite compact. It is certainly not the lightest printer, but for a medium sized workgroup it is perfect. The ML 1650 is compact enough for it to fit snugly almost anywhere whilst still having a full 500page paper tray. The ML 1750 might be tiny, but it has less flexibility and capacity.
Basic stats for this printer include an adequate amount of memory amounting to 16MB (with the ability to add in extra memory without an engineer) and a networking card. The networking aspect really makes any printer shine if it is being shared on a network. There is no longer any need to set up a samba share and have the host on permanently –the printer is now an autonomous unit on the network. Unfortunately, as mentioned, it is not a true networking printer since there is no web interface and it cannot be administered from anywhere –only from a Windows client. Speed
(Identical results for 600 and 1200dpi within 5% – measured to an accuracy of 0.25pages per minute). Time tests:
Excel worksheet of 10 pages of statistical data (Name, info, scores): 16.5ppm
Word document of 50 pages – includes tables, text and graphs: 15.25ppm
PDF 20 pages (mostly text and some pictures): 13.75 ppm
Time to print first page of Word document of solid text from idle: 40 seconds
This is certainly a very fast printer and almost lives up to its quoted speed. Warm up time however does seem to be rather long. but once the printer gets going, it gets going. It is also very noisy during the warm-up and seems to spin the paper rollers a bit excessively for my taste. Funnily enough though, the printer is appreciably faster with Windows that Macintosh although that can be attributed to better driver optimisation and more memory on the PC. Over the network, memory is a major issue with the host machine and printer too but only for massive documents. The printer’s speed is helped by its healthy 16MB (up to 144) of memory and 166Mhz Risc Processor. Quality:
So far it has been easy to appraise this printer, but now for quality it is almost important to give much meaningful commentary. The points that stick out in my mind however are:
1. Good crisp text even with small fonts.
2. Nice dark print at darkest setting, although not the darkest.
3. Little page bending.
4. Very little banding or blurring of difficult greyscale images.
5. 1200dpi and enhancement technologies do not always make a visible difference, and in fact can reduce quality.
6. Even tiny fonts are well rendered.
7. No blotching.
The only other comment I can make is that this printer does have very good quality and is more than respectable. However, it is not the best laser printer. At this price point I have not come across a better printer, but the Epson Aculaser 2000PS is far superiour in all respects (even in only greyscale). Features + consumables:
As a simple small workgroup printer, the controls reflect its functionality perfectly. There is no fancy display or ability to set settings locally, but only a Cancel/Reprint button, activity lights, toner save button and a demo page button.
The Cancel/Reprint button is rather self explanatory and is sometimes useful although unless printing a mammoth document the cancel will come too late to stop an unwanted job. The toner save is also a nice self-explanatory button which aims to reduce toner usage by an appreciable amount so the toner lasts longer. The only problem with it is that images look awful and text can sometimes get rather too light. This is good for drafts only, nothing more. I really cannot say though how much toner it has saved me though. The bottom paper tray is also a good feature because not only can it hold a whole ream of paper (500 sheets 80gsm) but it can be easily filled with a clipping mechanism and size readjustment. Fortunately, unlike other printers, the ML1651 does not rest on the paper tray so given a flat surface it can be taken out and re-inserted without lifting or dragging the printer. If you want perfect prints without even a hint of rolling there is a manual straight out tray that can be extended on the back. The front also has the useful manual insert tray for whatever media you want. This is the ‘straight-in’ tray so using both will pass the media straight under the toner thus preserving it. Also, when doing manual duplexing, the manual feed tray is defaulted to so you can print one side and then put all the pages into the manual tray for the second.
I seem get around 5,000 to 6,000 pages per toner rated at 8,000 pages. The free toner supplied with the printer is only rated for 4,000 and died for me within 3,000 pages. The toner is very good because it is all that has to be replaced with this printer so maintenance is very easy – no messing around with drum rolls, or fusers. The toner also slots into the body very easily without any problems. The only problem is that the last time I needed a toner it was hard to source. I paid £75, which comes out to about 1.25p per page. Definitely far better than an inkjet! Problems:
After my use and abuse, several flaws have appeared with the design. Although paper jams have only happened twice in its life, they are always very serious and I have to take the toner out and pull open the ‘striaght-in-tray’ and pull out a roller to get all the paper out. Sometimes a bit of paper will be mangled in the gears and it will take a while to find it and remove. The printer is very choosy about whether there is an obstruction. The roller I just mentioned that can be uncoupled from the back seems to be the weakest point in the engineering. One jam was caused by it losing alignment and being pushed back so the paper did not go under the toner properly. The paper tray is also slightly weak and it flexes. The paper size guides are also badly aligned and my A4 paper appears to be halfway between Legal and A4. Not terrible, but interesting.
Overall:
This is undoubtedly a very competent printer. Its speed can certainly keep it up with most of its competition, but now with 1200dpi and 20ppm mono lasers becoming very cheap and the ML1750 only costing £100 for the same performance and slimmer dimensions, it seems odd to buy this printer considering its expense. However, for me the pros were enough to buy it, and if you want those features that I find pros, get this one. Pros:
• Very good speed and reliability despite engine’s age.
• Very good quality –not outstanding, but no slouch either.
• Pages never curled, envelopes rarely crumpled.
• Long life 8000 page quoted toner. Lasts about 5000 to 6000 for my printing habits using toner save from time to time. Running costs of printer therefore very low.
• Toner save –text might look washed out, but for a draft it is quick and cheap.
• Flexible output and input options.
• Good driver support for multiple systems.
• Memory can be accessed and upgraded easily.
• Single piece toner, drum and fuser. Easy maintenance.
Cons:
• Expensive to buy (£300 when I did).
• No web interface.
• Toner hard to find and can take a while when ordered if product out of stock.
• It seems slower when printing with a Macintosh.
The cons might not seem a lot, but remember the expense is huge and most of the Pros can be had for so much less with a ML 1750. Definitely 8.5/10.
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09.06.2004 17:14
loser a+ rating from me
19.05.2004 23:14
You've very quickly made tech reviews your own patch. Nick
13.05.2004 14:40
Well, I found my first review hard, and yet you seem to do such detailed ones with ease. I also like the fact that I can read a full version on your site. This was a nice tech-free article too - I'm not so sure about your toner point though -Dabs seems to have them. This is without doubt an exceptional review.