By Ben Pate

Overall appearance- The Samsung CLP 510 printers' overall appearance is a little clumsy and big, weighing in at 35 kilograms and the dimensions reaching almost 20inches. If you are lacking space the machine will have a very cluttering effect in either your home or office space. However in terms of functionality and great pricing of an approximate US$500, the printer is a good investment, easily being the most inexpensive laser printer on the market. Make sure to check out Samsung CLP 510 Toner.

Print quality- Printing in general is not of the highest quality. Text quality may be blemish-free but text is clearly legible. Picture and graphics quality is great when compared to other laser printers in same price range. If you require high quality prints, this is the right printer. The printer has 22 ppm text and 5 ppm picture printing capacity at 1200 dpi. Warm-up is a must, so you will have to wait longer than 1 minute for text and up to 80 secs for colour printing to start.

Control Panel- The printer has the best control panel imaginable. If you are new to the world of printers or computers you will not struggle with this machine. The LCD screen is not lit, making it even less of a hassle to operate. Any selection not properly locked-in will default to factory settings.

Paper compatibility- The printer is not fussy at all in terms of paper sizes and types. All standard sizes and types are accepted including A4, legal, card and envelopes. A maximum of 350 pages can be loaded into the tray at a time. The printers' duty cycle is a very impressive 35000 pages per month.

Potential problems and solutions- A message can appear indicating that you should "replace waste toner bin". This is an indication that the waste toner bin is actually full or that the external "full bin" sensor needs cleaning. These waste bins need to be replaced as emptying or re-use can cause possible damage to your machine.

Interface options- USB and Ethernet connectivity comes standard with the device, so there is no need to bother with old fashioned connection types including ports.

Operator compatibility- All major operators are compatible with the printer including Apple Mac systems. This is great news for Apple Mac users, often having problems with printer and system compatibility.

Toner- Sample Samsung CLP 510 toner is included with your purchase in the form of a smaller sized Samsung toner. However it will need replacement soon after your first few prints with either a small or large size cartridge at between US$73-US$385. A great advantage to the printer is the "waste toner bin" feature. Any toner not fused to paper during the printing process is dumped into the bin.

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