Samsung CLP-510n Color Laser

[Marek Williams]

I have enough color volume to justify a laser over an inkjet. Also, I
never do photos, so resolution and photo quality is irrelevant. An
inexpensive color laser is what I need.

I do need:
network connection
duplexing
cost per page as cheap as possible and,
third-party toners

After much googling, the clear winner seems to be the Samsumg CL-510n.
I can get it for ~$350-450 locally, less a $100 mail-in rebate. I will
probably never mail in the rebate. It is the best deal around without
the rebate. The reason I will not mail it in is 1) it is a way for the
manufacturer to get your address so they can spam you forever and, 2)
the vast majority of rebates are refused by the service outfit hired
by the manufacturer, even though you complied 100% with the
requirements. I don't need the irritation. I base my buying decisions
on the price without the rebate. And when I do, the CL-510n still
comes out on top.

The reasons for this post are:

1) Has anyone experienced any problems with this printer and,

2) Can anyone suggest competing color lasers in this category (bearing
in mind my requirements above, which are essential)?

Thanks in advance

 

[Commentator]

I have enough color volume to justify a laser over an inkjet. Also, I
never do photos, so resolution and photo quality is irrelevant. An
inexpensive color laser is what I need.

I do need:
network connection
duplexing
cost per page as cheap as possible and,
third-party toners

After much googling, the clear winner seems to be the Samsumg CL-510n.
I can get it for ~$350-450 locally, less a $100 mail-in rebate. I will
probably never mail in the rebate. It is the best deal around without
the rebate. The reason I will not mail it in is 1) it is a way for the
manufacturer to get your address so they can spam you forever and, 2)
the vast majority of rebates are refused by the service outfit hired
by the manufacturer, even though you complied 100% with the
requirements. I don't need the irritation. I base my buying decisions
on the price without the rebate. And when I do, the CL-510n still
comes out on top.

The reasons for this post are:

1) Has anyone experienced any problems with this printer and,

2) Can anyone suggest competing color lasers in this category (bearing
in mind my requirements above, which are essential)?

Thanks in advance

I have had one for 9 months or so without any problems or issues. I do not
have the network card (510 without the N, the card is the only difference),
but network the printer attached to a server.

The only caution is if you intend to do your own toner refills. The
cartridges require chip replacement, which is not difficult to do, but more
than some people want to. I actually just refilled a full set last night,
and it only took 30 minutes to do all 4, including setup, de-soldering the
old chips and re-soldering the new, filling the toner, and clean-up. This
was my first time doing refills on toner, and I hadn't handled a soldering
gun for at least 5 years.

The other caution with refills, just so there are no surprises, is that when
I power on the printer, I need to hold the menu button to skip the toner
check or I get an invalid toner message. Again, not really an issue if you
just let the printer sleep as I do. There is no error on awakening.

 

[Marek Williams]

How's this for netiquette, answering my own post?

OK, with the help of a friend I have found some reviews of the CLP510N
and they were not at all kind about printing to it from Linux. These
were reviews from different sites and not by the same persons, and
they said the same thing -- features not available from Linux. And
several reviews said the support from Samsung sucked. So I'm kind of
writing off the CLP510.

So how about an Okidata C5150N? It costs a bit more, but might be
worth it. To repeat my questions, I need:

network connection
duplexing
cost per page as cheap as possible and,
third-party toners

But forget the first one, as I already know it has network connections
standard. I also know you can get a duplexer, but it is listed as
"optional." I can't find anyone with a duplexer add-on for sale. How
much does it cost and where can I get it?

And if there are third-party toners available, I'd appreciate some
pointers as well.