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By David Chieng l HWM January 2008 views : 854

Color laser printers aren’t exactly a new concept, though it’s a little uncommon to find small and compact color lasers that are geared towards consumers who aren’t all that willing to shell out piles of dough for the ability to print color sheets without resorting to the more expensive office machines. Enter the Samsung CLP-350N, the long-awaited follow-up to the original CLP-300, which was quite literally the smallest color laser printer of its time.

Externally, the CLP-350N looks a little boxier physically as well, no thanks in part to the use of larger toner cartridges which allow users to print double the amount of pages (compared to the CLP-300) before requiring a reload. In the same vein, the CLP-350N is also a little heavier, tipping the scales at 14.8kg versus 13.6kg on the CLP-300.

The CLP-350N now also feature 10/100 Ethernet connectivity in addition to the USB2.0 connector, making the CLP-350N a network-capable appliance right out of the box. In addition, the CLP-350N now sports PS3, PCL6 and SLP-C (Samsung Printer Language Color), emulation options, as opposed to the CLP-300 having just SPL-C.

While the internal processor used still remains the same (the Samsung CHORUSm 300MHz), the CLP-350N now comes with 128MB of memory, which is expandable to 256MB via a removable panel on the printer’s side, as compared to just 32MB on the older model. Rated print speeds were bumped up from 16ppm (mono) and 4ppm (color) to 19ppm and 5ppm respectively. Last but not least, the CLP-350N now boasts a higher duty cycle of 25,000 pages, from 24,200 pages on the CLP-300.

Print speed was excellent across the board, with our test results matching Samsung’s rated speeds to the letter. Mono print quality was exemplary, with text being crisp and sharp to the naked eye. Color prints were quite good, though our default prints resulted in printouts that had an obvious yellow tint. A little tweaking with the printer properties fixed all that without much effort. This isn’t a photo printer, but works great for printing reports or documents for that professional look and feel.

Where cost is concerned, the CLP-350N’s supplies aren’t all that expensive. With a new Black 4,000-page toner cartridge going for S$105 (including GST), the cost per page comes down to S$0.026. Printing color almost doubles that number, but shelling out around four cents per color printout is still cheap. What’s more, the CLP-350N comes with a suggested retail price of S$588, an excellent price given the feature set, features and performance. Of course, it has to be said that the toner cartridges that come in the box are starter kits, with the black toner rated for just 3,000 pages, and the CMY cartridges rated for 1,5000 pages each.

Compared on paper to the original CLP-300 (which was, in our eyes, a great printer to
begin with), the CLP-350N might seem like nothing more than an incremental upgrade, but those improvements do result in something that’s obviously better than the original. Bottom line, Samsung’s got a winner with the CLP-350N. This obviously isn’t a printer you’d utilize in a heavy-duty enterprise environment, but it works great for the likes of small workgroups, or even the small office, home office (SOHO) setup.

CLP-350N Rating