Samsung CLP-315 Color Laser Printer

This very inexpensive color laser printer from Samsung will fit the bill for small and home offices that need sharp and clear color prints. It's quiet but not all that fast, which isn't a major issue unless you need to print a lot. A networkable version (not tested) adds a level of convenience. It's not as stylishly futuristic as some of Samsung's other recent offerings, but it has a very small footprint. All in all, a good entry-level color laser printer.

Samsung's offering of an entry-level color laser printer will certainly be a welcome development for cash-strapped small/home offices. Printing in color with a laser printer is a key element of helping a small office look like a big one. And with fairly affordable consumables, it won't break the bank over the long run either (like some inkjets will).

It's not the fastest laser printer ever. The first page of a 12-page PDF took about 41 seconds to come out (that includes the printer warm-up time), and the whole job took nearly two minutes. Similarly, a five-page PowerPoint presentation took 1:50 from start to finish. As it should be, print quality is excellent, with extremely crisp and sharp fonts. And colors are remarkably rich and deep. Even a document with many colors, lots of black areas, and a serious amount of very small white font on a black background looked perfectly clear, with the small font sharp and readable.

Like Samsung's other recent laser printers, this one has no bells or whistles. If you want to duplex print, you'll have to do it manually. That may not be the most onerous process ever, but it still takes a good amount of time (a 10-page job took 4:46 including time to reload the pages). If I needed a dozen copies of that presentation, it would've taken a long time to complete the job. But it's an entry-level printer, so you can't expect much more.

To me, the best news about this printer is that it signals the start of a new era of affordable color laser printers. With the pressure on, Brother and HP are likely to start rolling out new lines of competing printers. And that's good news for us!