Review of the Samsung ML-3712DW Monochrome Laser Printer

For under $300, the Samsung ML-3712DW monochrome laser printer wins some big points from me. It's extraordinarily fast and results are as crisp as you could want them--with the added benefit of little to no paper curl. It's got built-in WiFi, an automatic duplexer, and a configurable Eco mode which will help you save paper. And did I mention it's under $300? Not cheap, but certainly competitive in this price range.

If you're short on time but you need a huge file printed out, you're not out of luck. The Samsung ML-3712DW monochrome laser printer might not include fancy gadgets like a copier or scanner, or print in color, but what it does it does with gusto--and that is pump out printed pages. Even when it's not warmed up, it only takes a few seconds to get started (less than ten, anyway). When it is warmed up, pages come out as fast as you could want (2-3 seconds per page). And using the built-in duplexer doesn't cost you much time at all, since duplex print jobs came out not all that far behind simplex jobs.

Worried that you're sacrificing quality for speed? Not with the ML-3712DW . Fonts at any size look crisp and sharp-edged. Even better, there's little noticeable paper curl, which is typically a problem for laser printers (I guess with pages coming out so fast, there's not enough time for them to curl!). Part of the reason it's so fast is that it uses a dual-core 600 MHz processor.

Samsung has added some small but handy features that make this little printer a handy money-saver as well. For example, there's an Eco button that automatically prints your print job with two pages on one side (in landscape mode, of course). I expected that it might be set up to print duplex as well--thus really saving paper and money--but alas it wasn't. However, it is possible to configure it that way (or even with four pages per sheet). Samsung estimates you can save as much as 40 percent of your toner usage with that feature. Not bad for a touch of a button. The ML-3712DW can also take Samsung's extra-high yield toner (up to 5,000 pages per cartridge).

There aren't many drawbacks to this laser printer. I found the black-on-gray two-line LCD screen very hard to see and read. Fortunately, most of the printer configuration can be done through (very easy to see) Web-based tools, so it wasn't a major issue. There's no paper manual, so if you need to refer to the instructions, you'll need to be online to review them.

Disclosure: Review samples were provided by the manufacturer. For more information, please see our Ethics Policy.