Hi. I have Canon i850 bubblejet (just replaced ink tanks) for excellent colour output, including photos. Also have Brother HL-1440 mono laser for good text. Happy with both. But you know problems with inkjets when not used, ink dries, heads clog, etc. Now my laser toner needs replacing for about $90 CDN. Thought of investing that money in new printer instead, but not sure which way to jump. Would like to have an all-in-one, which would give me fax capability, and also be much more convenient for copies than the stand-alone Epson scanner with either printer. But while inkjet all-in-ones can be had cheap, I need to replace the laser printer if I'm investing the toner money. Colour laser all-in-ones are way out of my price range, as much as I would really like to have a colour laser. So my choices are to simply replace the toner, or go with a mono laser all-in-one, or go with a colour laser stand-alone if it can be had at a good price. Well, this week Future Shop has the Konica Minolta MagiColor 2400W on for $199, and the Samsung CLP-510 on for $299, CDN. Both come with a complete toner cartridge set, and either is less money than the good-quality mono laser all-in-ones that I like (Canon). Have been reading up on them, trying hard to do my research, but would like some opinions. The Minolta has higher resolution, and slightly better ratings in the users' reviews, and of course is $100 cheaper, but its toner cartridges are rated only at 1500 pages. The Samsung is slightly faster, adds auto-duplexing, and its carts are rated 2000 pages. Both cart sets are the same price (about $380 for a full set), and cart life is important, because when they run out, the obvious choice is to buy a new printer with carts for less money than the carts alone! So, how do these two printers rate? Would really like to hear from y'all.
well my dad actually has a Magicolor 2400W, he's very happy with it (replaced a Xerox 460 inkjet (i think)) although when it says a color is empty, he just removes that color for about 10 -15 seconds, and the printer thinks its got a new (full) toner of that color, also when you get the printer it doesn't come full of toner, replace with hi capacity toner cartridges when existing cartridges run out
Donkey, thanks for the feedback. I brought the 2400W home with me yesterday, but haven't opened it yet. The salesman wanted to sell me the Samsung (probably because it's $100 more); he thought it was better. Haven't heard from anyone in the forums about the Samsung, though. Still undecided. More input appreciated. Thanks.
The Samsung comes with 64MB and is expandable to 192MB. Both printers take the same maximum paper size of 8.5"x14". The 2400W is max. 2400 X 1200 dpi while the Samsung is max. 1200 x 1200 dpi. That seems weird. How can the Minolta do higher resolution using less memory, unless it's not able to do full-page, full-color, max.-resolution? The Samsung is physically larger, and here's a kicker: the 2400W is 44lbs., while the Samsung is a whopping 70.5lbs.! The 2400W uses GDI, the Samsung uses SPL. What does that mean?
Hi Donkey. I was jesting with "Samsung Proprietary Language." While that might indeed be correct, it may just as easily be "Stored Procedure Language," as in the links you provided! Anyway, that doesn't really tell me how it differs from GDI.
you prat, anyway from here it looks like the samsung is a better choice, if you fancy giving a non MS OS a try, but for Win the minolta sounds better
Donkey, that's exactly what I thought, especially since Samsung provides a Linux driver and Minolta doesn't! But when checking the Linux compatibility, it seems the Minolta is better supported for Linux than the Samsung! Weird! Anyway, I'm gonna give this 2400W a try--I just wish there was some documentation regarding doing full-colour, full-page, full-res. with 32MB RAM!
Hi Addis. Yep, according to the LinuxPrinting.org Printer Database, the ML line is verified as being supported perfectly, and the CLP-550/550N are user-stated as being so. BUT, the CLP-510 is not even mostly, but only partially supported, and the CLP-500 not at all! Guess Samsung really fell down on the first of the CLP series with regards to Linux. Too bad.
