Samsung ML-2955ND

Clearly aimed at a micro, small, or home office, or as a personal printer in any size office, the Samsung ML-2955ND ($130 street) is small enough to fit on a desk comfortably, yet offers an appropriate paper capacity and speed to serve as either a personal or shared printer. It doesn't hurt at all that the price is low enough to make it highly affordable as well.

The ML-2955ND has a lot in common with the slightly more expensive Brother HL-2270DW ($150 street, 4 stars), starting with a similar size. Both are smaller than many inkjets. The ML-2955ND measures 7.7 by 13.7 by 13.3 inches (HWD). That makes it taller than the Brother printer by a little less than an inch, but it also gives it a slightly smaller footprint.

Shared features include wired network support, along with a USB connection, and essentially identical paper handling. The network support makes the printers easy to share. The paper handing is appropriate for either a micro office or personal use, with a 250-sheet tray, 1-sheet manual feed, and built-in duplexer for printing on two sides of the page. Neither printer offers additional paper handling options.

One feature the HL-2270DW offers that the ML-2955ND doesn't is wireless network support. If you need WiFi, however, you can get the Samsung ML-2955DW ($150 street), which Samsung says is identical to the ND version except for the added WiFi.

Setup and Speed
For my tests, I set up the ML-2955ND on a network using a wired connection and installed the driver on a system running Windows Vista. Setup was standard fare. On our business applications suite, I timed the printer (using QualityLogic's hardware and software for timing) at an effective 8.5 pages per minute (ppm), a speed that's best described as acceptable but unimpressive.

The printer is certainly slower than I'd expect for the 29 ppm rating, which is roughly the speed you should see for printing text documents without graphics or photos. The HL-2270DW, for example, is rated at 27 ppm, but came in or our tests at 11.7 ppm. Under the category of being faster than expected, the HP LaserJet Pro P1102w ($149 direct, 3.5 stars), which is rated at only 18 ppm, managed 11.4 ppm on our tests.

Output Quality and Other Issues
Output quality is just a touch below par overall, with text that's a small step below par, absolutely par graphics, and photos at the low end of the very tight range where most mono lasers fall. The good news is that even with slightly below par text quality for a mono laser, the text is easily good enough for most business use. You shouldn't have any complaints about it unless you have an unusual need for small fonts.

As with most mono lasers, graphic output was easily good enough for any internal business need. Depending on how demanding you are, you may consider it good enough for PowerPoint handouts and the like. Photo output was more than good enough to print recognizable images from photos on Web pages. Depending on how demanding you are, once again, you may or may not consider them good enough for output like client newsletters.

One other issue that demands mention is the printer's running cost. The claimed 3 cents per page isn't particularly high for this price range, but it is 0.9 cents higher than Brother claims for the HL-2270DW. With only a $20 difference in initial price, if you buy the Brother printer, you can make up the difference by printing roughly 2,200 pages over the lifetime of the printer. Anything more than that, and the Brother printer will be cheaper in the long run.

Partly making up for this potentially higher total cost is the Samsung printer's Eco mode which, with default settings, switches the printer to duplex printing and toner saver mode with one touch of a button on the control panel. However, Samsung doesn't say how much the toner saver mode actually saves.

As may seem obvious, the Samsung ML-2955ND can be a good fit as a shared printer in a micro office or as a personal printer in any size office. If you're considering it, however, you should take a look at the Brother HL-2270DW as well. Depending on how many pages you expect to print, either choice could wind up being the better buy.

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