Colour comes more cheaply

Pro

1 April 2005

For business use, colour laser printers have many advantages over inkjets, including much faster print speeds, better-looking text and lower long-term costs. Unfortunately, price has long kept the colour laser out of reach for many small and home offices. Now Samsung’s CLP-500 joins a short list of recent, low-cost printers that allow home- and small-office users to enjoy colour laser capabilities.

For an entry-level laser, the CLP-500 posted impressive printing speeds: 12.9 pages per minute (ppm) for text and 3.2ppm for graphics; scores that were on par with those of other colour lasers we’ve tested, including many that cost significantly more.
The CLP-500’s print quality was mixed. Text was clean, dark and straight. Overall colour was good on simple graphics, but more-complex designs and photos fared less well, losing some detail.

The CLP-500 comes with an intuitive driver interface and a built-in automatic duplexer (for double-sided printing) – a nice touch at this price. However, its 250-sheet main paper tray is too small. It also comes with a 100-sheet multipurpose tray. An optional 500-sheet tray is available at additional cost.
The CLP-500’s price, speed and text quality make it a solid option for small and home offices that need to print documents with sharp text and fairly simple colour graphics.

PC Live! Verdict

Samsung CLP-500