Samsung ML-1640 Mono Laser Printer

Had the printer for a couple of weeks now, and everything is going well. It's uses a USB connection to connect to the computer, but doses not come with a cable, so you need to get one of those seperately, which I wasn't sure about when I was reading up on it. The cable required is an A-B USB one. It was very easy to install (I'm using XP) and I had it up and running within 5 minutes (once I got the cable). I don't need to print out anything fancy, mostly just text, and so far evrything has come out looking crisp and clean. It heat up quickly and is ready to use within a minute of switching on, and it's pretty quiet in operation, not like my old one which made lots of whirring noises.

I bought this printer originally around three years ago, and use it to print off a lot of essays and documents for my studies. The printer seems to me to be excellent in terms of quality. The 'introductory' toner cartridge has so far lasted me three years and has only just run out! The only shame about the product is that a new, authentic toner cartridge from Samsung is actually only £10 cheaper than buying the printer itself complete with the original toner which seems a bit ridiculous to me.Other than that though, I have no complaints at all - and in my book with my level of printing three years on one toner is pretty impressive!

The printer drivers are needed for XP and Vista, and seem to be reliable. Also the samsung smart panel is well designed and will not require too many system resources to run.In linux the printer is well detected with distributions such as ubuntu, fedora, openSUSE and debian detecting and installing drivers without any user input. The driver cd also includes a basic version of the smart panel for linux systems, however it is not required.After using the ML-1640 for over a month I have found that it is much more reliable and cheaper to run than my HP inkjet and I am very impressed with the 700 page introductory toner cartridge which is larger than I expected. As far as performance is concerned the printer prints fairly quickly and at a good quality, even using the the toner save mode.Overall I think that the product is well worth the money, and I would more than recommend this printer for home office and small business use.

My wife and I bought this printer as we are both aspiring grad students and have to print lots of articles and our own writing. Here are a few points on our experience:1) We went through the 'introductory' toner quickly, and it reached fewer than 500 pages (one 500 sheet pack of paper).2) Consequently, I'd recommend that you buy a replacement cartridge if you plan to do lots of printing off the bat: Black Toner Cartridge - Yield: 1500 - Compatible with: ML-1640 / ML-22403) Make sure you buy an A-B USB cable with the printer because you do not get one in the box, e.g. Belkin PRO Series Hi-Speed USB 2.0 Cable 3 m .4) Make sure you install the drivers in Win XP and Vista. I have an Ubuntu Linux & Win XP dual boot, and it was autodetected in Ubuntu, but needed drivers in WinXP.5) Be careful how much paper you put in and how you line it up (use the guides relatively close to the sides of the paper) lest the paper gets jammed (it's only happened once to us, but happened more regularly with an older HP previously).The printer has served us well so far. I like that it's black whereas so many other printers are a tepid grey - arbitrary indeed, but still pleasing especially because our desktop computer is all black. It also just seems to be really good value for money and has suited us well.

I've been using this printer for half a year and it never gave me any trouble. Setup in Windows 7 is easy, print quality is good, double-sided printing is a manual but easy process (driver pops up a message on your screen telling you how to put the paper back in). Never had a paper jam either, which was a real annoyance with some printers I've used before.Definitely worth choosing this over an ink printer, as long as you don't need colour prints.(I'd give it 5 stars, but the practice of not including a USB cable with the printer is a real annoyance.)