Samsung Electronics CLX-3305FW Wireless Color Printer with Scanner, Copier and Fax

Product Description

The Samsung CLX-3305FW can handle everything you throw its way with the greatest of ease.

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Product Details

• Brand: Samsung
• Model: CLX-3305FW
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: 13.10" h x 14.30" w x 16.00" l, 30.80 pounds

Features

• Its 4 in 1 functionality lets you print, copy, scan and fax in a snap.
• There's even one-touch Wi-Fi Protected Setup to help you save time, and an Eco Button to seave paper and toner.
• With an ultra-small footprint, it fits virtually anywhere in your home or small office.
• As for brilliant color, it's ensured by Samsung's latest image processing and polymerized toner formulation.

Customer Reviews

Most helpful customer reviews

55 of 57 people found the following review helpful.
Solid all-in-one color laser printer
By Wayne
A color laser printer is pretty much the only type of printer I haven't owned before. Although since I have background in IT, I have most definitely used them. Laser, inkjet... dot-matrix, etc. You name it, I've used it. :) While the current price does seem like quite a bit, that's very cheap in comparison to what color laser printers used to cost. So let's see how this Samsung model does.

OUT OF THE BOX

If you've ever opened up a printer box before, you won't find anything shocking here. You've basically got your typical box-shaped laser printer with a 100 pieces of tape and packing material to keep everything secure. It's compact for a color laser printer, but on-par with most laser printers. Even if you're an expert at this stuff it still pays to skim over the quick-start guide to make sure you don't forget any packing material.

There is a power cable, RJ-11 phone cable, power cable, warranty stuff, setup instructions, etc. The 4 toner cartridges are pre-installed, but are easy enough to swap out.

SETUP

As with most high-end printers you can connect it to your physical LAN, wireless, of USB of course. I normally go with the cable but decided to give wireless a try with this printer. To start you will need to connect the USB cable and pop-in the CD. I normally skip the CD and download the drivers, but Samsung's site was going extremely slow. Not to mention, they're website for drivers is at least a couple years out of date. Good luck finding what you need!

Fortunately, as long as you have the CD, the software will install and make sure it's up-to-date for you. I went through the basic wireless setup instructions and in about 5 minutes, I was ready to go. The software isn't the most user-friendly out there, but it's should be simple enough for most folks trying to get basic functionality out of it.

CONTROLS

The printer has the standard controls to perform basic tasks such as print, fax, scan & copy. There is a disappointingly old-school monochrome LCD on the front panel. It's on the small side and not all that easy to read unless you have enough light, and get up close. The menu's let you do everything you need to from basic to advanced setup.

But I should warn those wanting to jump in there; this will totally confuse a novice user. This menu system layout has been around for decades and is about as good as it gets for type of display. Fortunately the basic controls and setup can be done from the software and you shouldn't need to ever dig into the menu. But for advanced setup, like setting static-IP's for example, the on-board controls are the only way to do this.

HARDWARE

As mentioned before, the printer itself is very basic and straightforward. The rear has the standard ports for phone, network, and power. The front panel will give you easy access to the 4 toner cartridges. Which is good, because based on the specs, a heavy printer is going to swap them out quite a bit.

And while on the topic, I always strongly suggest looking at the prices for replacement toner/ink on any printer you are going to buy. Especially laser printers. These things get expensive real quick. Don't forget, they only include half-filled (or so) toner out of the box.

The paper tray is at the bottom and will protrude a few inches once you add standard sized paper. From the picture, you might assume it stays in there all the way. But it does not. I thought it was broken at first. There is a plastic cover so it doesn't look bad or anything.

I also have this sitting next to a 4 year lexmark B&W laser printer and the layout is very similar. The way it scans and prints is pretty common these days. Except I think Lexmark's control layout is a bit easier for somebody to figure out what everything does without having to stare at the buttons for too long.

PERFORMANCE

We can't forget the most important part of a printer. I've already printed several colorful pictures and they look great; even on plain paper. The image is crisp, detailed, and colorful. The printer speed is faster than most inkjets and is more than enough for my uses. I copied a few other items in color with expected results.

I also tested out the wireless mobile printer using my Samsung Galaxy S2 and it worked great. Just install the Samsung Mobile Printer app from the Play Store and off you go. It automatically found my wireless printer and I was printing all kinds of pointless stuff in no time. While I can't think of many situations where I need to do this, most guests are impressed nonetheless. :)

I wasn't able to test the fax portion since it's the year 2012 and I haven't had a land-line or need to fax something in a very, very long time. But these things haven't changed a whole lot, so I suspect it will work just fine.

PROS
+ Great print quality
+ Compact design
+ Easy toner swap
+ Separate toner cartridges
+ Mobile printing
+ Wi-Fi, LAN, & USB
+ Simple controls for basic tasks

CONS
- Expensive toner
- Not the most user-friendly setup
- Paper tray sticks out a bit
- Ancient monochrome display
- Complicated process for advanced setup/config

CONCLUSION

As a technician, I often have to stand back and try to look at product as an "average user" is going to. I think for most folks who follows the setup guide, uses the wizard on the CD, and doesn't try to get too crazy, it will work just fine. I do wish it had the nice color touch screens that most modern inkjets have and the toner wasn't so expensive.

But then again, this is a relatively inexpensive home & small office color laser printer. That puts this in a completely different league. So once you take everything into consideration, I think you have a pretty decent and above-average product here and would recommend it to those in the market.

*** WINDOWS 8 UPDATE 5/16/2013 ***

I just wanted to add a quick update regarding the Samsung Windows 8 app that was released somewhat recently. Basically if you have Windows 8, there is a Samsung app that will install via the market, after you've loaded the drivers, which allows you to control the printer remotely. From here it's very easy to print, check ink levels, status, or more importantly, scan in documents.

I mention this because since this was released, I pretty much never have to mess with the outdated controls on the printer itself. Otherwise the printer is still working great and even still on the original ink cartridges.

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful.
Compact, fast for the size and price, and high quality. A good color laser all-in-one.
By S. Power
I really like laser printers compared to inkjet, because of the appearance and durability of the printed product. I especially like that you can use a highlighter on laser printed documents without the ink smudging or running. Try that with an inkjet. My affinity for laser printers usually comes up against the high cost of color laser printers and the lack of Laser all-in-ones on the market. Before getting this Samsung all-in-one, we used to have a black-and-white laser printer and a separate color inkjet all-in-one. That combination took up way too much desk space and was a lot to maintain. It also required a decision each time versus printing to color inkjet or gray laser. A hard choice on some projects. With this offering from Samsung, you don't have to make those trade-offs.

This, CLX-3305FW, is fast (for the size and price), prints well, and has a very compact footprint. After a couple weeks of use now, only thing that I don't like about it is the short life of the toner cartridges, especially the ridiculous 'starter' cartridges that came in the box. You should price out the cost of replacement cartridges when you consider this printer's price, because you'll be replacing them soon after it arrives.

Other than the short life of the cartridges, I like everything about this system. It is extremely compact for a laser printer, especially for a color all-in-one. Getting it set-up was fast and easy, and each of its functions work very well. I had no problems hard-wiring it into my Linksys router and getting it installed on all our Windows 7 machines. It scans, prints, faxes, and copies very well. It isn't super fast, but is fine for home use. The image quality both on prints and copies is better than I expected and as good as any other printer out there. My opinion is that they are all pretty perfect at this point. I haven't seen a functioning printer that didn't make wonderful prints in the last three years or so.

I really like the compact size, which is perfect for home use. If you know what you are getting into with toner cost (over $100 per 1000 sheets), and the numbers work for you, then I recommend this system. It is very easy to use and does a great job.

17 of 20 people found the following review helpful.
Samsung CLX 330FW printer - 2 1/2 stars
By Layna
In the box:
The Printer, toner cartridges, power and USB Cabled. Quick Start Guide and Software installation CD.

Basic Specs:
Multi Function, Does copying, printing and faxing.
Manual Duplexing (dual sides printing)
Print Speed 19 pages per minute black, 4ppm Color.
Wifi, USB2 or 802.11 b/g/n Wirless connectivity.
Dimensions 16" width 14.3" Depth and 13.1" height.
Black Ink Toner 1,500 pages. Color Tonor 1,000 pages.
150 Sheet Paper Capacity
Copy Resolution 1200x1200 dpi
Scans at 600x600dpi or up to 4800x4800 dpi in enhanced resolution mode.
2 Line LCD Display.
Weight 30.8 lbs.

Pros:
* Small foot print, will not dominate your desk, smaller than most inkjet printers and lasers.
* Simple control layout, very easy to setup and use.
* All in one laser printer does not require PC to make copies, fax, or print photo's from a USB Drive.
* Cheaper to replace toner vs your average inkjet printer.
* Feeder tray on top of the printer makes it easy to use varied sizes of papers, from normal letter, to legal, to envelopes or photos.
* Built in network for ethernet connection, Wifi, or normal USB2 connection to your PC.

Cons:
* The lower paper tray has a relatively small capacity. It stay compact unless you need to put letter size paper or larger paper. It can be a little difficult to reconfigure the lower paper tray size.
* Includes "starter" toner cartridges which have roughly half the print capacity as the normal cartridges, should have been full size.
* Relatively slow printing in relation to your average laser or inkjet printer, but not bad overall. It's rated at 19ppm Black and white, and 4ppm color. I've found it to actually be a little slower than that, so not great for high volume printing use.
* No Auto Duplexer for dual sided printing. It must be done manually. This will not be a problem for most people, but for those who need to do large volumes of dual sided printing, this printer is not for you.
* Only supports USB drives and not SD cards or other media.

Conclusion:
The printer was easy to unbox and setup. I connected it to my wifi network without a hitch. Doing a copy is quick and easy, and I can choose color or black and white to save valuable toner. The print quality is very nice but nothing extraordinary. The print speed could be better, and the lack of a built in duplexer will further slow down print jobs if you need dual sided printing. The built in fax is easy to use as doing a basic copy, you need an available phone jack to plug into. I love the compact size of the printer which makes it easy to use in right quarters. It becomes a little less compact if you do need to use larger paper such as stars letter and the lower paper tray is a bit fiddly. Overall those it's a nice printer, though a bit pricey for what you get comparing it to other models that will also print faster and have auto duplexers. For it's high price, average print quality, somewhat slower than average print speed, lack of an auto duplexer for dual sided printing, and starter toner cartridges.

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