Dressed in sleek black instead of the usual boring beige, the SCX-4300 is a suitably fast multi-function laser machine for printing and copying.
With 8MB of memory onboard, the SCX-4300 got to work pretty quickly when I printed 50 copies of an A4-sized page filled with regular, single-spaced text. It took a swift 3min 12sec to complete the task, which worked out to approximately 16 pages per minute (ppm) - close enough to the 18ppm that Samsung advertises.
The text, as you would expect from a laser printer, is superior to regular inkjets. Edges are razor sharp and you don't spot any bleeding (blurred text).
The speed extends to the SCX-4300's copying functions as well. Samsung says it will scan a page within 11 seconds. Well, I did it within 10.
What also impresses are some of the thoughtful features brought over from Samsung's earlier range of SCX printers.
A Start button on the front panel, which is shaped like that on a regular photocopier, lets you make a copy of a document quickly.
There are also handy special copy modes. From the small screen at the front panel, you can choose "ID card copy", which essentially lets you copy both sides of, say, your driving licence on one sheet of paper.
The printer stores the image of one side of your card, then prompts you to scan the other side before printing out both images on a single piece of paper.
All in, I would say this is one machine that delivers as promised. It does what other printers do and is user-friendly, whether when changing a toner or scanning a document straight into an e-mail or via OCR (optical character recognition).
The only negative thing is that the paper feeder jammed once with a bunch of paper stuck at the back of the machine. This, however, is also a pretty common occurrence with more expensive machines.
Final say
A workhorse well worth checking out if you are looking for a speedy copier and printer to fit a small desk space.
This article was first published in The Straits Times Digital Life on Dec 3, 2008.
