Samsung CLX-4195FW review

Need a good, sturdy all-round performer when searching for a new multifunction printer for your small to medium sized office? Then perhaps you should pass your eye over Samsung's new CLX-4194FW.

This colour laser printer has a fax function as well as the usual print, copy and scan options. It feels suitably solid and dependable, measuring 420 x 426 x 448mm and weighing a chunky 21.3kg.

Styled in smart two-tone black and grey, the CLX-4194FW comes with a 250-sheet input tray in the base, a 50-sheet ADF on the top and a 100-sheet output capacity. There are plenty of options for connectivity - via Hi-Speed USB 2.0, Ethernet, Wireless or the Samsung Mobile Print app for Android and iPhone - plus a USB port for flash drives and PictBridge enabled cameras.

Operation is extremely user-friendly thanks to the 4.3" colour touch screen display and like most other printer manufacturers, Samsung has embraced Eco technology to keep running costs low by reducing toner usage by 30% as well as unnecessary power-ups.

The CLX-4194FW has a Dual Core CPU running at 533MHz so printing is relatively nippy at around 15.5ppm for documents and less than 10 seconds for A4 colour photos. The quality and sharpness of colour documents is quite superb and would almost be worth the price of the printer alone (currently £349 on Amazon).

Photos sent via the Samsung app also reveal authentic colours but I did notice that colour prints via PC had a slight tendency towards a pinker hue. The only obvious printing downside, though, is the lack of an auto duplex mode which would really have been the icing on the cake.

I'm also not a fan of providing owners of new printers with 'starter' cartridges  - in this case 1000 page black toner and 700 pages for the three other colours - when you should kick off with the full 2,500 page black and 1,800 page colour. Based on current prices available online, black toners are available for around £58 (i.e. 2.32p per page) and colour for £63-£67 (3.53p and 3.75p) with a 40,000 pages Monthly Duty Cycle.

Score: 4/5