Samsung CLX-3160FN Color Laser Multifunction Printer Driver and Software

The Samsung CLX-3160FN is a large multifunction laser printer that is better suited to a small workgroup or an office closet. It stands 18.3 cm wide by 19.1 cm high and 16.9 cm deep. At 45 pounds, it’s possible for one person to move it – the hand slots on either side help. The CLX-3160FN features an A4-sized flatbed scanner equipped with an automatic document feeder for up to 50 sheets of paper. The ADF also allows you to make legal size copies/scans.

The Samsung CLX-3160FN comes with a single paper cassette that holds up to 150 sheets of plain paper. You can configure the cassette for different paper sizes, including the allowed length. The cassette features a manual sheet feed tray with adjustable paper guides – handy for one-off prints. If you need increased paper capacity, Samsung offers an optional 250-sheet cassette. The output hole has a fold-out flap that prevents prints from sailing to the floor.

The control panel is well organized and easy to understand. The two-line text LCD is surrounded by task buttons (for fax, copy and scan/email) and menu navigation buttons. Dedicated fax buttons let you access saved speed-dial numbers, search the address book, change the resolution, and redial. Special copy buttons allow you to adjust darkness, change original type and reduce/enlarge. The control panel is rounded off by the alphanumeric keyboard and two start buttons (for color and mono). A front-mounted USB port provides direct USB connectivity for PictBridge cameras or USB flash storage devices.

The Samsung CLX-3160FN uses Samsung’s patented toner “plugs” that are easy to pull out and replace. The multifunction device comes with starter cartridges: the black prints up to 1,500 pages and the color cartridges print up to 700 pages each. The replacement cartridges cost $60 for black (up to 2,000 pages) and $50 for each color cartridge (up to 1,000 prints).

Black prints cost about 3 cents per page, and full-color prints cost about 18 cents per page, at the high end of the price range for color laser prints. The printer’s monthly duty cycle (i.e. recommended print volume) is 24,200 pages, making it more suitable for a small workgroup than a home office user.

The Samsung CLX-3160FN offers the expected features for a $600 multifunction printer. The Samsung CLX-3160FN is network capable. However, you can also connect it directly to a PC via the USB port. They lack a duplexer for automatic double-sided printing (and Samsung doesn’t offer an additional device either) and expandable memory. Both models ship with just 128 MB of memory. On the other hand, the front USB port offers some handy task options.

First, you can connect a PictBridge camera for PC-free image printing. Second, you can print from or scan to a USB flash drive. When scanning, you can select Scan to USB and save the files as TIFFs, PDFs or JPEGs. You can also print the same types of files from the connected USB drive. Additionally, you can back up (and restore) the printer’s address book and system settings to a USB flash drive in case a power outage causes the settings and entries to be deleted.

When copying, you can use either the ADF or the flatbed scanner – up to 99 copies. Options include ID card copy, poster copy, image clone, 2x and 4x copy, and zoom. When you use the flatbed scanner, you can zoom in or out between 25 and 400 percent. If you use the ADF, you are limited to 25 to 100 percent.

When you scan documents or images, you can save them to the USB drive, save them to your PC’s My Documents folder, attach the scan to an email, or open the document in Paint, Samsung’s SmarThru software (for editing ). or using optical character recognition software. If you installed the multifunction printer on a network, you can also enable Scan to Network features.

The Samsung CLX-3160FN ‘s fax feature allows you to set up a password-protected secure receive mode, delayed fax and fax blast (up to 10 numbers). forward received faxes to email addresses or other fax numbers; and set up a junk fax block in which faxes from preset numbers are not received. The Address Book feature allows you to program up to 30 one-touch dial numbers, as well as up to 240 additional speed dial numbers and up to 200 group speed dial numbers.

Fortunately, the Samsung CLX-3160FN was more consistent with task quality than task speed. The black text prints showed clean, evenly shaped and beautifully dark black characters. The only issue we found was that the bold text could use some sharpening – they tended to look a bit puffy.

Related Printer: Samsung CLX-3170

The color text offered well-blended colors, but looked a little blurry around the edges. The black graphic printing was pretty good too, with a nicely graduated grayscale. The photo elements could be sharper, and the wing-like characters need to be smoother, especially on curved edges. The color graphics page showed great detail, but the colors were a bit oversaturated and the grayscale gradient showed banding.