Samsung ML-2252W Monochrome Laser Printer Driver and Software

Whether you work in a wired or wireless workgroup, Samsung’s ML-2252W series digital printers are the ideal low-cost, high-performance printing solution for you. Ready to use in just a few clicks, the ML-2250 handles large jobs in a hurry with an ultra-fast USB 2.0 interface and print speeds of up to 20 pages per minute. Add to that the high toner yield and expandable paper capacity, and you’ll find that the Samsung ML-2252W series of stylishly designed printers are designed to help you stay on top of your work.

Samsung has cleverly made the Samsung ML-2252W look smaller than it is. The small, squat, black box does this by having a large black lump sticking out the back. The clever thing is that you have to look for the lump because it’s sufficiently narrow and flat not to be seen from most angles. It houses the power and interface circuitry and covers the back of the paper tray, which can hold a whopping 250 sheets. There is also a single-sheet multi-purpose tray positioned directly above the tray.

While the surface of the machine is basically high-gloss black plastic, it has a texture of dots that give it a touch of sophistication. A black textured feeder accommodates pages as they feed from the top, and although there is a fold-up paper stop, we didn’t need to use this at all when feeding A4 paper. There are outlets on the back for AC power and USB, the only data connection on this machine.

The control panel is simple but sufficient, with two indicators for error conditions and buttons for print stop and power. The final control is Samsung’s unique screen print button, which automatically captures and prints everything on the screen or selected portions of it. This is a very useful feature that other manufacturers may soon emulate.

A one-piece drum and toner cartridge slide in from the front once you fold down the somewhat flimsy front panel. Changing consumables is extremely easy and can be done in no time. Drivers for Windows and OS X are provided on the software CD, including the screen printing utility. Various Linux distributions are also supported through downloadable drivers.

Those crazy guys at Samsung rate this machine at 24 pages per minute, but like so many of the manufacturers’ speed ratings, they seemed to ignore the processing time before printing begins. The device uses Samsung’s own page description language, SPL, and it takes quite a while to render a page before the data receiving light on the Samsung ML-2252W starts blinking.

We recorded processing times of up to 25 seconds, sometimes for single-page jobs when they included both text and graphics. The device’s print speed upon launch is commendably fast, especially for a printer that costs less than £85. However, when you add the two times together, we see speeds of 12.5 pages per minute for our 5-page text printing, increasing to 16 pages per minute for the 20-page text.

Related Printer: Samsung ML-2540

Our 5-page text and graphics print achieved 8.6 pages per minute on both test runs, largely due to the long processing time. Finally, a 15x10cm photo print on A4 paper took 31 seconds, which in turn spent quite a bit of time on image processing.