Samsung ML-2571N Laser Printer Drivers and Software

The Samsung ML-2571N offers fast black and white printing in a relatively compact body, but has few features that differentiate it from the competition.

The main paper tray holds a decent 250 sheets, and the top of the dust cover serves as a manual feed tray, but can only hold one sheet or envelope at a time. You can’t load envelopes from the main compartment, so printing more than a few envelopes can be a hassle. Up to 100 pages end up open in the output tray. Samsung does not offer optional paper trays or duplexers.

The Samsung ML-2571N comes with a starter toner cartridge rated for 1000 pages. Replacement cartridges yield 3000 pages. There are no other user-serviceable parts, and Samsung only sells parts to dealers and service providers. Therefore, you need to replace this transfer roller, fuser and take-up roller by third party after 50,000 pages. This could ultimately increase the cost per page.

We saw mixed results in our print quality tests. The text looked a little light overall, and the finest characters didn’t fully form. Our grayscale print was too dark and had some streaking. On the other hand, our challenging line art pattern showed beautiful, distinct lines. In our speed tests, the printer performed respectably, with text appearing slightly faster than average at 17.3 pages per minute (ppm) and graphics at 7.5 ppm.

Installing the ML-2571N on a network was more difficult than we would have liked. The printed color configuration poster only explains how to connect the printer to your PC via USB or parallel ports. The only other printed documentation, a succinct black-and-white booklet, points to the Network Utilities CD-ROM, where you can find a more complete network printer user guide.

However, this guide applies to a whole range of Samsung printers, including some that require you to install a network card and others that have LCD displays to make setup easier. There are no simple, step-by-step instructions that apply directly to the ML-2571N.

The Samsung ML-2571N outperformed its competition in print speeds, particularly for black and white graphics. Text prints achieved 16.71 pages per minute and graphics prints achieved 18.19 pages per minute. For comparison, the HP LaserJet 1022 printed text at 15.91 pages per minute and graphics at 15.3 pages per minute. (The HP printer costs about $100 more for the network-ready model.) The ML-2571N also shines in print quality.

Related Printer: Samsung ML-2551N Driver

The text was clean and well formed and readable down to very small point sizes. Graphics quality was also quite good, with plenty of detail in photographic elements and excellent grayscale handling. The only problem was diamonds in the graphic elements – a common problem with laser printers.