Samsung ML-3471ND Laser Printer Drivers and Software

Samsung has a comprehensive range of mono lasers, and the Samsung ML-3471ND definitely hits the target market with its 33 pages per minute speed and integrated duplex printing. Still, it’s not a bulky printer, and its two-tone gray finish makes it easy to fit into a variety of office decor.

There’s a 250-sheet paper tray at the base, which isn’t specified unless the device is really intended for a busy workgroup. You can purchase an optional second compartment, but it has the same capacity as the first. With the 100-sheet multi-purpose tray, the maximum capacity is only 600 sheets.

The control panel to the right of the output tray is easy to use and well labeled. There is a non-backlit LCD display with 2 lines and 16 characters. However, because it is raised at an angle, it is easy to read under most overhead lighting.

There are two illuminated buttons on the control panel that you don’t normally find on a laser printer. The first is a duplex button that automatically prints all documents received on both sides of the paper. Where it’s quite normal to have a duplex function in the printer driver – there’s one in Samsung – it’s less common to have a button to do this in hardware – handy.

The second button is for saving toner, another option that you can also enable through the driver. This is a unique Samsung feature and should not be confused with a draft print mode. When printing with Toner Save turned on, the text is lighter than normal, but still fully formed and not jagged and blotchy like most draft modes.

Samsung claims to achieve toner savings of up to 40 percent with Toner Save. So if most of your printing is for internal consumption, you can leave the feature on and expect up to 14,000 pages from a high-capacity cartridge, rather than the 10,000-page estimate in normal mode.

The print speed of 33 pages per minute is a bit optimistic, but this is a fast printer, and even our 5-page text print reached 15 pages per minute in just 20 seconds. The 20-page document has the speed increased to 25.5 pages per minute, so you probably won’t have to wait long once the printer comes to life.

Duplex printing slows the device to about half its single-sided speed, so the 20-page text test page printed on both sides of the paper took 1 minute and 32 seconds – a speed of 13 pages per minute.

Related Printer: Samsung ML-3712ND Driver

The quality of the prints the device produces is generally pretty good. The text is well formed, although light by default, but smooth and easy to read. Grayscale business graphics are smoother than on some less expensive Samsung printers, although dither patterns are fairly obvious. The range of grays is good enough to reproduce colors with reasonable differentiation.