Samsung SCX-4300 Laser Multifunction Printer Driver and Software

The Samsung SCX-4300 offers a decent footprint for an office all-in-one, slightly wider than a typical personal laser printer but with a very similar depth and height. The sides of the machine are slightly flared at the top to accommodate the A4 scanner mechanism, which sits above the laser motor from left to right rather than front to back, unlike the SCX-4500.

The control panel consists of a two-line, 16-character LCD display that is not backlit but is easy to read in normal ambient light. The eight control buttons work well with the display and the menu system for the device’s most important settings is easy to navigate.

Just below the control panel is an emerging page slot and a small extendable end stop, although the pages typically won’t fall onto the desk even if you don’t extend it. At the bottom of the front panel is a 250-sheet input tray with more than twice the capacity of the Samsung SCX-4500 and a single-sheet multi-purpose slot for specialty media.

Although the scanner area rises and is supported by a spring-loaded support, it only rises enough for you to place your hand in if there is a paper jam. It would be more convenient if it swiveled vertically like most all-in-ones. On the back there are sockets for power and USB, the only data connection to this device.

The front panel of the machine folds down to access the integrated toner and drum cartridge, which slides in from the front. This is a fairly tight fit and requires a bit of wiggling to get into position. Samsung offers the SCX-4300, a starter cartridge that only contains 1,000 ISO pages and has half the normal capacity. However, given the price of the printer, this may be excusable.

The software that comes with the device is Samsung’s standard pairing of SmarThru 4 and Dr. utilities. Printer. The first deals with scanning, copying and printing, and image sharing, while the second is a diagnostic website. The driver itself handles watermarks, overlays, and various print quality settings, arranged in a logical and easy-to-navigate panel.

The SCX-4300 is a pretty snappy little printer, completing our five-page text document in just 30 seconds, or 10 pages per minute. The text and graphics pages (five again) are even faster at 11.54 pages per minute. When we printed our 20-page document, it took 1:21, increasing the speed again to 14.81 pages per minute. Samsung’s claimed top speed is 18 ppm, which is almost

Related Printer: Samsung SCX-4200 Driver

Verdict

This is a good, straightforward multifunction printer that would be very at home in a typical SOHO environment. It’s quite fast, produces good text and passable graphics, although copies of graphics, particularly grayscale tones, can be very patchy. The running costs are reasonable. If your budget is tight, this is a great way to provide the main office printing, scanning and copying capabilities at a reasonable cost.