Designed to be the Multifunction colour laser printer for the masses the Samsung CLX-2160 falls short in some areas. In terms of running costs its right on the money Samsung CLX-2160 toner cartridges are some of the cheapest around but they don’t print much as normal ones and this makes the running costs a slightly above average 2p for black and 9p for colour printing on a per sheet basis. There are compatible Samsung toner cartridges available and they cost around half the price. The cost of printer cartridges not the only thing to judge a laser printer on, other import factors include print quality, print speed, operating noise and general build quality.
In terms of operating noise and build quality the 2160 surprises in both areas, Samsung say it the smallest colour laser MFP (multifunctional printer) in the world and looking at it I would argue with that statement, its certain well designed and some of the packing is ingénues. The operating noise is also surprising low any when printing and copying. Thing start to go downhill when you start analysing the print quality, although its has good black printing capabilities the colour leaves a lot to be desired, photo prints in particular look dull and lifeless. It’s a similar story with printing speed, mono documents can be printed at a reasonable speed of 16ppm (pages per minute) but colour prints take four times as long with a speed of 4ppm. The Samsung CLX-2160 has its weakness’ but on the whole when you consider its price compared to it competitors it is a good value for money printer.