There was a time when the only option one had when buying
a printer was a DMP. Times changed, and inkjet printers became the obvious
choice for most users with their low costs. Now this phenomenon can be seen in
laser printers as well. Prices are heading south, and laser printers have always
had the advantages of low running cost and maintenance.
The Samsung ML-5200A can be connected to your computer
through two interfaces: USB or parallel port. While USB is the preferred option
due to its high speed and hot-swap characteristics, some people might need to
use the parallel port connection with old PCs that don’t support the standard.
Unfortunately, the printer does not ship with a USB cable, and you will need to
procure one yourself.
Samsung |
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A final caveat: USB drivers are included only for Windows
98, so if you are using any other OS you will have to stick to the parallel
port. The printer is rated at 10 ppm and has 4 MB on-board memory that can be
increased by a maximum of 32 MB. The drivers support watermarks and page
overlays. The input tray can hold a maximum of 150 sheets.
In performance, text prints were fine, and a four point
font is quite legible. The printer also lived up to its 10 ppm spec in our
tests, and took about 17 sec to print the first page. However, its printing quality in line art and gradients is not very impressive. While it supports two resolutions–300 and 600 dpi–line-art reproduction wasn’t smooth and a grayscale gradient showed banding. Overall, this printer offers mediocre performance, and is priced slightly high at Rs 24,900.