Samsung SCX-4828FN Laser Multi-Function Printer

Comment: Environment: mixed Windows XP and Mac OS X (Snow Leopard) computers. 1 GB network backbone and 802.11n wireless.

Set-up: Configured to use both direct (USB) and network connections with both PCs & Macs. Setup took about 45 minutes only because there are so many options and preferences (see Hint #4 below regarding this).

PROS:
1. Great printer. Time to first page is as fast as any laser printer could be, even when its been sleeping in power save mode. Resolution is very good, even in toner saver mode. Very quiet - only slightly noisier if you're printing in duplex mode. You can easily talk on the phone sitting next to it while it's operating.
2. Great document scanner. Automatic document feeder handles stacks of my expense report pages with taped-on receipts with nary a jam. Scanning is super fast over USB and reasonably fast when done over the network. Scans to both Win and Mac machines flawlessly, whether initiated from the SCX-4828 ("pushed" with the Scan to PC feature) or "pulled" from the destination machine using either Samsung's included software or third-party software, including Adobe Acrobat - the full paid version, not the free Acrobat Reader. This is not a high resolution photo scanner. It doesn't scan photo negatives. It also doesn't make toast. There are machines designed specifically for that.
3. Scan to USB flash drive/external hard drive is terrific.
4. Scan to email is very useful.
5. Faxing (initiated both from the SCX-4828's control panel and from a Win/Mac machine) works perfectly. Automatic forwarding of incoming faxes to an email address is brilliant, especially if you travel a lot.
6. You can set the machine to email you when there are problems (out of toner, out of paper, etc.) The setup for this is highly configurable.
7. The 250 sheet paper supply tray is great. The option to add a second paper tray is a big plus, especially if you use letterhead with different paper for page two and beyond or do high volume printing and need an extra-large supply.
8. Haven't found a single problem using this machine with WinXP PCs or Macs running Snow Leopard. I got the latest drivers and software (those are different things, btw) from the Samsung site. I can do everything on the Macs that I can do with the PCs. PCL and PostScript drivers work with no issues.
9. The physical dimensions of the SCX-4828 are as small as you could expect for a printer with an automatic document feeder and that is capable of printing in duplex mode (remember, the sheet has to be flipped over to print the other side and you need a little extra volume to do that).
10. You can check the approximate toner level remotely from any computer on the network.
11. You can set up individual user accounts and keep track of the number of pages printed per user. You can also password protect the device to restrict its use to specific people who share your network.

CONS:
1. The email features won't send mail OUT through Web-based email like Gmail, Yahoo Mail or Hotmail/Windows Live Mail because the SCX-4828 can't handle the type of authentication they need. Sending TO those domains is not a problem. I use my ISP's (Comcast) SMTP server to route my outbound email from the SCX-4828 and it works fine so this is a non-issue for me. Samsung might enhance their firmware to accommodate this shortcoming at some point but don't count on it.

HINTS:
1. RTFM. A lot of whining (and I do mean whining) from others about problems with this machine could have been easily avoided had they read the manuals. For sure this is a complex machine, but it's not particularly complicated, given what it's capable of doing. There are settings to set and choices to make if you want it to match your particular workflow. Take the time to understand what the options mean and what the settings do. Don't blame Samsung for bad design if you're too lazy to learn how to use it.
2. Use a static IP address if you're using this device on a network. It will make configuring each client machine that accesses it a lot easier if you do.
3. You can download all of the documentation (manuals, quick start guide) for this machine from the Samsung site for free BEFORE you purchase it. DO IT. Check out what the SCX-4828fn does and does not do (e.g. it can't SCAN both sides of documents using the ADF - it only PRINTS in duplex mode. You'd know that if you RTFM before you bought the thing.) Does the setup look too big and scary to enable the specific features you want to use on this device? Find that out BEFORE you buy it and either learn about how to do it or find someone with the expertise to help you after it arrives.
4. You don't have to use or even set up every bell and whistle all at once to get up and running with this machine. Live with the defaults for a little while until you run through different scenarios and then change settings as needed. Layer new functions on as you get comfortable with the basic features.
5. I agree with others that the SmarThru Office software is a resource hog and totally unnecessary. I didn't install it. It's a heavy-handed attempt at a document organization and indexing system to help you keep track of your scans. You already have tools on your PC or Mac that do what it does. If you don't already use those built-in tools, you likely won't use SmarThru, either.
6. The next-level-down and less expensive SCX-4826fn is identical to the SCX-4828fn with one exception: the latter includes PostScript capability, which was a must-have for the types of applications I use and the presence of Macs in my environment. People figured out that you could upgrade a 4826 for free by flashing it with the firmware of a 4828 that you could download from the Samsung site - until Samsung figured that out, too and stopped posting the firmware online. If you don't need PostScript capability, save yourself some money and get the 4826.

Comment: This machine replaced an HP MFP 3380 because HP would not upgrade the software to run the scanner/fax on Win 7. Print quality is as good as the HP, but the Samsung is much faster, printing and scanning and is less expensive. The HP is a durable machine, and time will prove whether the Samsung is in the same durability class.

Comment: This device generally is fine and the print quality and stuff is good and fast.

I have two major gripes with it... first is the interface. It's quite bad. It isn't intuitive at all. To do copying, for example, it's fine if you want to just put a document in and copy it with all default settings, but if you need to change anything, it's a bit of a disaster. Changing settings requires you to go into the general menu, there's not just a quick and obvious "copy settings" that apply to your current copy job. So, to do something simple like collate the pages, you have to go through some strange menus that are the exact same menus you would use to set the whole printer. This just seemed like a poor design.

Second, THIS DOESN'T DO DUPLEX COPYING/SCANNING! I was quite annoyed by this because everything would seem to suggest that it does - it doesn't. The ADF feeder - from everything I can tell - is single side only. It does do duplex printing, but yeah - no copying. It will copy a one-sided document and make it double sided, but you can't put a double-sided item in there. This stood out to me because everything in the descriptions and even manual seem to suggest that you can use the ADF. But in reality, you cannot.

Oh - one quick last thing - the scan to email feature also sucks. You need to manually type in an address book, or type in the address by hand using a number pad. This naturally is a huge pain. Also, to send the email, you need to be running your own SMTP server, because this doesn't do SSL or TSL authentication, so it won't work with most off-site email providers. That means the whole scan-to-email thing is useless and non-functional for most users.

Comment: I looked around for quite some time to find a balance in speed and function. This Samsung was a good investment. I bought it for a client and installed it within seconds. Setup was easy due to the packaging and materials. Upon sharing it out, it was up and running. The noise level is very low for this quick printer. The design is very compact and stylish. The control panel makes it clear on what to find. I did not set it up for fax. It is primarily used for scanning. The scanner bed is big and opens very wide to allow for good sized items to be scanned. The scan speeds are also very quick and very sharp. The instant PDF output is a huge plus.

Cons:
* I would have like to see a Fax-less model (Why does fax still exist?).
* Toner consumption was quick, but not worse than others despite high-yield.
* Larger paper tray.

Even the cons are more like personal preferences. Fast shipping, good cost, and a quality product make a great investment. I would highly recommend this product.

Comment: I've been trying to find a good home multi-function laser printer for 6 months since I work from home. Aside from a decent laser printer, my 2nd most important function is the scanner. For work I tend to scan documents and want them saved as a PDF on my computer. I haven't tried the fax or networking functions yet.

Pros - Prints fast, double-sided, relatively quiet, and scanner works easily and sends to various file types (i.e. PDF) on your computer without problems.

Cons - Software locks up on install and messes with your CPU by the provided "SmarThru Office" software indexing your files. Takes up 50%+ of a CPU power, making it hot and increasing the computer fan noise (annoying to me). However, this is over come by turning OFF the indexing functionality on your computer & turning off printer when not in use. PDF scan of document is saved as a huge file (i.e. 22 MB for a 15 page grayscale PDF document...seems high to me). Should be able to have it scaled to do under 1 MB as a PDF. The only other complaint is that this unit is still pretty big for a home office.

I'm not a techie, so I want something easy to use and meet my needs without too much set up. I'd give it another star if it wasn't for the 'indexing/CPU' and software issue. Once you get the work around, it's fine. Perhaps if I upgrade my computer, it'd work better on MS Vista. But, I'm not willing to do that any time soon.