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While I have nothing against the two-tone grey colouring for this box-shaped unit, I found the ribbed embellishment running around the full sides of the unit to be rather ugly and they added nothing to the aesthetic quality of the printer.  On top of that the ML-3710ND is larger than most of the printer that tend to come by way.  The ML-3719ND has dimensions of 366 x 368 x 252.9mm (W x D x H) and weighs in at over 9kg which would certainly discourage me from moving it around.

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Rather than the more common connectivity option of wireless, this mono laser gives you the choice of USB or Ethernet connectivity.  Both these ports are situated at the rear of the product along with the mains power socket which does tend to protrude out from the rear.  You can set this printer up as a standalone unit or as part of a network.

  Taking up the ribbed front of the unit are the main paper tray and a multi-purpose tray.  Both the pull-out tray and drop-down panel for the multi-purpose tray were rather stiff making it awkward to gain access.  The paper tray can hold up to 250 sheets while the multi-purpose tray can accommodate a further 50 sheets.  The main paper tray has a small window to hep you check whether any paper is loaded or not.  Paper output is at a sunken bay, which has a capacity of 150 sheets, at the top of the printer.  A flip-out support helps ensure your documents are not scattered over the floor.

Along side the right of the paper output bay is the unit’s control panel.  At the top of the control panel is a 2 line 16-character LCD 50 x 15mm display window that gives you access to various options that you can navigate through using a compass wheel.  Arranged below the compass wheel are buttons for Eco mode, cancel and power.  Completing the control panel layout are status LEDs indicating when data is being received, the printer is ready and when toner is low.  Finally there is a removable panel on the rear right-hand side of the unit gives you access to the printer’s board if you need to increase the default 128MB of memory up to a maximum of 384MB.

A Quick Start leads you through a straightforward set-up as the toner is inserted and the printer is integrated into your computer set up.  You can then run the software CD to install the printer driver, Easy Printer Manager and the User Guide which includes details for Macintosh and Linux installation.

As mentioned earlier, this mono laser printer, like others in the Samsung range, has Green credentials with an Eco mode.  This feature can be activated from the printer’s control panel or from the printer’s print driver interface.  With the later option, selected from the Eco tab, you can select from various double-sided printing options and layouts whereby 2, 4, 6, 9 or 16 pages can be printed on a single side.  Further options allow you to skip blank pages in large documents and turn on a toner save option.  A Result Simulator will show the percentage saved with regards CO2, energy and paper depending upon the current settings and document size.

Adding to its Eco mode, you also have a Duplex facility indicated by the “D” designation of its title.  You will need to be in Eco mode to use this feature.  As well as the basic automatic printing on both sides of the paper, you can combine it with the multi-page printing option.  A test run using a six page document was printed on three sheets of paper in 23 seconds.

Samsung has rated this printer as being capable of printing 35 pages per minute.  I ran a series of tests to check out the printer’s speed when using the basic single page mode, printing a booklet which involves two pages bring printed side by side of the same sheet, and Eco mode.  The results are shown in the table below.

As stated, all the tests were carried out with a 635-word document printed from Microsoft Word 2003 via a USB link.

I was generally impressed with the performance of this mono laser printer.  When a paper jam did occur, it was easy to clear with the LCD display indicated where the problem had occurred.  Samsung supply this printer with a toner cartridge with a capacity of 5000 sheets.   Replacement cartridges are available for 2000 sheets (£48.95), 5000 sheets (£82.75) and 10,000 sheets (£110).  The Samsung ML-3710ND is currently being on offer at £185.98.

http://www.samsung.com/uk/consumer/print-solutions/print-solutions/mono-printers/ML-3710ND/SEE