Samsung Printer ProXpress M4020ND

Pros Duplexer, 250-sheet paper drawer, and 50-sheet multipurpose tray standard. 820-sheet maximum.

Cons Output quality at the low end of the typical range for mono lasers across the board. Bottom Line The Samsung Printer ProXpress M4020ND can serve nicely as a medium to heavy-duty monochrome laser printer by micro and small office standards.

By M. David Stone

Basically a heavier-duty version of the Samsung Printer ProXpress M3320ND that I recently reviewed, the Samsung Printer ProXpress M4020ND offers similar output quality and features, but with somewhat better paper handling and a higher monthly duty cycle. The combination makes it a particularly good fit for a micro or small office with heavy-duty print needs.

When I reviewed the M3320ND, I pointed out that although its one-sheet manual feed is useful, it's a wimpy alternative to a multipurpose tray. The M4020ND solves that problem by including a 50-sheet multipurpose tray standard, along with its 250-sheet paper drawer and built-in duplexer (for printing on both sides of the page). That should be enough for most small offices, but if you need more, you can also add a 520-sheet second drawer ($200 street) for a total 820-sheet capacity.

The second key difference between the two is that the M4020ND's maximum monthly duty cycle, at 100,000 pages per month, is twice the 50,000 pages the M3320ND is rated for. Keep in mind that maximum duty cycles are far higher than recommend maximums. Also, as with any printer, if you hit the maximum every month it probably won't last all that many months. The point here is that the M4020ND is designed to print a lot more pages per month than the M3320ND without breaking.

Beyond these differences, the two printers offer almost identical features, including printing though the cloud, with built-in support for Google Cloud Print, and printing from mobile devices connecting to a Wi-Fi access point on your network, using either AirPrint or Samsung's own mobile print app.

Setup and Speed
Setting up the M4020ND is identical to setting up the M3320ND, which makes setup absolutely standard for a mono laser. Here too, Ethernet and USB are the only connection choices. For my tests, I used Ethernet to connect to a network and printed from a system running Windows Vista.

Samsung rates the M4020ND at 42 pages per minute (ppm), which should be close to the speed you'll see when printing text or other output that needs little to no processing. With pages that include graphics, photos, or other information that needs processing, however, the speed is much slower and not much different than you'll see with the M3320ND's 35-ppm engine.

On our business applications suite (timed with QualityLogic's hardware and software), I clocked the M4020ND at a respectable, but not impressive, 11.5 ppm, which counts as a tie with the M3320ND, at 11.3 ppm. It's also just a touch faster than the Editors' Choice Brother HL-6180DW, at 10.7 ppm, but significantly slower than the Editors' Choice Dell B2360dn, at 15.0 ppm.

Output Quality
Output quality for M4020ND is in much the same category as the speed: acceptable for most business needs, but not impressive. Text quality is within the range that includes the vast majority of mono lasers, but at the low end of the range. It's not quite good enough for demanding desktop publishing applications, but it's easily good enough for anything short of that.

Graphics quality falls at a slightly lower level than most mono lasers. It's good enough for internal business use, but whether you consider it acceptable for PowerPoint handouts or the like will depend on how critical an eye you have. Photo quality is good enough to print recognizable images from photos in Web pages, but I wouldn't use it for anything more demanding than that.

Given its competition, the Samsung Printer ProXpress M4020ND doesn't offer quite enough to be Editors' Choice. The Dell B2360dn delivers faster speed, while the Brother HL-6180DW delivers better paper handling and slightly better output quality. That said, the Samsung printer is also a little faster than the Brother printer, and it offers a little better output quality overall than the Dell printer. The combination makes it a more than reasonable choice. If you need a workhorse mono printer for heavy-duty use by micro or small office standards, the Samsung Printer ProXpress M4020ND should be in the running.

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Samsung Multifunction ProXpress M3370FD

Pros Prints, scans, faxes, copies, emails. Duplex (two-sided) printing. Automatic document feeder. Ethernet.

Cons Offers only a one-sheet manual feed rather than a multipurpose tray. Bottom Line The Samsung Multifunction ProXpress M3370FD can serve nicely as a light- to medium-duty mono laser MFP, complete with all the MFP features a small office is likely to need.

By M. David Stone

Depending on your point of view, the Samsung Multifunction ProXpress M3370FD is either the next step up in Samsung's current monochrome laser multifunction printer (MFP) line from the Editors' Choice Samsung Multifunction Xpress M2875FW, or the first step on the ladder for the ProXpress MFP line. As a ProXpress model it's built around a bigger, heavier-duty engine than the Xpress M2875FW. That makes its natural home a small office or workgroup with light to medium-duty needs by small office standards, although it can also be a good fit as a heavy-duty workhorse in a micro office.

Part of what makes the M3370FD more definitively a shared printer than the Samsung M2875FW is its larger size. At 17.7 by 16.3 by 16.6 (HWD), it's too large to share a desk with comfortably. However, a better indication of how much more heavy duty it is than the M2875FW is its 50,000-page maximum monthly duty cycle, which dwarfs the 12,000 pages for the M2875FW.

Keep in mind that maximum duty cycles for printers are far higher than recommended maximums. Even so, the higher rating means that the M3370FD is designed to churn through a lot more pages per month than the M2875FW.

Basics
As you would expect, the M3370FD offers a full set of basic MFP features. It can print and fax from, as well as scan to, a PC, including over a network, and it can work as a standalone copier, fax machine, and email sender.

Paper handling features for printing include a 250-sheet drawer, an automatic duplexer (for two-sided printing), and a single-sheet manual tray standard, so you can feed a different paper stock without having to swap out the paper in the main tray. A multipurpose tray would be more useful, but a manual feed tray is typical for mono laser MFPs in this price range. If you need more capacity, you can also add a 520-sheet second drawer ($200 street) for a total of 770 sheets, which is something you can't do with the Samsung M2875FW.

For scanning, the M3370FD offers a letter-size flatbed plus a 50-sheet automatic document feeder (ADF) that can handle up to legal-size pages. The ADF does simplex (one-sided) scans only, but, as a nice touch, there are options in the menus to let you copy single-sided originals to your choice of single- or double-sided copies.

Setup and Speed
Setting up the M3370FD is standard fare, with Ethernet and USB as the only connection choices. For my tests, I connected it to a network and installed the drivers and other software on a system running Windows Vista.

Samsung rates the M3370FD at 35 pages per minute (ppm), which is the speed you'll see when printing unformatted text or other pages that need little to no processing. I clocked it on our business applications suite (using QualityLogic's hardware and software for timing), at 10.8 ppm. That makes it just a touch faster than the Samsung M2875FW, at 10.0 ppm, and well within the typical range for the engine rating. However, it's well short of impressive. The Editors' Choice Canon imageClass MF4880dw, for example, with a rating of only 26 ppm in simplex mode, managed 12.5 ppm on our tests.

Output Quality
The M3370FD's output quality earns much the same description as its speed. It's good enough to be useful for most business purposes, but not particularly impressive. Text falls in the middle of the range that counts as par quality for a mono laser MFP, making it good enough for virtually any business need, but a little short of what you might want for high-quality desktop publishing.

Graphics and photos both fall at the low end of par for monochrome laser MFPs. For graphics that makes the output good enough for any internal business need. Depending on how critical an eye you have, you may or may not consider it suitable for, say, PowerPoint handouts. For photos it means you can print recognizable images from photos on Web pages or the like, but the quality will be roughly equivalent to what you'd expect to see in a newspaper.

The Samsung Multifunction ProXpress M3370FD doesn't offer any particular feature that might make it a compelling choice, like fast speed or impressive output quality. However, it offers all the basics, including printing, scanning, faxing, copying, and direct email, plus some welcome conveniences, like copying from simplex originals to duplex copies. It also delivers an appropriate level of speed, output quality, and paper handling for a small office. If a workhorse MFP is what you need, that makes the Samsung Multifunction ProXpress M3370FD a potentially good fit.

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Samsung Printer ProXpress M3320ND

Pros Duplexer and 250-sheet paper capacity standard, 770-sheet maximum. Single-sheet manual feed. Ethernet.

Cons No multipurpose tray. Bottom Line The Samsung Printer ProXpress M3320ND doesn't offer any notable strengths, but it's a potentially good fit as a basic mono laser for a micro or small office.

By M. David Stone

The Samsung Printer ProXpress M3320ND mono laser is the sort of printer that doesn't stand out in any way, but delivers a level of speed, output quality, and paper handling that lets it easily do the job it is meant for. That job is primarily to fill the shared-printer slot in a micro or small office with light- to medium-duty print needs, although the printer's small size also makes it suitable for heavy-duty personal use.

The one potential issue for the M3320ND is that its direct competition includes the Editors' Choice Brother HL-5450DN. Usually with close competitors like these there are obvious tradeoffs, with one printer offering faster speed, say, and the other offering better output quality or better paper handling. With these two models, however, the M3320ND comes in tied or a close second in every important area. So although it's a perfectly reasonable pick, there's no stand-out feature that would make a compelling argument to choose it over the Brother HL-5450DN.

The biggest difference between the two printers is in their paper handling. Both offer a 250-sheet drawer and a built-in duplexer (for printing on both sides of the page) standard. The M3320ND also include a one-sheet manual feed. You can count that as a useful convenience, since it lets you print on a different paper stock without having to swap out the paper in the main tray, but it's wimpy compared with the Brother printer's 50-sheet multipurpose tray.

If you need more input capacity for the M3320ND, you can add a 520-sheet second drawer ($200 street), for a total of 770 sheets. Here again, however, Brother goes a little further, with a 500-sheet optional tray that boosts the capacity to 800 sheets. And that total still includes the multipurpose tray. Brother also sells a related model, the Brother HL-5470DW, which includes both the multipurpose tray and second drawer as standard, adds some other features as well, and costs less than the Brother HL-5450DN plus its optional second drawer.

Setup and Speed
Setting up the M3320ND is absolutely standard, with Ethernet and USB as the only connection choices. If you connect it to a network, you can also print to it through the cloud, thanks to its built-in support for Google Cloud Print. You can also print from a mobile device though a Wi-Fi access point on your network, using AirPrint or Samsung's own mobile printing app. For my tests, I used a network connection and installed the drivers on a system running Windows Vista.

The engine rating for the M3320ND is 35 pages per minute (ppm), which is the speed you should see when printing text pages with little to no formatting. On our business applications suite (timed with QualityLogic's hardware and software), it came in at 11.3 ppm, which counts as a respectable speed for its price and engine rating. It's also essentially tied with both the Brother HL-5450DN, at 10.8 ppm, and the HL-5470DW, at 10.7 ppm. (A 0.5 ppm difference isn't statistically significant in this speed range.)

Output Quality
The M3320ND's output quality is best described as acceptable for most business use, but well short of impressive. Text quality is at the low end of the range that includes the vast majority of mono lasers. You shouldn't have any complaints about it for day-to-day business use, but it's not suitable for more demanding applications, like high-quality desktop publishing.

Graphics output is a step below the level where most mono lasers fall, which translates to being good enough for any internal business need. If you don't have too critical an eye, you may also consider it acceptable for PowerPoint handouts or the like. Photo quality is dead on par for a mono laser. That makes it suitable if you need to print recognizable images from photos in Web pages but not for anything more demanding than that.

The Samsung Printer ProXpress M3320ND is a perfectly capable mono laser printer that can easily be a good fit for a micro or small office. It's not quite a match for the Brother HL-5450DN, it's tied with it for speed, and it comes in a close second for output quality and paper handling. That certainly makes it a credible choice. If you can find it at a sufficiently lower price than the Brother printer, it might even be your preferred choice.

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Samsung Multifunction ProXpress M4070FR

Pros Prints, scans, faxes, copies, emails. Duplex (two-sided) printing. Duplexing Automatic document feeder. Ethernet.

Cons Output quality at the low end of par across the board. Bottom Line The Samsung Multifunction ProXpress M4070FR mono laser is packed with MFP features and designed for heavy-duty printing by small office standards.

By M. David Stone

Built around the same basic engine design as the Samsung Multifunction ProXpress M3370FD that I recently reviewed, but in a heavier-duty version, the Samsung Multifunction ProXpress M4070FR delivers better paper handling and a few extra niceties, like a duplexing automatic document feeder (ADF). The result is well worth the extra price. It also makes the M4070FR a strong candidate as a mono laser multifunction printer (MFP) for a small office with heavy duty needs.

The difference in paper handling for printing between the two models is relatively minor, with the M4070FR substituting a 50-sheet multipurpose tray for the M3370FD's one-sheet manual feed. However that's enough to make switching to a different paper stock for a given print job a lot easier, particularly with multi-page documents.

Beyond that, both printers come with a 250-sheet paper drawer and a duplexer (for two-sided printing) as standard. If you need more capacity or need to load more than one kind of paper at a time, both also let you add a 520-sheet second drawer ($200 street). Here again the multipurpose tray gives the M4070FR an advantage, since the 50-sheet capacity may be enough to let you keep two kinds of paper loaded at all times without having to get the optional tray.

More Basics
As you would expect from a printer in this price range, the M4070FR delivers a full set of basic MFP features. It can print and fax from, or scan to, a PC, including over a network, and it can work as a standalone copier, fax machine, and email sender.

For scanning, it offers both a letter-size flatbed and a 50-sheet ADF, which can handle up to legal-size paper. Even better, the ADF can duplex, by scanning one side of a page, turning it over, and then scanning the other side. This approach isn't as fast as with a duplexing scanner, which scans both sides of the page at once, but it can be a welcome convenience if you deal with duplex documents. The duplexing works for scanning, faxing, and copying, with menu options that let you copy either single- or double-sided originals to your choice of single- or double-sided copies.

The M4070FR offers double the maximum monthly duty cycle of the Samsung M3370FD, at 100,000 pages per month. Keep in mind that, with any printer, if you want the printer to last more than a few months, you should print far less than its maximum duty cycle. Even so, the higher-rated maximum for the M4070FR translates to its having been designed to stand up to heavier-duty use than its less expensive cousin.

Setup, Speed, and Output quality
Setting up the M4070FR is standard for this class of printer. For my tests, I connected it to a network using its Ethernet port and ran the tests from a Windows Vista system.

I clocked the printer on our business applications suite  (using QualityLogic's hardware and software for timing) at 11.3 pages per minute (ppm), which counts as a respectable, but not impressive, speed for the 42-ppm engine rating. On the other hand, it's a bit faster than either the OKI MB471, at 9.5 ppm or the Brother MFC-8950DW, at 10.6 ppm, two Editors' Choice MFPs that bracket it in price. It's tied with the M3370FD, at 10.8 ppm. (A 0.5 ppm difference isn't significant in this speed range.)

Output quality for the printer is best described as good enough, but at the low end of par for a mono laser MFP overall. Text comes in at the middle of the range that includes the vast majority of mono laser MFPs. That makes it a little short of what you'd need for high-quality desktop publishing, but good enough for virtually any business need.

Graphics and photos are both at the low end of par for a mono laser. For graphics, that makes the output good enough for internal business needs. Whether you'll also consider them good enough for, say, PowerPoint handouts will depend on how critical an eye you have. For photos, the quality is roughly equivalent to photos in newspapers, which means you can print recognizable images from photos on Web pages or the like, but nothing more demanding than that.

The Samsung Multifunction ProXpress M4070FR doesn't deliver enough to replace either the OKI MB471 or the Brother MFC-8950DW as Editors' Choice, with the OKI printer delivering better output quality and the Brother printer offering a higher paper capacity. However, it offers enough to be a strong contender, with a full set of basic MFP features and slightly better speed than the OKI or Brother models. If the output quality and paper handling are both good enough for your purposes, the Samsung Multifunction ProXpress M4070FR can be a great choice.

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