November 6, 2009

Review: Samsung ML-1630 Laser Printer, SyncMaster 2333HD Combo

I bought a Samsung ML-1630 laser printer a few days ago from OfficeMax. The advertised price was $199. I was planning to spend around $100 for a laser printer. Why did I spend $200? OfficeMax had a deal, $100 off a Samsung display when you buy the ML-1630 too. Package deal.

I was planning to buy a 23″ Acer display in the near future, for around $170 with shipping, from Buy.com, which had the best deal I could find–cheaper than Amazon. I was set on the Acer–Fry’s had it on display for $200. I liked the size and the non-glossy minimal design. I would not have considered a Samsung display were it not for the OfficeMax package deal, although I know they make quality displays.

23″ seems like the largest you can go before the price jumps significantly. Maybe it’s the math behind the shipping or manufacturing? So from an economic standpoint, maybe there’s an ideal size, maybe not. 23″ of text at 1920×1080 is the max my video card can dish out. In Fedora that works out to where text on the big screen is a bit larger than the text on my 14″ 1280×800 ThinkPad.

Speaking of Fedora, it recognized both the printer and the display without a problem. The trick is learning how to activate and deactivate the external display. It’s not complicated but very intuitive. Plug in the display, click System, Preferences, Display, click on the “Unknown” display. Click the “On” radio button. Sounds self-explanatory in retrospect but I just assumed this would turn “On” by itself.

Another nuance: your panel bar doesn’t show up (by default) if you drag the “Laptop” box to the right of the “Unknown” display, if the external display isn’t plugged in. At least that’s how I think it works–whatever device you drag to the left in “Display Preferences” gets priority. Imagine you suspend your system, unplug the display, then bring your machine back out of sleep to find a blank screen–now your applications panel is off in Gnome limbo.

OfficeMax sold me a Samsung 23″ display for $279 minus $100–about the same price as the Acer 23″ I was thinking about. What was enticing, I could take it home immediately, no waiting for the postman. $200 seemed like too much for a laser printer, especially when I know I’m probably getting a “starter” toner cartridge. Chip-limited to 1000 pages? Even in economy mode? But I justified the cost. The printer is portable and flat on top, saving room on my desk. The 2333HD sits right on top of it.

Today at school I looked up reviews of the ML-1630. The reviews were not bad–no major complaints, mostly compliments on the quietness and size. To my surprise it was priced about $100 lower online. Did OfficeMax charge me too much? Was that a rebate price? Out of curiosity I wanted to see what I would have paid for the combo online. Actually, about the same. The SyncMaster 2333HD would have cost about $280 online with shipping, according to Buy.com, which means I would have paid about $380 total–the same deal I got at OfficeMax.

I do have one complaint. The printer doesn’t come with a USB cable. Does Samsung assume everyone has plenty of those by now? Fortunately my brother had an extra cable, thanks Tom!

The SyncMaster 2333HD is nice. It came with an HDMI cable and my laptop has HDMI output. For some reason the HDMI output was not crisp–blurry text. Yes, I played with the sharpness, contrast, font rendering, etc. On a hunch I borrowed a VGA cable from my dad. The VGA looks crisp at 1920×1080, text is not blurry. Text rendering is really my top concern. Of course, clarity depends on the VGA cable. Shorter, shielded, you can really tell the difference.

Why would VGA look better than HDMI? In my case, it does. Is it my laptop hardware or the Samsung display? It’s not a priority for me to find out. But if you’re some kind of HDMI expert, my laptop is a ThinkPad SL400. Like I said, I won’t blame Samsung because maybe the issue is with my video card. But I can’t rule out the possibility Samsung tuned the 2333HD’s VGA input more for PCs–where crisp text is a priority, optimizing HDMI more for video. Regardless, I can’t argue with sharp text. Now somebody sell me a VGA cable!

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