SCX-3405 Multifunction Monochrone Laser Printer product reviews

OK, first off we need to keep in mind three things:
    •  1: At the time of our tests and assessment, this machine is not yet on the market in NZ.
    •  2: This is a production demo model, and as such has a few minor issues still to be resolved.
    •  3: We received the unit with a toner cartridge only 88% full - as this was a demo unit doing the rounds.

We have attempted to weight our tests to minimise the impact from these factors, however some parts of this review may not remain valid after the model is into full production.

OK, so installation on a Windows machine is pretty easy. The unit ships with the usual drivers disc, including digital edition manual, and it's the same schtick... disc in, install drivers, plug machine in and power it up when prompted, and you're on your way. Now the thing to keep in mind about this unit is that it's a basic, entry-level model. As such, it only has a USB interface. No network port, no WiFi. This unit is certainly an entry-level model, but you know what.... that made it so much more accessible really. No complicated network IP address configurations to worry about, easily shared across networks in the usual Windows way... the only roadblock to unrestricted share access is the need for the connected PC to be powered up.

Print time is pretty good - not the fastest out there but certainly a very respectable time for a mono laser, and the quality is, naturally, more than adequate for all home-based needs, and even some small commercial ventures too. With the ECO MODE on, toner use is almost halved, making those "I just need something I can carry with me" print jobs so much less stressful on the wallet.

Fitted with a single tray-fed paper chute, I did find this printer a little awkward when it came to multi-layer stock, such as feeding envelopes through. There is no way I am going to strip open an envelope and make it a single, flat layer... but the differential slide between layers, caused by the paper pickup rollers and the need to bend the envelope around multiple rollers as part of the print process, caused some issues in the early stages until I figured out the best way to feed them. Seeing that it had what appeared to be a heavy-stock feeder slot in the back, I tried to use that but to no avail.

Scanning was a breeze, with a fairly usable set of TWAIN and WIA drivers included. I would have liked to have seen a more powerful scanner utility - Microtek's ScanWizard is still one of my most preferred scanner interfaces by far - but it did the job once you got used to it, and the TWAIN app was found to be very configurable if you were comfortable messing around in RegEdit, as I found many features that could only be switched on or off from in there.

Using this in Copy Mode took me by surprise... I was expecting to find a "COPY" button - there is "ID Copy" but that is more for doing 2x A5 copies onto a single page - great for grabbing a copy of a driver's licence, passport, etc... but not much use to an average home user. It turned out to be very simple... put target image on the glass, hit GO. Tah-dah! In the absence of any other commands, just hitting the green button is a signal to do a full-platen copy.

Speaking of copy... one feature I thought was BRILLIANT was the ScreenDump or PrintScreen option. One button push, and a copy of whatever you are looking at on your computer screen ends up in glorious greyscale on paper. Perfect for those spur-of-the-moment urges to print off that amazing recipe, incriminating IM chat or funny cat picture. Impulse-printing urges satisfied with one shove of the index finger.

Overall, though this is not to be taken as a high end printer, it should be one taken seriously. Lacking some features many would consider "the norm" for today's computing marketplace, this is a great, simple printer to do most of your basic document-handling tasks. With a suite of included software, you can use other apps to do such tasks as OCR (Optical Character Recognition), scanning, image manipulation, etc. but if you just want to install-and-go on a shoestring budget this is a very good place to start. Not sure it's powerful enough for my needs, I personally would look to the next model up in the series, but most home users would find this most adequate indeed, and at a good price. As usual, the toner carts are the wallet-killers but fairly reasonable in the long run at about the same cost as a set of colour inks, but with a result less prone to water damage, and far more pages for the same buck. And alas, no, there are no 3rd-prty toner carts or refill options for this model at this stage.