SCX-3405FW Multifunction Monochrone Laser Printer product reviews

Wanting a simple black-&-white laser for home, the student flat, or a small 1 or 2 person office? You might want to check this baby out. Compact enough that it won't chew up all your desk space, it's still a decent sized machine and you might want to consider sticking it somewhere central and making use of either the high-speed gigabit ethernet connection, or go fully wireless with the easy-to-set up WPS-mode automatic connection. And yes, the geeks can 'go manual' and configure it to suit their probably-non-standard network configurations.

Features that really make this a smart choice include:
    •  USB, Gigabit Ethernet or WiFi connectivity
    •  Stand-alone copier
    •  Fully functional Fax machine - stand-alone AND over the network!
    •  Document feeder able to take up to 40 pages, depending on paper thickness
    •  Ability to scan over the network with supplied scanner utility
    •  ECO mode for lower-impact printing
The ability to connect via USB, ethernet and wireless ensures that this unit can suit any SOHO application. Have all your desktops and servers connect via ethernet, mobile devices connect wirelessly, and even an old machine can plug in via USB - covers all your bases in the one machine, enabling your complete computing suite access to scanning, printing and fax capabilities as you need them. This includes from mobile devices with the download of some new apps from Samsung for nearly all mobile operating systems that allow them to print via WiFi.


Considering the price, this is a tidy little unit, and I can't push the "little" too much, as this is the printer's biggest strength, and biggest weakness too. Small means less room... for toner, for paper, for additional functionality. So, having pointed out the good bits, it's only fair that I mention the shortcomings, in the interest of full-disclosure. They include:
    •  No duplexer, even as an optional extra
    •  No "second paper-tray" capability
    •  No manual bypass, for printing on to stock that can't be folded or bent easily such as envelopes and light card
    •  Rubbish at printing photos
    •  Slower to print than touted
Though the last two are in no way related to size, I wanted to get all the bad bits into one batch. Yes, this machine is noticably slower than promised, delivering a not-at-all-blazing 7 pages per minute with a 20-page mixed document containing photos, text, clipart and graphs with the most densely-packed pages taking as long as 14 seconds each (that's just over 4ppm)... but to be brutally honest about it, if you are in the market for an entry-level swiss-army-knife of a printer/scanner, you probably aren't looking for a personal digital print studio, so the speed and quality aren't a big swaying factor. Pages of plain text took as little as 4 seconds each after warm-up, and that's fine if you want to run off some basic newsletters, a High School assignment or another copy of your novel manuscript.

So, how easy it is to get up and going? REALLY simple! WiFi is best accomplished by pressing the WPS Setup button, if your router supports it. If not, you may want to explore a wired connection for simplicity sake, or roll the dice and try the driver disc's setup wizard. I run a non-standard network for better security, so neither option was as hassle-free as it should have been, so a wired connection was my preferred option. This also allowed me to make best use of the gigabit speeds of the ethernet connection. Faster transfer means better printing experience, but more importantly, faster scanning! And the scanner is a goodie, *IF* you can stand to use the horrendous bundled software. Because it wasn't connected directly to a machine, I couldn't use it via TWAIN so scanner directly from Photoshop was a no-go. If Samsung want to boost the appeal of this baby, then a better scanner interface... IS... A... MUST!

Faxing?! Who the heck uses a Fax any more? With email being faster, cheaper, more detailed and infinitely more colourful the fax capability is rapidly becoming a legacy due for the scrap heap. Frankly, I scratch my head in wonder they even bothered to include it.

Overall, what do I think? I think I really want one. Sure, it's not the best in the market, it has some strange and maybe annoying flaws at present... but you know what, firmware upgrades and updated software aren't a big deal to roll out these days and I am happy to wait, especially with rumours of upgrades on the way soon anyway. Will I go out and buy one? Not any time soon, but that's more to do with budget restraints than anything about the MFC itself. When the bean-counters say I can spend, this is one I will be seriously considering. As a step-up from the SCX-3405 I reviewed previously, this has a LOT going for it! My biggest favourite function would have to be the very-configurable ECO mode!