Samsung MultiJet SF4200 review

The MultiJet SF-4200 is the top model in a range of inkjet-based fax machines from Samsung.

As well as acting as a standalone plain-paper fax machine, the SF-4200 can be attached to a PC and used as a normal inkjet printer, as a scanner or as a fax modem.

As a fax machine the SF-4200 has all the usual features and functions that you would expect including a 30-page document feeder, 19 one-touch dial buttons, 50 speed-dialling locations, group dialling, automatic telephone/fax recognition and a 512K memory capable of storing up to 20 pages. The control panel is well laid out with clearly labelled buttons and a small LCD panel. The display panel can be quite difficult to read and really needs to be back-lit to improve legibility. The SF-4200 can produce a comprehensive range of fax status reports and lists of basic functions and commands.

One useful feature is the Memory Transmission function which allows you to scan a document for faxing while the SF-4200 is actually receiving an incoming fax. As soon as it has finished receiving, the SF-4200 will send the document stored in its memory.

A telephone handset is supplied as standard which is attached to the left-hand side. A socket is also provided so you can attach a standard telephone answering machine (TAM). There is an On Hook Dialling button that allows you to dial a number without lifting the handset. On the right-hand side you can attach an ink cartridge storage unit.

Paper is fed in from the rear hopper which can hold up to 100 sheets. Printed pages emerge at the bottom front of the machine where there is a pull-out paper collection tray. The SF-4200 can print on a variety of materials including plain paper, glossy paper and any transparency film suitable for inkjets.

The SF-4200 can be used as a basic copier. Both single sheets and multiple sheets can be copied, up to a maximum of 20 originals. Up to 99 copies of one original can be made.

Attaching the SF-4200 to your PC is quite complicated because you need to use both the parallel and serial cables supplied in order to access all the machines functions and capabilities. The parallel interface is used to drive the SF-4200 as a printer, and the serial interface enables the machine to act as a scanner or an external PC fax modem. While this approach works well it is not as good as, say, the Canon MP10 which utilises just the parallel port on your PC to achieve exactly the same thing.

The SF-4200 provides both monochrome and full-colour printing using separate ink cartridges. Maximum resolution is 600x300dpi using Samsung's own inkjet technology. The quality of the printing is reasonably good with bright colours and crisp blacks. Printing speed is somewhat pedestrian with a page of A4 in full-colour taking around nine minutes. Printing plain text with the black ink cartridge is much quicker at around 45 seconds per page.

Black ink cartridges are £30 (£35) and are good for approximately 1,100 pages, this equates to around three pence per page. Colour cartridges cost £38 (£45) and last an average of 200 pages which equates to around 22 pence per page. Printing out faxes using the colour ink cartridge would prove to be expensive, and, like the Toshiba TF461 multifunction fax (reviewed issue 60, May 1996), the SF-4200 prompts you to change to the black ink cartridge first.

The SF-4200 is a TWAIN compliant scanner, which can recognise up to 32 levels of grey, which is not as good as the Toshiba, which recognises up to 64 greyscales. It has an optical resolution of 200dpi. Bundled with the SF-4200 is a copy of Delrina's WinFax Lite which lets you send and receive faxes from your PC without having to print them first.