Samsung SCX-4100 review

Samsung claims, somewhat vaguely, that the SCX-4100 is "the world's smallest copier-oriented multifunction product".

It's no larger than some budget laser printers, but to achieve this compactness its scanner is mounted low above a 50-sheet output tray, which it infringes unless raised on a latch. To release this without risking a trapped finger requires two hands.

This arrangement needs less volume than a scanner mounted higher above the output tray, but doesn't seem as sensible. It's so close we saw condensation form under the scanner bed during printing. Some of the water content in paper is vaporised by the high temperature of the laser's fuser and, until the warm paper heats it up, the SCX-4100's scanner bed provides a cool surface on which it can condense.

The printer produced our 50-page text and letter tests at an unhurried 13 pages per minute. Printing at 600dpi, bands of distinct dither patterns are visible in greyscales, contributing to photo reproduction with poor tonal variation. A 300dpi mode produces blocky text and is no faster.

The scanner has a low 600dpi maximum resolution. It's comparatively slow and the images it captures suffer from dull colours. Copies were unexceptional for a "copy-oriented" device. Detail was lost from our test image by the second generation, while black text became illegible by the fourth.

The SCX-4100 does have some strengths. In particular, Samsung's SmarThru4 is the best software control panel we've seen for a multifunction device, and running costs of 1.69p per page are very reasonable. However, these are all compromised by its compactness. If you have the space for separate devices, Samsung's own ML-1710 printer (reviewed in Labs, Shopper September 2004) and the Mustek Bearpaw 4800TA Pro II (What's New, Shopper October 2004) deliver better performance for the money.