Product Reviews

Colour laser printers may be getting cheaper, but if you don't need to print in colour, you can save yourself a bundle by opting for a simple mono laser, such as Samsung's ML-2510. It's easy to find space on the most cluttered desktop for such a neat and compact device, although its light grey plastic is unlikely to liven up your view.

The ML-2510 is as simple to set up as an inkjet printer. Samsung's install program holds no nasty surprises though, and the ML-2510's bundled software consists only of a status monitor (software that tells you what's happening with your print job). The printer takes a single consumable, which consists of a combined

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imaging drum and toner cartridge.

The printer comes with a 1,000-page toner cartridge in the box. This just needs a quick shake and it's ready to be installed. We found it needed a little encouragement to slot into place, after which the printer was ready to go. Replacement consumables last for 3,000 pages, giving it competitive running costs of around 1.5p per page.

This printer stores up to 150 sheets of paper in a tray that projects from the base at the front. A smoked plastic cover stops dust from settling on the top sheet over the weekend and forms the base of a single-sheet multi-purpose feed above the paper tray. Printed pages are a little longer than the ML-2510's output tray, but are kept in check by a flip up stop at the front.

Though the printer didn't quite achieve its claimed 24ppm, it was able to print both of our 50-page text documents at more than 22ppm - fast for a printer at this price. As you might expect from a laser printer, it delivered crisp, black text with smooth outlines, but it was also quick to print clear graphics and accurately shaded photos.

Lack of interesting software aside, this is a good printer that does an excellent job of simple mono prints - well worth a recommended award.