Samsung SF-5800P review

Making ten copies of an A4 page took less than two minutes, which included the time taken to scan the original. Overall quality was good, although leaving the contrast at the default normal setting left photographs too dark. A photo setting is provided producing far better levels of detail.

The 5800P is a GDI printer, so speed will depend on the host PC specification as it will be doing all the legwork in rasterising documents. On a Pentium/266 system with Windows 98 Second Edition installed, we saw a 15-page Word document delivered at an average of 7ppm, while a heavily formatted 24-page DTP document took 238 seconds for a very reasonable average of 6ppm. Text quality at various font sizes was sharp and clean, but photographic images were muddy and suffered from noticeable banding. However, the levels of detail were good for a multifunction device.

When Canon announced its MultiPASS L60 it had a price tag on the wrong side of £1,000, so the SF-5800P looks far better value as it costs over £300 less. It's inevitable that sacrifices have to be made in the quest for the perfect all-rounder, although it's a shame that print quality is always the first casualty. Furthermore, Samsung's software bundle looks good but it isn't the easiest to use and the supporting documentation could be better. Even so, if you're looking for a complete office in a box, the SF-5800P looks a better bet than Canon's alternative.

Author: Dave Mitchell