Samsung ML-1220 Printer Review
The Samsung ML-1220 is a monochrome laser printer designed for the home or small office user. Its solid printing speeds and compact speeds make it a good fit for the personal user who needs to work quickly. Looking for the same quality but multiple functions in one unit? Look at the Brother MFC-7440 toner printer.
The ML-1220 makes efficient use of space. Not only does it have a very small footprint, measuring 9 inches by 13 inches by 13.9 inches, but its input and output trays are both arranged vertically, so it does not require extra space in the front for loading paper. It also weighs a very light 13.7 pounds, so it is ideal for college students or users who may need to transport the printer occasionally.
Paper capacity is 150 sheets in a single tray. While some personal laser printers offer more capacity, they tend to be larger than the ML-1220, so this is no doubt a tradeoff for its compact size. The printer supports media sizes up to legal, and a wide variety of media types are supported, including envelopes, labels, and transparencies. The printer comes with a 66 MHz processor and 8 MB of RAM, so it can handle most of its own processing without relying on the host computer.
Samsung ML-1220 toner cartridges have a capacity of 2,500 sheets, but the initial starter cartridge has a capacity of only 1,000 sheets, so expect to replace it sooner. LaserJet 1320 toner has a similar page yield, but offers a high-capacity version that can yield 6,000 pages. The TonerSave mode allows each Samsung ML-1220 toner cartridge to last up to 40% longer, saving a significant amount of money over the lifetime of the printer.
Print speed is very good, at 12 pages per minute, with a decent first page out time of less than 13 seconds. Text is sharp and detailed, though it loses slight detail at very small font sizes. Graphics quality is a little below average, but useable. If color graphics are needed, check out the HP CM2320 toner printer.
Overall, the Samsung ML-1220 is a compact and affordable printer that will fit the needs of most personal users. Its low toner costs and TonerSave mode make it an economical printer in the long term as well.