Good reviews on CNet, mediocre reviews on New Egg, but cheap.

I don't know how long the sale will last, but I had money, and decided to give it a try. If it flops... someone will be getting a color laser as a birthday present....

The Auld Grump, mostly want it for transparencies... they look so much better done on a laser printer.

Seems to handle cardstock fairly well too. Colors seem a little too saturated for my tastes, almost cartoony - not bad, just very bright. Grass in particular is green! Not a failure - I can see things (*cough* Crystal Caverns *cough, cough*) that could benefit from the bright colors. And maybe, just maybe, I can get used to the more vibrant colors.

The printer is now going for $150 at New Egg, so it seems to go on sale fairly frequently, just not quite as low a price as I got it for.

And for some reason the Post Office ssems to be getting me packages awfully quick right now.... I had a package of CDs get to me, regular media mail, in less than 24 hours... it is making me paranoid.
<_<

-_-

>_>

The Auld Grump

lol you're being watched ;P

Hey Grump, have you gotten an idea on how long the included toner lasts yet?

I don't know yet - I have not run out of toner.... Cartridges were actually a lot less expensive than I thought - about $40 each, one each for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black, and I suspect that I can find it cheaper, if I go looking. Still, it means that a full load of cartridges costs half again as much as the printer itself....

Pretty happy with the printer right now, fast, quiet, and filling the air with the delicate aroma of hot fresh toner. Transparencies look amazing, not quite as happy with the street tiles (slightly shiny, and very bright colors).

For the price....

The Auld Grump

*EDIT* Three packs - one of each C, M, & Y go for about $95 at Amazon.

I picked this up last night for 150$ at Staples, and have printed the Hill Side Encounter and a few TLX streets tiles and am happy with the results (it's not quite as good as my first few tiles which I had done at a print shop, but it's such a heck of a lot cheaper! - about 40 cents a page savings!).

I feel like I need to darken the colour a bit somehow, just playing with the settings now.

As for toner duration, reviews seem to agree that it's 700-1000 full colour pages, I assumed 700 when I did my calculations.

So, the 315W is available at Staples right now for $179.99 and they still have their "trade in a printer and get $50 off a printer normally $200 or more" which works on this printer bringing the total down to $129.99. Thinking about taking the plunge...

TheAuldGrump any idea of how many prints you got out of your toners?

I imagine toner is quite expensive?

On the PC you can adjust the color saturation.
Print --> Properties --> Graphic (Color Mode) --> Manual
Colors, Brightness, Contrast, and Saturation all start at 50. I have not fiddled with them yet. I am tempted to drop Saturation down to 40 or so.

I finally ran out of toner on one of colors - unfortunately it was Black, which I also used for about 500+ pages of non terrain material on top of the 250 TLX pages I already printed. All colors now display warning lights, some claiming to be empty, but only the Black has actually stopped working. (And I had a spare handy. ) At least 300 pages for the starter cartridges. 250 were high coverage terrain tiles - so probably a lot more if used for sane, normal, printing.

Each cartridge goes for $30 - $40 US - about twice the cost of individual color cartridges for my Canon, but each covers more than twice as many pages. A lot cheaper than I expected.

I strongly recommend using the printer somewhere other than your bedroom - it is by far the stinkiest printer that I have ever used.

The Auld Grump

On the stink problem - I'd like to say I haven't had that. However, I knew ahead of time that it was potentially going to smell if I printed a lot so I haven't run any more than 10 sheets at a time. 10 sheets, cut them glue em 10 more.

Also good to know 300ish pages is what I should expect from the starter toners so I'll know when I should get some more

Good news, the Samsung 315W is going on sale next week at Staples for $125. They also have their trade in program still going where you trade in/recycle an old printer and get $50 off the purchase of a new printer whose price is normally above $200. That means a brand new color laser printer potentially for $75.


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