An excellent alternative to ink-jet printers.

Having grown sick and tired of ink-jet printers, I decided to have a look at lasers and was pleasantly surprised by the price of the P1005. I only need basic black and white capabilities, and thanks to the previous reviewers' comments, it was a bit of a no-brainer when it came to making a decision! I'm not disappointed.

The P1005 doesn't take up much room, it look fairly solid, the software is quick and easy to install (I'm running Windows XP) and the print quality is excellent. Okay, it's a bit noisy (but no more so than my ink-jet) and the paper does warp very slightly (I haven't tried better quality paper yet - so maybe it's just down to the cheap brand I've been using so far) and it doesn't come with the necessary USB cable. However, in terms of value for money, I couldn't be happier.

epson sx400

I brought this print to replace an existing epson printer. It is no where near as good. When people say it is noisy, it really is noisy!!! it only uses epson ink and refuses to recoginse any other brand. on my old epson you could take the top of for ease of scaning, not so with this one. all in all it is an inferior product to the DX4800 which it replaced. it does print and scan, arrived quickly and well packed. wouldn't buy it again.

Lots of fun, but know what to expect.

If you're thinking of buying the pogo, you should know beforehand exactly what you're getting.

As it currently stands, the printer is more of a fun/arty toy. I have a polaroid izone, which was great fun when I was able to get film for it, and if you've ever owned one then you'll already have an idea of what to expect. The pictures aren't large (2x3 inches) but I really like that, they'd be a perfect size to keep in a wallet if you wanted. The sticky back is handy, and I've found that it won't peel paint from walls when removed.
The cost of paper means each picture should average between 20p and 30p, the cheapest I've found works out to 21.4p each.

The printer itself is larger than I expected at roughly 120 x 71 x 23mm, but that's still a very manageable size.

You shouldn't buy the Pogo if you want professional quality prints; the colours aren't totally accurate (in my experience, dark red/brown may come out a little pink-ish and in most cases colours won't be as vivid as the original) and although I don't know the exact DPI equivalent, it's certainly not going to rival a photo printer.

Depending on why you buy it, however, these points may not actually count against. The quality of Polaroid photos was always a little different anyway, that was the cost of immediate images and this printer is no different. I actually like the colours being a little abnormal, it seems more authentic.

Bare in mind that since the colour reproduction is reliant upon the paper rather than the printer, there's always the possibility that Polaroid will bring out new paper and maybe even firmware updates to complement it, though that's entirely speculation.

Could'nt ask for better!!!

I ordered the ML-2240 from Amazon.co.uk on the 22th of Oct, and opted for the free delivery. I was very disappointed when a rcv'd notification indicated that it will be delivered between the 28th Oct - 4th Nov. In fact I was contemplating cancelling the order, as like the rest of us, I hate waiting as well. But surprisingly, at 7am on 25th Oct, I received the printer via City Link delivery, amazing that free delivery was made in 3 days.

Only disappointment with the delivery was that the packaging does not include the USB Printer cable, if I knew, I would have included it in the order..

As for the printers performance, I'm amazed.. I've printed some 800 pages of perfect quality text at amazing speed in the past 24 hrs, before I ran out of toner.. Not bad, when the toner included is only supposed to last 600 pages..

Performs like a breeze, is faster than expected, adequate memory to print bulky documents continuously, and is easy to assemble, though the instructions are not included.

Only other drawback, is that the paper tray is unable to hold more than 150-200 sheets at a go..

Nevertheless, an amazing buy, I could'nt have asked for better, after all, it's a laserjet for below GBP50/-

Just remember to include the USB Printer cable in the order!!!

Great quality let down by inattention to detail

I replaced my ailing Epson 1250 (6 years service) with a V350 on the strength of reviews saying its scans are high quality and because the old scanner produced jaggies on slide scans, even at max resolution.

First impressions were not that great - there was nothing to say you should first uninstall your old scanner drivers (I did, luckily) and the V350 install seemed to freeze half way. I was about to kill it but first tried Alt Tab and found a little"Next" window waiting behind the main install window! Sloppy. Then I tried scanning three images at once in full auto (default) mode. It missed one entirely and cropped into the other two - because they were not straight. But it's impossible to get things straight on this scanner because it will not scan up to the edge of the glass! Why didn't they bring the plastic edges over to where it actually starts scanning? Then I tried scanning some slides but it took ages to find out how to do it because the instruction manual is so bad in this area. Eventually I found the locating holes it failed to mention.

Since then things have looked up. I discovered Full Professional mode which puts you back in charge of scans. Plenty of controls and it will even save different settings (eg slides vs photos). Importing scans of transparencies into Photoshop Elements I found the 12800 and 9600dpi resolutions incredibly slow and both would only do one slide at a time before stopping with"out of memory" problems. Luckily 4800dpi scans are very good. They produce 24Megapixel images in Photoshop which are jaggy free and look good when cropped & resized to 5MP or so. The speed is adequate (not fast) and at least you can do other things like browse the net while it's scanning. My old scanner used to keep its progress window on top of everything.

Scanning photos is pretty good. Reasonably fast (eg at 400dpi) and pretty faithful to the originals. When I figure out how to keep them straight (use a plastic ruler as a spacer?) I'll probably feel this scanner merits 4 stars. It's certainly good enough that I'm re-scanning all our remaining transparencies. Fortunately we cut them down from 50+ boxes to just six a while back.

I loaded all of the software offered except Arcsoft Photoimpression but I'm not sure how much of it I'll ever use, as I always scan straight into Photoshop Elements.

So, the price of the V350 is good and I like the quality of the scans but with a bit more thought and care it could have been a lot easier to use.

Good choice for home network setup

I have a wired home network and wanted a printer that would connect to this, cope with a medium level of home use, and photocopy. This printer seemed to tick all the boxes. I also print the occasional photograph but mainly use the quick draft mode to print documents, letters, etc.

Set up was a doddle. After assembling the printer (trays, faceplates etc), inserting inks, switching on, and attaching to my router, I was ready to go. My Vista machine took 5 minutes to initialise. The XP machine slightly longer; 10-15 minutes. Both were full installs. (There are separate installation CDs for Windows (non Vista), Vista, and Mac). The XP machine played up a bit with various system programs falling over, but the HP software can automatically update itself, and the problem seems to have gone away. I'm guessing it might have something to do with security settings (firewall, anti-virus, etc). These are all set to max on the XP machine, and are at a minimal level on the Vista machine.

Note: This printer needs a solid surface to sit on. If you try balancing it on a stand or a wobbly table, the speed of the printer internals will make it rock about, adversely affecting the print quality.

Photocopying is quick and painless. I just use the flatbed scanner to photocopy one sheet at a time. All it takes is one button to either copy in colour or black and white. The computer does not need to be switched on. There is also a document feeder for photocopying multiple sheets.

I don't use the fax facility - so can't comment on that.

The printer comes with a black and tri-colour cartridges, to give 4 colour printing. There is not much information on what numbers you can use, but a quick search on the internet reveals:

Black: Either 336 (5ml), 338 (11ml), or 339 (21ml).
Tri-colour: Either 342 (5ml), or 343 (7ml).

The back of the manual also lists 348 Photo, and 100 Gray as compatible, but makes no mention of how or when you would use them. After a lot more searching I found that the 348 photo cartridge is another tri-colour cartridge (light magenta, light cyan, and black) which replaces your black-only cartridge to give you 6 colour printing for photos.

I printed a test picture (a garden scene) to test the difference between 4 and 6 inks. At first glance they look the same. But take a closer look and I found water and rock surfaces were more natural with less noise. The fern fronds were more defined, and there was more detail to be seen in the dark shaded areas. If you are printing photos to keep in an album, I would say the photo cartridge is essential and well worth the money.

I'm not sure the 100 Gray cartridge can be used in this printer. It's not colour coded where the cartridges push in, and as I have no intention of printing black and white photos, I'm not going to investigate further.

To sum up: I would recommend this printer for light office use (eg. someone self employed) or to anyone who wants a bog standard home printer that does a bit of everything. I would not recommend it to someone who mainly prints photos or plans to use it for heavy office use.

Hope this review has been of some use.

Nice printer

A good, trouble free printer. No problems in use or installation. Print quality is more than acceptable, even on really cheap paper. Also nice and small so it doesn't get in the way when not in use.

Poor value for money

It simply provides poor value for money at £75.20. It doesn't copy or scan or fax or have built-in wireless, it doesn't even include a very cheap USB cable which most people need to use this out of the box! The Canon Pixma 3-in-1 options are far superior.

Beware the wifi facility

After installing this printer relying on the wifi connection my computer had great difficulty in finding documents and the performance was slowed considerably. To pull up a word document would often take over a minute and I had to wait at least 20 seconds before a document printed. Eventually I decided to start again relying on the connection to the USB port. Uninstalling and reinstalling the programme became a nightmare and I had to call on my computer expert for help. The installation programme blocked and after running all night was only at 9%. With my expert's help I eventually managed to get the printer working again. I am delighted. My computer is far happier as well and documents print more or less instantaneously. I can still print from a laptop via wifi to the same printer, which is why I thought I needed to install the printer using the ethernet connection in the first place. So all's well that ends well.

Excellent Printer

Just purchased from another source, very easy to set up worked out of the box (well had to remove lots of tape)
Blown away by the quality, if it maintains this quality I will be very happy I changed to a laser printer. So far I have used low quality paper with excellent results for text and graphics, I have just purchased some HP Laser Photo paper to try.

Negatives, shame it doesn't have an ethernet or wireless function.

Really good quality printing

I'm really pleased with this laser printer. I am using it at home for my interiors business and having had an ink jet printer for a long time, the difference that you get is striking. I don't have much to compare it against as I've not had a laser printer before but for me, the quality is really brilliant.

A Nightmare

This printer has been a nightmare to set up.After many talks with Epson on line chat i finally got it working.The manual seems fine but they have left so much out that you need to know. To let you all know,you have to set it up on each individual printer(taking the printer to that pc) to get it working across a network.this means taking it to every pc you have, connecting it up running the software(30 mins minimum)then adding the print server.I was really fed up by the end of all this.
The printer itself is great and also the scanner.Oh why oh why make it so complicated.Think i should have gone with another make.So i would do some research before buying a wifi unit.Look at the manual online.Oh bye the way Epson at present do not have any information on there site about the WIFI model.

Worth Every Penny

Easy installation I found it really easy setting it up over my local home network (Netgear wireless router) following the step by step instructions from Dell you can't go wrong. Your getting a lot for your money and the print quality is excellent. This is a rather big printer it does take up a bit of space. A bargain considering the price.

If you want this for your home network or office you will need a get or purchase a network ethernet cable as it does not come with one!

At last!

I'm not the kind of person who normally writes reviews, but this printer deserves one. I've had it a month now and printed 2000 pages, mostly duplex. It hasn't missed a beat and the speed is great. It's my fourth laser and the first one that doesn't chew up at least one sheet of paper in ten. It simply does what it says on the tin. Thank you Samsung - a decent laser at last.

How much does this printer really cost?

Just Like many other users of this printer, I cannot fault the quality of the prints, I have produced some really great photo's, But replacement cartridges are very expensive, I cringe when it automatically goes into head cleaning mode, Amazon are currently selling this printer for £219 a new set of cartridges are £80, As the machine comes with a full set of cartridges, This means when you subtract the price of a set of cartridges, the printer is actually only worth £139, So it might be better to just buy a new one rather than get an expensive repair man out, But hopefully I won't have to do that for some time yet.

Buyer beware

This printer uses the same print engine as the disgraceful Kodak 5300 and 5500. I work in a large store where we sell a lot of the biggest name brands. The 5300 was brought out a year ago and within my store it has acheived 25% returns just within the first year. Lexmark used to hold the crown as worst manufacturer reliability but Kodak has taken that crown easily.

One of the problems extends from the photo printing process where a clear film is applied over the ink on the paper. When the ink runs out this film is still applied, then if this paper is re-used after the ink is re-filled the ink will not stick and a mess ensues. If you do buy a kodak and you run out of ink, do not attempt to re-use any paper twice.

The problem above accounts for a large percentage of the returns, but the rest are a mixture of faults in a much higher ratio than any other manufacturer.

Kodak should be applauded for their approach on ink prices, but it a shame they are made poorly. Nice looking printer as well.

EDIT: Lol well in my store we power up and take sample pictures of the new products. Last night was the ESP5's turn. Started fine, printed test photo's good, went to scan and it swallowed 20 sheets and the A4 drive mechanism is knackered. The first ESP5 opened is faulty - GREAT start, but it looks like the same problems from the 5300 are going to exist.

Brilliant bargain.

My cheap Dell projector( less than a year old ) needed a new bulb. Cheapest I could find was £233! This is better than the Dell, is guarenteed to work for 3years and is still cheaper. Someone is being ripped off somewhere.

A great printer - ideal for the Small/Home Office and far easier to network than the instructions suggest!

I bought the Brother to replace a disappointing HP LaserJet that died after only 2 years in action. Pc Pro rate the HL-5250 and its siblings very highly as they produce high quality printouts at a lower cost per page and I agree with their reviews.

The duplex function is great and works flawlessly - ideal for those long documents.

When I first installed the printer, I connected it directly to one of the PCs in my home network. I did look at the networking instructions but they seemed far too complex. I bought a new modem router and decided to connect it via the Ethernet port and not bother looking at the instructions. My modem just recognised it as another device in the network and all of the PCs instantly recognised it as a network printer. This is particularly useful when mixing XP and Vista machines in a network.

I can recommend this printer to anyone with a home network.