It's hard to imagine a color laser printer having dimesions any smaller than the Samsung CLP-300N's 15.4 by 13.5 by 10.4 inches (width by depth by height). At just $350 (as of March 7, 2007), the CLP-300N is also one of the cheapest color lasers we've seen to date, though its consumables costs are high and its print quality is not impressive.
Samsung CLP-300N Laser Printer (17 PPM, 2400x600 DPI, Color, 64M, PC/Mac/Linux)

Pricing
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- Spec Navigator
- Core Components
- Media Handling
- Network
- Connectivity
- Platform Support
- Dimensions
- General Features
- Green
- Included Software
- Resolutions
- Scanning
- Faxing
Media Handling
| Manual Feed Slot | Yes |
| Maximum Number of Input Trays | 1 |
| Maximum paper size, height | 14.0 inches |
| Maximum Sheets With All Paper Trays | 150 |
| Output Tray Capacity | 100 |
| Standard Number of Input Trays | 1 |
| Maximum paper size, width | 8.5 inches |
| Standard input sheet capacity | 150 |
| Duplex printing | No |
- Lab Tested
- How We Test Printers »
Pros
Very small footprint.
Easy toner replacement.
Cons
Low print quality
High toner costs.
Bottom Line
The CLP-300N won't thrill anyone with its unexceptional print quality, but it's small and inexepensive.
Samsung CLP-300N
CLP-300N Laser Printer (17 PPM, 2400x600 DPI, Color, 64M, PC/Mac/Linux) Review, by Paul Jasper March 18, 2007
At this size, there's not much room for paper. The CLP-300N has a single paper tray that can hold 150 sheets of plain paper. The output bin holds up to 100 sheets. You can feed envelopes from the paper tray one at a time, after removing the other paper. No duplexer and no add-on paper tray upgrades are available. The simple control panel features just five lights and a stop button.
The estimated cost per page for this printer is 3.7 cents for a black-and-white page and 19 cents for a color page. Rated for just 1000 pages, the three color toners cost $50 apiece. The larger black cartridge should produce 2000 pages and is priced at $60. In addition you must change the $100 imaging unit every 20,000 black-and-white or 12,500 color pages--a more complex task. Finally, the $10 waste toner container requires replacement every 5000 black-and-white or 1250 color pages. The one-year warranty doesn't cover the imaging unit or the waste toner container. On a positive note, the toner comes in four cylindrical cartridges that twist easily into and out of position in the printer, so replacing cartridges is a snap.
This GDI-based printer leaves page rendering to your PC's processor. Text prints at 17.7 pages per minute, whereas photos print on plain paper at 2.4 ppm and glossy paper at 1.6 ppm.
Our panel of judges found the CLP-300N's text output too dark and noticed major bleeding in bold fonts. The test print also had a semiglossy sheen that struck some people as attractive but others as distracting. Our line art sample came out too dark, as well, with close lines merging and with some banding. Our grayscale image displayed rainbow effects in areas of smooth tonal change, such as the sky. On plain paper, our color images looked grainy and too light; colors printed on glossy paper seemed washed out, with unsubtle black ink layered over them.
If space is at a premium in your office and you aren't too concerned about print quality or page costs, the Samsung CLP-300N makes an easy-to-use, no-nonsense color printer.
Paul Jasper
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- Rating Breakdown
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64
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81
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72
- See Complete Lab Results »
Performance Comparison with Similar Printers
64
74
82
82
Performance
| 300dpi Line Art Image (secs) | 27.48 |
| 4 by 6 Color Photo (secs) | 31.22 |
| 4 by 6 Grayscale Photo (secs) | 31.22 |
| Color Output Quality | Fair |
| Color Photo Quality | Fair |
| Grayscale Output Quality | Fair |
| Line Art Output Quality | Fair |
| One-Page Webpage (secs) | 27.65 |
| Sports Action Shot (secs) | 37.23 |
| Ten-Page Word Document | 43.98 |
| Ten-Page Word Document (secs) | 43.98 |
| Tested Color Speed (ppm) | 2.4 |
| Tested Glossy Photo Speed (ppm) | 1.6 |
| Tested Grayscale Speed (ppm) | 1.9 |
| Tested Lineart Speed (ppm) | 2.2 |
| Tested Text Speed (ppm) | 17.7 |
| Text Output Quality | Good |
| Three-Page Word Document | 48.37 |
| Three-Page Word Document (secs) | 48.37 |
| Two-Page Excel Document | 41.72 |
| Two-Page Excel Document (secs) | 41.72 |
Text Printing
| Text output quality | Good |
Average User Reviews for Samsung CLP-300N Laser Printer (17 PPM, 2400x600 DPI, Color, 64M, PC/Mac/Linux)
- Latest User Reviews 3 reviews
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Reviewed by: sedotcom
Duration of ownership: 10 Months
Strengths: The ability to purchase a compatible toner from SuppliesExperts.com for the CLP-300 has been a blessing, we save tons of money with the CLP-300 toner from SuppliesExperts.com
Weaknesses: slow printing
Overall: I like it and since like I mentioned above we were able to purchase more ink from SuppliesExperts.com it all works out.
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Reviewed by: PSComputerHelp
Duration of ownership: 6 Months
Strengths: AWESOME!!! color quality for such a small laser printer. Makes production of my marketing material more affordable to be able to print such high quality. As most of you know, most laser printers start at roughly $399 and go up. From my experience and color laser printers you're average cost for tone is usually about $100 bucks per/tone cartridge. Now that Samsung came out with this affordable printer, I recommend this printer to anyone running a small business. This is the most affordable color printer affordable on the market today.
Weaknesses: I have cons on this printer at this point
Overall: Affordable, Awesome print quality, I definitely recommend it.
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Reviewed by: bld23
Duration of ownership: 2 Months
Overall: We just bought one for the office. Works great for our needs! http://splifit.com
Review Now! Already own it? Tell us What You Think
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Reviewed by: savingeye
Strengths: Not bulky, low noise and great color.
Weaknesses: Uses a lot of power and the power switch is on the back. The toner packs are too small.
Overall: Well after a long search, this was the winner of price vs quality fight. A local office superstore had two models I was eying, an HP 1600 and this one. They seemed pretty similar in most regards until dropped the CLP-300 100 dollars below the HP. It was time to grab the bargain.This is the first Samsung laser printer I have in my home office now. I was afraid to try the Samsung CLP-300 because its name isn't as big as HP's. So I get it home and commence to setting it up. It took about 5 minutes to unpack, route cables, plug in the toner packs, and fire it up. It didn't skip a beat and had a test page done in a jiffy. Drivers for the computer went just as easily. Overall a very, very simple set up.As easy as an inkjet to set up the toners. The front cover of the printer opens to reveal 4 "holes" for the toner cartridges. Simply remove the protective covers from the 3 color cartridges and 1 black cartridge and pop them into their respective holes. This has to be a step forward for the laser printer world.So my score of 4 out of 5 stars represents the above pros and cons and my experience so far with this printer. Its not a perfect 5 because there is room for improvement but its a very nice printer that is great to have.
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Reviewed by: qnju
Strengths: Very compact, fast printing, good printing quality
Weaknesses: a little noisy, just a little
Overall: I like this printer very much, mainly because it is so compact as color laser one. The priting is fast and the printing quality is well acceptable. Only thing is that it tends to make some noise. But I guess this is common on all printers. Overall, a great buy!
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Reviewed by: studentadvocate
Strengths: Printer is not too large, color and B&W printing
Weaknesses: Color is not as true, high quality as I thought it would be
Overall: This is a good basic color printer. However, when printing pictures from the internet, I found the color not to be exact, and not as true a color, in fact it appeared somewhat faded/lighter than what was being printed. HOWEVER, for documents with contain color graphs etc, this is all you need. Samsung makes quality printers, and we have purchased Samsung many times.
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Reviewed by: terianCS
Strengths: Speed, cost, quality
Weaknesses: lack of required usb cable
Overall: Just bought this from PrinterBase.co.uk, who were excellent.It was easy to set up, though there is no hardcopy manual supplied, the setup sheet is pretty straightforward. There is however, a full users guide on the drive CD so if you are at all unsure, it's worth reading that before setting up.Took me no more than 10 minutes to get it out the box, setup,driver installed and printing.Quality wise, whilst it may not be good for 100% photo-quality, it's output is more than good enough for most purposes. The first thing I did was dial down the level of ink it was laying down to almost its minimum as it was, as others have said, over-heavy. This should also have the added benefit of reducing your printing costs.I do a lot of publicity printing for a charity, including full clour guides and I have to say, even the front page was excellent quality and double-sided printing was clean leaving the result looking very professional.Reliability is something I cannot comment on having only just bought it, though it will be taking a considerable punishment.Operation is good and not too noisy for a laser printer, speed is a real eye opener after my Epson 870 inkjet. I started a print and popped out of the room, returned wondering why it was quiet, only to find it had finished.Price of consumables is high in relation to the inkjet, but how this actually pans out only time will tell in terms of per page actual cost. That said, if using "genuine" cartridges, the cost of the inkjet rises to a considerable amount and of course, compared to newer inkjets, cartridge costs can be comparable if not more per colour.The quoted life of the toner packs is 1,000 for colour, which in theory makes it acceptable in terms of cost per page, the bonus is, no wrinkling of paper, no bleed-through, no long printing times and sharper text. This has to be balanced in to if the costs are worth it or not.Also, I ordered the CLP300N as it came with the free Rainbow pack. Whilst I don't really need a network port on the printer, it effectively means you get the printer for 80 pounds if you factor the cost of the pack in. A bargain in anyones books. Plus, it means you have quite a while, in theory, before having to order any new toner, which can be replaced per colour.Overall, initial impressions are very favourable and I am impressed both with the printer and the service from Printerbase.
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Reviewed by: thelastslayer
Strengths: Inexpensive Color Laser Printer | Built-in Ethernet Port | Option to use Larger Monochrome Toner | Small Size
Weaknesses: Slow printing (4ppm color!) | Small Toner Cartridges | Very small paper tray (150 sheets of paper) | No paper tray upgrades available
Overall: The Samsung CLP-300N is one of the cheapest color laser printers available that comes with an Ethernet connection built in, making networking the printer a cinch! The footprint of this printer is small, measuring just 10.4 x 15.4 x 13.5, ensuring placement won't be an issue even in the most cramped of environments. Unfortunately, this is where the honeymoon ends.The print quality of this printer is simply average at best, there is nothing amazing about the quality, period. The text quality is closer to what you would expect from an inkjet printer, not a laser printer. The print speed is incredibly SLOW - 4ppm color, 16ppm b&w. The cost per printed page is rather expensive as well, 3.7 cents per b&w copy, and 19 cents per color copy.Maximum resolution is 2400x600 dpi, so don't expect a lot of photo quality here, even using more expensive glossy paper. If you are looking for a fast printing color laser printer with relatively low cost printing, this printer is NOT for you. If you don't mind the higher cpp, slower print speed, and need a small laser printer at an affordable price, then this printer may be for you.
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