Samsung's CLP-660ND color laser printer has a lot of competition in its price range. While it's a decent printer in most respects, its subpar graphics quality dampens our overall enthusiasm for it.
Samsung Samsung CLP-660ND

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- Spec Navigator
- Core Components
- Media Handling
- Network
- Connectivity
- Platform Support
- Dimensions
- General Features
- Green
- Resolutions
- Scanning
- Faxing
Media Handling
| Manual Feed Slot | Yes |
| Maximum Number of Input Trays | 2 |
| Maximum paper size, height | 14.0 inches |
| Maximum Sheets With All Paper Trays | 500 |
| Output Tray Capacity | 200 |
| Standard Number of Input Trays | 1 |
| Maximum paper size, width | 8.5 inches |
| Standard input sheet capacity | 250 |
| Duplex printing | Yes |
Platform Support
| Operating System Support |
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- Lab Tested
- How We Test Printers »
Pros
Excellent text quality
Good reliability
Cons
Inferior graphics quality
Expensive toner
Bottom Line
The CLP-660ND offers decent speed and design, but its grainy graphics aren't for the art crowd.
Samsung CLP-660ND Color Laser Printer
Samsung CLP-660ND Review, by Melissa Riofrio March 10, 2008
The CLP-660ND achieved an adequate speed of 19.8 pages per minute (ppm) while printing text in our tests. Its top speed printing graphics was an underwhelming 2.9 ppm. Text quality was excellent, the letterforms appearing deep black and delicately drawn. Unfortunately, graphics samples of all kinds fell victim to noticeable moiré patterns and graininess. Glossy laser paper did not improve matters much.
The design of the CLP-660ND has its awkward aspects. Extending the 250-sheet input tray to hold legal-size paper involves a difficult pinch-and-yank process. The handle for opening the 100-sheet multipurpose tray is hard to distinguish from the front-panel handle located in the same place. Oddly, the front panel opens just a small amount at first pull; you must tug it a second time, a little harder, to open it completely. The 200-sheet output tray exits to the far rear, which could be hard to reach for some people. A 500-sheet input tray option is available.
The control panel is simple for the most part. You navigate menus on the two-line monochrome LCD using a brief array of clearly labeled buttons. Some of the messages displayed could resemble normal language more closely, but most are understandable. Samsung's SmartPanel Monitor application picks up the slack by providing on-screen status, troubleshooting, and other useful information.
The machine ships with standard-yield, 2500-page black and 2000-page cyan, magenta, and yellow cartridges. The high-yield versions we priced are still a little expensive: A 5500-page black cartridge costs $110, or 2 cents per page, while each 5000-page color cartridge costs $130, or 2.6 cents per color, per page.
Though installing the printer started with one of those potentially daunting, wordless posters, the process went smoothly. The PDF user guide offers plenty of operational guidance but not much on the driver or software. When we tried using Samsung's own driver for the printer, it stalled on our Photoshop tests because of a mysteriously absent .dll file; we ended up testing it using the PostScript driver instead. At press time, Samsung said it had resolved the driver issue but had not confirmed a date for making the fix publicly available.
The better-than-average reliability mark that readers gave to Samsung printer products in our Reliability and Service survey buoys the ranking of an otherwise run-of-the mill printer. Its struggles with graphics quality, so if you buy it, you should probably stick to pie charts and other simple, ordinary image types.
--Melissa Riofrio
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- Rating Breakdown
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68
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84
-
72
- See Complete Lab Results »
Performance Comparison with Similar Printers
68
74
82
82
Performance
| 300dpi Line Art Image (secs) | 21.8 |
| 4 by 6 Color Photo (secs) | 42.32 |
| 4 by 6 Grayscale Photo (secs) | 25.66 |
| Color Output Quality | Fair |
| Color Photo Quality | Fair |
| Copy Output Quality | n/a |
| Copy Quality | n/a |
| Grayscale Glossy Output Quality | n/a |
| Grayscale Output Quality | Fair |
| Line Art Output Quality | Very Good |
| One-Page Webpage (secs) | 20.4 |
| Overall Scan Quality | n/a |
| Sports Action Shot (secs) | 53.75 |
| Ten-Page Word Document | 39.34 |
| Ten-Page Word Document (secs) | 39.34 |
| Tested Color Speed (ppm) | 2.9 |
| Tested Glossy Photo Speed (ppm) | 1.1 |
| Tested Grayscale Speed (ppm) | 2.3 |
| Tested Lineart Speed (ppm) | 2.8 |
| Tested Text Speed (ppm) | 19.8 |
| Text Output Quality | Superior |
| Three-Page Word Document | 23.11 |
| Three-Page Word Document (secs) | 23.11 |
| Two-Page Excel Document | 19.95 |
| Two-Page Excel Document (secs) | 19.95 |
Text Printing
| Text output quality | Superior |
Review Now! Already own it? Tell us What You Think
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