We are used to seeing inkjet-based multifunction devices, so it was a nice surprise to have the laser printer-based Samsung SCX-4016 land in the office, especially as it's available for less than £200. It's a little taller than your average multifunction device, has the same footprint and is certainly no uglier.

The front of the SCX-4016 is taken up by a control panel, which contains the one-touch photocopying buttons, so you can copy a document without even connecting to a PC. All of the usual facilities are there, including the facility to make multiple copies and resize. We were pleased by the results.

To use the other functions of the SCX-4016 you need to plug it into a PC via a USB port. Once the software is installed it looks and operates like a standalone printer and scanner. In printer mode, we got some very good results and easily managed to get 14 pages of text per minute.

Samsung quotes the toner cartridge as being able to produce 3,000 pages before having to be replaced, although the starter cartridge bundled with the printer only manages 1,000 pages. The cartridges are very simple to replace and cost £58, which makes it just less than 2p to print a page.

There's also a print mode that reduces toner consumption by 40 per cent with a minor reduction in quality. Using it can save a fair amount of money.

The SCX-4016's paper handling is equally as impressive and the paper tray can hold 250 sheets of A4 paper. There's also a separate paper feed, which can be used to print on envelopes.

Only the scanner is a little disappointing. It's quite a cheap model and while it produces good results on black-and-white documents, it doesn't do such a good job on colour.

However, the SCX-4016 is stunningly good value for money and close in price to many standalone laser printers that don't have the scanner option. If you already have an inkjet printer that you are happy with but fancy a laser printer for text printing and a cheap scanner, then this is a very well-priced product.

Contact:
www.samsungelectronics.co.uk