Once something only big companies could afford, network multifunction laser devices are now comfortably within the reach of small businesses.

Indeed it’s surprising just what you can get for your money these days, such as the Samsung SCX-5530FN, which offers a lot more than the basic printing, copying and faxing options you might expect.

At the heart of the SCX-5530FN is a 28ppm monochrome laser with a, now almost essential, built-in duplexer for double-sided printing. With a duty cycle of 25,000 pages per month it’s ideal for network sharing, so you also get an integrated network server as well as USB and parallel interfaces.

A combined toner/drum cartridge is the only consumable required, the Samsung laser shipping with a small (4,000 page) cartridge to get you started, while replacement 8K cartridges are also available at around £128 ex. Vat.

A 250-sheet A4 tray comes as standard with a fold-out multi-purpose feeder for transparencies, card and other materials, plus there’s an optional 250 sheet second drawer should you need it.

As a printer we found the SCX-5530FN very quick and easy to use, and although only 600dpi, boosted to an effective 1200dpi by software, it’s more than adequate for day-to-day office printing. Plus there’s full support for both PCL6 and Postscript Level 3 printing with nice drivers for Windows, Mac and Linux provided.

However, it’s the other options that really make the SCX-5530FN stand out. Starting with the built-in flatbed colour scanner, complete with automatic document feeder, which not only turns the Samsung into a walk-up copier, but a fax machine (a fax modem is also built in) and a shared colour scanner.

The SCX-5530FN can also convert scans to tiff, pdf and other formats and either transmit the scanned documents to remote Windows or FTP file shares, or send them to individuals and groups via email.

It’s these last two options that we found the most exciting. For example, using an SCX-5530FN, orders could be scanned in and automatically sent to accounts and dispatch departments for processing. Or you could do away with desktop scanners, and scan direct to the desktops or even straight to an application, if required. Added to which you can plug a USB memory stick into the front of the SCZ-5530FN and either print out what it contains or scan documents onto it – great for when you’re in a hurry.

We really were very impressed with what the SCX-5570FN had to offer, and although a very light and easily positioned device, we found it robust and well designed – an important consideration when used by lots of people. We also found the various options easy to use, although typing email addresses and other information from the small keypad at the front can be a bit tricky.

Fortunately it’s quite easy to configure address books and PIN-protected user settings in advance via the web-based management interface - so much so that scanning a document and either storing it to disk or emailing it to a group of users can be done with just three or four key presses.

You also get an impressive bundle of management and user tools as standard.
OK, you can get network laser printers for a lot less. But when you add up the cost of a separate scanner, copier and fax machine, not to mention all the extras such as the scan-to-email option, you soon discover that you’re getting an awful lot more for your money.