Samsung SCX-1100

Take a flatbed scanner and plonk it on top of an inkjet printer and what have you got? Samsung's new SCX-1100 multi-function device.

The Korean corporation hopes its new machine will sell well enough to propel the manufacturer to a top-three position in the UK market for such machines.

First impressions augur well. The SCX-1100 is hefty rather than hollow, feeling much weightier than its £180 price tag suggests. It's also pretty smart looking, with a design resembling a shrunken office photocopier.

Lifting the lid presents an A4-sized scanning bed, perpendicular to the paper hopper at the rear which accommodates up to 100 sheets.

It works just like a photocopier, too. Even when not connected to a PC, the SCX-1100 will happily churn out copies of documents placed on the scan bed; just hit the Copy button and sit back.

The time it takes to complete printing varies depending on the document. In our tests A4 pages of text appeared at a rate of just under five pages per minute (ppm), while mixed text and colour output dropped the rate to a little less than 2ppm.

The slowest yield was, unsurprisingly, A4 colour photograph prints: the SCX-1100 took almost nine minutes to squeeze out one of these.

Unfortunately, while scanned documents are faithful to the originals, print quality isn't a strong point. Our Labs examination showed text characters as grey and feathery, and bands were clearly visible on all coloured areas.

Output of black and white photography was much better but it's a shame that on two key selling points - colour printing and colour copying - the SCX-1100 disappoints.

Should that deter you from buying? Well, the answer really depends on intended use. As a cheap colour printer, scanner and copier the SCX-1100 is cheerful. However, the sometimes unpleasant look of printed output could make for shabby business presentation.

Price: £179.99 (inc VAT)

Specifications:

• All-in-one printer, scanner and copier
• 2,400 x 1,200dpi print resolution; 600 x 1,200dpi scan resolution
• Claimed print speed of up to 14 monochrome ppm
• Parallel and USB connections.

Contact: Samsung 0800 521652
www.samsungelectronics.co.uk

See also:

Brother MFC-590

An all-in-one inkjet printer, scanner, colour copier and plain-paper fax  26 Feb 2003

Lexmark X85 Pro

A decent multifunction option for small offices.  05 Feb 2003

Lexmark X125

A good value multifunction device for the small/home office.  02 Jan 2003

Lexmark X75

Print, scan, copy and fax with the good-value X75.  23 Dec 2002

Lexmark X75

Enter the space race with this integrated scanner and printer from Lexmark.  24 Oct 2002

Lexmark X63

The ideal multifunction device for those on a small budget.  18 Jul 2002

Canon SmartBase MPC600F

A capable and low-cost colour scanner, inkjet printer and fax machine.  12 Jun 2002

Brother MFC-590

A combined printer, scanner and fax.  10 May 2002

Lexmark X73

An all-in-one device for you to print, scan and copy on a budget.  22 Jan 2002

Lexmark X83

The latest and highest-spec multifunction device from Lexmark.  27 Sep 2001

Hewlett Packard OfficeJetV40

The OfficeJet V40 can print, fax, copy and scan.  13 Sep 2001

Like this story? Spread the news by clicking below:

 del.icio.us     Digg this     reddit!