Samsung SCX-5639FR

Aimed squarely at a micro- to mid-size office, and potentially useful in a busy home office with heavy duty needs, the Samsung SCX-5639FR ($550 street) offers at least one feature that most mono laser MFPs don't: a duplexing automatic document feeder (ADF) that lets you scan both sides of a page. If you have to scan or copy two-sided documents very often, that alone goes a long way towards making it a highly attractive choice.

Not too surprisingly, the SCX-5639FR is similar to, but a step up from the Samsung SCX-4835FR ($450, 2.5 stars) that I recently reviewed. It offers a slightly faster engine rating, at 37, rather than 33, pages per minute (ppm), but it's really a variation on a theme, suitable for slightly more heavy duty use.

Like the SCX-4835FR, the SCX-5639FR is too big to share a desk with comfortably, at 17.6 by 18.5 by 17.2 (HWD) inches, and it may be a little hard to find room for in a home office. However it's small enough to fit easily in most micro or small offices, and it's easy to share on a network, thanks to the Ethernet connection.

Basic MFP features for the SCX-5639FR include the ability to print from, fax from, and scan to a PC, even over a network, as well as work as a standalone copier and fax machine. It can also both print from and scan to a USB memory key. As with most MFPs, it offers a letter-size flatbed, with the 50-page ADF letting you scan up to legal size pages. Note, however, that although the duplexing ADF will let you copy both single and double sided originals to your choice of single or double sided copies, sending faxes is limited to single sided scans only.

Paper capacity is suitable for most micro and small offices, with a 250-sheet paper tray, a 50-sheet multipurpose tray for easy printing on different types of paper, and a built-in duplexer (for printing on both sides of the page). For those who need more, Samsung sells an optional 520-sheet tray ($200 street) for a total capacity of 820 sheets.

Setup, Speed, and Output Quality
Setting up the SCX-5639FR was absolutely standard. For my tests, I connected it directly to a network and installed the driver and software on a Windows Vista system. On our business applications suite (timed with QualityLogic's hardware and software), it came in at an effective 9.7 ppm, which is a reasonable, but not impressive, speed for the 37 ppm engine rating. In comparison, the Editors' Choice Brother MFC-8480DN ($400 street, 4 stars), rated at 32 ppm, managed a 10.6 ppm effective speed.

Output quality is just a touch below par overall for a monochrome laser MFP, but only because graphics quality and photo quality are both at the bottom of a tight range where the vast majority of mono laser MFPs fall.

Text quality in my tests was easily good enough for any business need short of serious desktop publishing applications. Graphics, similarly, were good enough for any internal business need. Depending on how much of a perfectionist you are, you may or may not consider them good enough for PowerPoint handouts or other material going to potential clients or customers. Photo quality was more than good enough to print recognizable photos from Web pages. Here again, depending on your level of perfectionism, you may or may not consider the photos good enough for a client newsletter or the like.

The best argument for this printer is that it scores reasonably well in all the areas that are most important for mono laser MFPs, with a well-balanced mix of text quality, print speed, paper handling, and MFP functions. It even claims a reasonable running cost, at 2.0 cents per page. The combination adds up to making the Samsung SCX-5639FR a capable MFP and a more than reasonable choice. If you can take good advantage of the duplexing ADF, it can even be an attractive choice.

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