Pros & Cons
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- Good speed and output quality.
- Prints from and scans to USB thumb drives.
- Secure, password-protected printing.
- Ethernet and WiFi (including WiFi Direct).
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- Under-responsive touch pad.
Samsung CLX-6260FW Specs
| Color or Monochrome | 1-pass color |
| Connection Type | Ethernet |
| Connection Type | USB |
| Connection Type | Wireless |
| Cost Per Page (Color) | 13.7 cents |
| LCD Preview Screen | |
| Maximum Scan Area | 8.5" x 14" |
| Maximum Standard Paper Size | Legal |
| Monthly Duty Cycle (Maximum) | 60000 pages per month |
| Number of Ink Colors | 4 |
| Print Duplexing | |
| Rated Speed at Default Settings (Color) | 25 ppm |
| Rated Speed at Default Settings (Mono) | 25 ppm |
| Scanner Optical Resolution | 600 pixels per inch |
| Scanner Type | Flatbed with ADF (Standard or Optional) |
| Standalone Copier and Fax | Copier |
| Standalone Copier and Fax | Fax |
| Type | All-in-one |
The Samsung CLX-6260FW Color Multifunction Printer ($999.99 direct, 4 stars) is a well-rounded color laser MFP for a small office or busy workgroup, with good speed and output quality and a solid feature set. It's worth a close look if your office or workgroup needs to print color in volume.
The CLX-6260FW can print, copy, scan, and fax; scan to email, a local or network PC, or an FTP server; fax from its keypad or from your computer (PC-fax); print from or scan to a USB thumb drive or a mobile device. This towering machine measures 19.9 by 18.5 by 17.8 inches (HWD) and weighs 59 pounds; you'll want to put it on a separate table or bench. On top is a 50-sheet automatic document feeder (ADF) for scanning, copying, or faxing multipage documents. The front panel holds a 4.3-inch color touch screen, an alphanumeric keypad for entering fax numbers, and a few other physical buttons such as On, Off, and Wake.
The touch screen should have been a nice plus, but I found it to be barely responsive. I frequently had to touch a function twice or more to get it to work. Another thing I found annoying are the five moderately loud beeps it emits when you wake the printer up, open the paper drawer, or do other things to change the MFP's state. As a warning system, it seemed a bit excessive.
The CLX-6260FW has a 300-sheet paper capacity, split between a 250-sheet main paper tray and a 50-sheet multifunction/bypass tray, with an optional 520-sheet tray for a maximum of 820 sheets and an automatic duplexer for printing on both sides of a sheet of paper. Its paper capacity is similar to many color MFPs around its price.
The CLX-6260FW has a good range of connectivity choices, including USB, Ethernet (including Gigabit Ethernet), Wi-Fi, and Wi-Fi Direct, which simplifies printing from mobile devices. It's also compatible with Samsung MobilePrint, one of the better mobile printing apps.
Printing Speed
I clocked the CLX-6260FW on our business applications suite (using QualityLogic's hardware and software for timing), at an effective 6.3 pages per minute (ppm), a good speed considering its 25-page per minute rated speed for both color and monochrome printing that’s based on printing text documents without graphics or photos—our test suite includes text pages, graphics pages, and pages with mixed content. Although it's not the fastest mid-range color MFP we've encountered, it's not too far off the pace. We timed the OKI MC561, rated at up to 31 pages per minute for monochrome and 27 for color at an effective 7.2 ppm; the Editors' Choice Lexmark X548dte, SEE IT rated at 25 pages per minute for both monochrome and color printing, at 7.0 ppm; and the Brother MFC-9970CDW, rated at 30 pages per minute for both monochrome and color, at 6.6 ppm.
Output Quality
Overall output quality was slightly above par, thanks to better than average graphics. Text quality was average for a laser, good enough for any business uses short of demanding desktop publishing applications requiring very small fonts.
Graphics quality was slightly above par for a color laser. Colors were well saturated and seemed reasonably true. The only issues of note were dithering (graininess) in some illustrations, and a few backgrounds had a somewhat uneven fill. Graphics are fine for PowerPoint handouts, even those going to people you're trying to impress, and good enough for basic marketing materials.
Overall photo quality was par for a color laser. Quality was a bit inconsistent, with some prints approaching true photo quality while others a little below the quality you'd expect from drugstore prints. A monochrome image showed a distinct tint, and there was notable dithering and some loss of detail in bright areas in several prints. Photo quality is probably good enough for client newsletters, but not for marketing materials.
It's easy to recommend Samsung CLX-6260FW Color Multifunction Printer to offices looking for an MFP for fairly high-volume color printing. Its speed is competitive, it has a good range of connectivity choices, and its overall output quality, led by above-par graphics, is good. There are faster color MFPs, such as the OKI C561, and ones with better output quality and feature sets, like the Editors' Choice Lexmark X548dte, but the CLX-6260FW strikes a good balance between speed, output quality, price, and features. It could well be your multifunction color laser of choice. I only wish that its touch screen was more responsive and less frustrating.
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