Yesterday, I bought a new printer.
As anyone who use Ubuntu/Linux knows, buying computer equipment can be a tough job. Many computer companies are our worst enemies. Despite the best effort of the open source communities and despite continuous improvement, hardware drivers remained one the main issue in Linux.
Thus, when I began thinking about getting a printer, I naturally thought about getting a HP printer. The long standing advice for the Linux users is to buy HP printer, because of the excellent driver support.
However, as I was shopping at the computer mall, I was seduced by the Samsung printer CLP-315. It was one of the cheapest colour printer, and boast of being the smallest. As I talked with the sales person, he mentioned the offer: SGD279, free 4GB thumbdrive, and free Trend Micro Internet Security 2008.
Alright, that last part was crap. The offer was real enough, but really? Internet Security? Brought back my Windows days and fighting with crap McAfee security suite, which brought up the CPU to 100%. That was probably the final nail in the coffin and prompted me to delete Windows for good.
I asked about Linux support, and surprisingly the packaging box mentioned support for Linux. Alright! I always support companies that support Linux. But still, there was doubt. Of course, the salesperson was clueless, as always.
I excused myself, and went online. While Samsung did provide Linux driver, there wasn’t the definitely “worked here in Intrepid” anywhere. I googled for a while and found some hints that the printer could work. Finally, I decided someone has to be the guinea pig sometime. So, I bought the printer, lugged the heavy beast (smallest printer my *ss!) back home.
Two hours of google-fu with the printer, finally got it to work. Here is a snap of some printed pages.
And here is a brief account of how I got the Samsung CLP-315 working in Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex.
Ok, now the question is, what should I do with the Trend Micro Internet Security 2008? Anyone wants it? It’s free, plus I will throw in an Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex LiveCD. Of course, I strongly suggest you take the Ubuntu LiveCD instead. 
Comments 12
$279 for a colour printer. thats cheap.
how much is the toner?
Posted 05 Nov 2008 at 3:07 pm ¶I didn’t ask about toner price. I wasn’t expecting to do a lot of printing, so wasn’t too concerned about that.
Posted 05 Nov 2008 at 5:24 pm ¶Here are the official installation instructions.
http://foo2qpdl.rkkda.com/
Try them and see if you can make it install the CLP-315 driver which seems to be fixed in the latest version as per some forum discussions I read.
Posted 12 Jan 2009 at 10:43 pm ¶I plan to buy it, what is your opinion after some days using it?
hi Federico
Thanks for the link. It will be useful in the future.
After two months using the printer, a few hundreds prints, I am quite please with the printer. Definitely worth it, since it’s so cheap.
Nothing to say about black-white printing; it’s just like other laser printers I have come across. Good speed, quiet, and did not encounter any problem.
Colour printing is good for documents, pamphlets, and graphical source.
I tried a few photo prints on glossy paper and was unimpressed. The colour is dull and inaccurate.
There was a driver problem when printing photo (jpg) directly into the printer. This caused an error and the print job was aborted. I have to convert the photo to a pdf file to workaround this.
My unit did not have duplex unit, so I have to manually flip the paper for double sided print. Not a big deal since I don’t print large volume.
After one side was printed, I have to “uncurved” the paper, before printing the other side. Else, there is a tendency for one corner of the paper to be creased during the second print.
Posted 13 Jan 2009 at 9:18 am ¶I finally bought this printer. I was not expecting good color prints based on your coments and other reviews. But I installed the samsung driver along with the opensource driver (on linux). The latest version can be downloaded from here:
http://www.samsung.com/ar/consumer/detail/support.do?group=printersmultifunction&type=printersmultifunction&subtype=colorlaserprinter&model_nm=CLP-315&disp_nm=CLP-315&language=&cate_type=all&dType=D&mType=DR&vType=&prd_ia_cd=06010200&model_cd=CLP-315/XBH&menu=download
Or look at the samsung webpage. I must say I printed a photo of a human face (photo downloaded form intenet so no very big) on plain paper, with draft settings and 600 DPI. The colors are realistic and impressive. Try it youself. The results were not the same with the opensource driver.
Also text output seems better with the samsung driver.
Check the latest version, I think it has better quality than the one that cames with the printer on CD.
Once installed, the printer is set up like any other printer in Ubuntu, just choose the samsung driver that is called something like CLP-310.
Posted 14 Feb 2009 at 2:01 am ¶hi Federico
Thanks for the tip. I went to the Samsung website as you suggested, and installed the latest driver (build date: 2009-02-06).
I noticed improvements in the new driver (compared to the one from the printer installation CD):
1. It no longer includes the Samsung Smart Panel application. I consider this an improvement, because the application did not work in Ubuntu.
2. Printing directly from a jpg file now works. No need to convert to pdf any more.
3. Print quality for natural photo has improved. The colour is more natural, and noise defects around some edges have been removed. But I still wouldn’t recommend this printer for photo prints. This possibly a technical limitation of a laser printer. An inkjet based printer would do a much better job.
Posted 14 Feb 2009 at 2:37 pm ¶I am very interested where did you bought the printer at such a value…
Could u tell me where you bought it?
Posted 19 Jul 2009 at 12:39 pm ¶hi MAX
Posted 19 Jul 2009 at 10:58 pm ¶Thanks for reading. I bought the printer in Sim Lim Square, back in November 2008. There was a temporary Samsung booth on the third/fourth floor (can’t remember exactly now).
Hi,
I am interested in buying this printer, so I hope you can tell me what’s your opinion after almost one year of usage… I need it just for home use, nothing to much… Are printed images looks smooth? I mean, how gradient fill will look like? I hope there is no visible boundaries between to shades of colors… I hope you’ll understand, cause I don’t speak English very well…
BTW, I’m using Windows XP, so drivers wouldn’t be a problem (I hope).
Also, in my country that printer now costs about $160… so, should I wait for CLX-3175FNK? It has scanner and fax, printing directly from USB flash, and scanning to it, works without PC… There is no prices yet, but it can’t be to expensive, right?
/thx/
Posted 03 Oct 2009 at 5:33 pm ¶hi grof
Thanks for stopping by.
I am pretty happy with this printer. The printer has been very useful for letters, resume, etc. Almost one year and a couple of hundred sheets later, it’s still going strong; no paper jams, no cleaning of interior (yet), quality is still as good as the first print, and still on the first set of toners.
It does an adequate job of printing colour materials; you can see for yourself from the posted picture above. And yes, the colour gradient did looked smooth.
However, for colour images, I wouldn’t recommend it. Why? I think the colour lacks vibrancy. It’s not vivid, even on high grade glossy paper. The various ink based colour printers easily beat this laser printer hands down. Ink based printers are as cheap or cheaper; so if your primary usage is printing colour images, this is not the printer to get.
Posted 03 Oct 2009 at 6:12 pm ¶hello
Posted 27 Jan 2010 at 11:07 am ¶i am thinking to buy this printer clp-315,
you people who already bought this one, did someone of you know to tell realistic opinion how many full color pages can print this one, or with first set of toners can i print 500 color pages with 80-90% filling of the paper.
i have canon lbp2900 mono laser, and it prints more than 1000 pages full text with one toner. so canon is good for that, but will be clp-315 good like this one, economic view?
hi slavco
Unfortunately, I can’t tell you the expected number of full colour pages from the colour toners, because I did not make a count.
However, I did notice by the time the first black toner ran out, I have also ran out of paper. Since I bought a ream of 500 sheets in the beginning and I printed mostly double-sided, the first black toner did lasted almost 1000 prints. Which confirmed what the manual claimed.
Posted 27 Jan 2010 at 4:07 pm ¶Post a Comment