Samsung ML-1865W printer review

The ML-1865 is nothing if not compact. With its various lids and trays shut, it has a tiny profile that means it will fit on any desk without consuming more than its fair share of space. It also has Wi-Fi, which means you can even move it out of reach of your PC, as long as both are on the same wireless network.

It is, however, fair to say that this printer won't suit everyone. It isn't a large-volume device, so offices with lots of people will not find it useful. It also lacks any networking support, bar wireless, so it isn't really ideal if your business wants properly networked printers.

But it's ideal for use where security is important. HR staff or managers can have a dedicated, but compact, printer of their own to print sensitive information without the risk that it will be printed to an incorrect location by mistake, or forgotten about and left lying on a shared machine.

At 4.2kg and with dimensions of 341x224x184mm it's difficult to believe that there's enough space inside to generate high-quality laser prints, but somehow this machine does manage it.

Compact and stylish
The ML-1865 is finished in black, some of which is shiny while some has a more matte appearance. Taking it out of the box, you'll notice it's festooned with stickers telling you all about the printer's skills and features.

There are only two buttons on the device; one to trigger the Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS) function to configure the ML-1865 for wireless printing, and a power switch. In additon to the two buttons are two LEDs. These give you information about the status of the Wi-Fi connection (if you're using it) and the printer's current situation.

Errors like an open lid are reported with a red LED, while normal operation is shown with green. As is the current trend, the Wi-Fi status light is blue.

As there's no ethernet networking option here, the only two sockets are for power and USB. Power is a standard kettle lead, while the USB is the same as that found on pretty much every other printer, namely USB B.

There are two fold-out parts to the ML-1865, a paper feed tray on the bottom front, which you'll need to have down when you're printing, and a flip out top tray which catches printing as it emerges. This can be left closed if you're printing single sheets, but you'll want it to be open for multiple pages, unless you want a lot of jumbled print-outs on your floor.

Wireless modes
There are two options for wireless printing. If you're at home or in a very small office with a WPS-capable router, you can get it connected by pressing the button marked WPS on the router and printer. That will have you up and running in no time at all.

If you're in a larger office, or simply don't have access to your router, or it doesn't offer WPS, you can download Samsung's Easy Print Manager, which allows you to connect the machine to an existing wireless network.

This is a little more complicated, and we ran in to some problems with our office wireless network as we didn't have access to all the required details (encryption type, etc).

We also tried with a couple of hotspot devices - a Samsung Android phone and a Solwise 3G router. We struggled to get the printer to work with the Solwise, despite WPS hooking them up perfectly. When it came to the phone, after a bit of waiting the software connected everything up and worked perfectly.