Samsung's SF-4700 MFP offers the features users want at a price they can afford

Samsung's SF-4700 full color inkjet multi-function product is an all-inone unit that functions as a color printer & copier, fax, PC fax, and color scanner. It offers convenient business tools with the capabilities of a full range of office equipment.

We have been using the SF-4700 for more

Installing the supplied software was easy with the SmarThru CD- 10 ROM. The CD contained a MFP Driver; SmarThru Software; OCR Software (AnyPage Lite); and a bonus Acrobat Reader Software. This software must be installed to use the machine as a printer or scanner. The hard copy user manual as well as the onscreen help options offer complete and easy to understand instructions.

FAST-FORWARD FUNCTIONS

The SF-4700 offers thermal inkjet printing with a resolution of 1200 dots per inch (dpi). A dual cartridge system with 150 sheet automatic sheet feeder compliments its superior print quality with a high speed of nine pages-per-minute (mono) or five pages-per-minute (color). Internal paper jams were nonexistant with only an occassional jam at the output source.

The SF-4700 touts a 14.4kbps Modem and a 30-sheet automatic document feeder. Faxing in standard mode, the SF-4700 uses 200 x 100 dpi resolution (fine uses 200 x 200, and superfine uses 300 x 300 dpi). We found the faxing capabilities to be superb. Acting standalone, the SF4700 features group dialing, 10 onetouch dials, 50 speed dials, and .5 MB of memory. Another attractive option when using the fax capability is the Auto Journal which keeps track of information concerning transmission or reception activities such as the time and dates of up to 50 of the most recent transmissions or receptions.

The SF-4700's copier can be used standalone or accessed through the supplied software. Features include quick copy functionality with quick scan and 9ppm printing; reductions and enlargements from 25- to 200percent; a photo copy with 256 level gray scale (with PC); and copying from one to 99 pages. Copying from the keypad only supports black and white copying; so if users want color they must work through the supplied software.

SMART CHOICE... SMARTHRU

A Scan Wizard shortcut on the desktop to the SmarThru software allows a user to scan, copy scan to fax, scan to e-mail, or scan to OCR with options including black & white, grayscale, 256-colors, or 24-bit 2 color capabilities at resolutions of 300 dpi to 4800 dpi depending on the job.

The scanning option offers users a variety of possibilities. While capable of scanning color documents, we found that scanning a typical black and white text document to be the quickest and most convenient option.

After scanning, a text document can be captured in the Image Manager and faxed, e-mailed, printed, or sent to the optical character reader (OCR) for input into a word processing program. A toolbox on the Image Manager allows the scan to be altered in a variety of ways including changing text and adding features.

For scan to fax operation, users can group frequently used fax numbers complete with contact names and information. Notes can be attached as a cover page to the fax. Users can choose between a simple mode of faxing or an advanced mode which offers users the ability to edit fax sending parameters such as sending time, cover page, and dialing properties.

Pricing for the SF-4700 is currently at a suggested retail price of $299 and offers an extremely competitive price with the features of many higher-end and higher-priced products.

All told, the SF-4700 has empowered us with a productive and practical solution to meet a variety of our document communication needs. The convenience of having many office tools in one machine saved us not only time but enhanced our capabilities.