One area that cheap office printers can fail is in processing speed and memory. It's one thing to connect a consumer oriented printer into an office, and it's quite another to connect a business oriented printer into the office. Printers designed for businesses or workgroups where there will be lots of large print jobs will have faster processors and more memory than their consumer counterparts. Being able to process documents faster and store more documents in memory, the printer can do a much more efficient job at getting them on to paper for you. To keep up with the pages it's processing, the ML-2855ND can print at speeds of up to 30 pages per minute single sided (duplex speeds are not given).

All printers have a duty cycle, that is, the number of pages they can print a month before breaking down or stressing the components enough to fail. When it comes to consumer grade printers, the duty cycle is something not even on your mind because you'll never come close to achieving it. However, when you're buying for a business or office you will suddenly start to realize the importance of this number. If you don't print very much, then why pay for a printer capable of doing more than you'll need? Or, if you print a lot then make sure to buy something that will keep up or else you'll have to deal with printer failures. The ML-2855ND is rated at a monthly duty cycle of 50,000 pages. When Samsung stated that it outperformed most competing printers with this number, I had to do the research for myself. I researched a handful of printers from various manufacturers that were in the same range as this one (ie. print speed, toner capacity, price and other major features). What I found was impressive; most competing printers with similar prices and features all fell between 20,000 and 35,000 pages per month with one Lexmark model tieing Samsung for the 50,000 pages, but it was priced over $100 higher.

This printer sports a very simple, straightforward control panel with a two line display.

 
(Click above to see enlarged)

Need double sided printing without the hassle? Easy, the ML-2855ND has built-in duplexing so it will print on both sides of your paper automatically without the need to manually flip it. The main paper tray on this printer will hold up to 250 sheets of regular or A4 sized paper and an additional multi-purpose tray will hold another 50 sheets. With the ability to connect a second paper tray you can store up to 550 sheets in the ML-2855ND.

 
(Click to see enlarged)

As the "N" denotes in the ML-2855ND name, this printer also has network capabilities alongside the standard USB connection. The built-in 10/100 wired ethernet port will allow you to connect it directly with your office network to allow everyone in the workgroup to print from it. Of course if you're just using it on one computer then you can simply use the USB connection directly into that computer.