Canon Pixma MX7600 – A Clear Enhancement from Canon

Pros

The Canon Pixma MX7600 has got all new ink cartridges which enhances the print quality of the printer. Apart from this the printer comes with out-and-out one-touch fax keypad, auto-duplexer, improved faxing options, spontaneous photo-printing controls and really fast photo and graphic prints.

Cons

The Canon Pixma MX7600’s cumbersome size, unimproved text speed and really high price tad can definitely repel some potential buyers.

Introduction

Just a few months back we were praising the Canon Pixma MX7600 for its great results in our reviewing tests. The multifunction MX700 performed exceedingly well as a printer, fax machine, copier and scanner and despite its spontaneous performance the printer yielded brilliant quality prints. But most importantly each of the function of that printer was efficient in its way, now this is the most important thing in the world of multifunction printers. The complaints that we had with that computer was that it was a tad slow on text prints, and even lacked some of the highly advanced faxing options and didn’t had an auto-duplexer.

But our complaint didn’t last long on the desks of Canon and soon we got the brand new Canon Pixma MX7600, priced at $400 as the solution to our problems. The MX7600 offers excellent photo print quality, which you generally won’t get from a laser printer. This combined with all new auto duplexer, proprietary print head system and considerably faster prints speeds, makes the Canon MX7600 an outstanding option for any potential buyer in the market for a high-grade, photo-capable all-in-one printer.

Design

The design of Canon Pixma MX7600 is almost identical to MX700, and uses the same lusterless blacks, lustrous finish and gunmetal grays for enhancing its aesthetics. Measuring 10.1 x 19.7 x 21 inches (H x W x D) the printer surely is going to take a lot of space on your desk and clearly is not a printer which you will buy for your home because of its weight of 36.6 pounds. Positioned on the top of the printer is the automatic document feeder, while at the back of the printer there is the flatbed scanner, which can hold about 35 pages of plain or legal-sized paper. The feeder folds down when the printer is not in use.

So despite its huge footprint, the MX7600 is a space saving device. The paper trays juts out and folds into the body afterward. The SD, Compact Flash, MMC and Memory Stick like memory slots are covered by a foldout door of plastic which protects them from dust. Just next to the memory slots is the PictBridge USB port for connecting your digital camera straight into the printer. The design of the main output tray also deserves appreciation and just like the auto document feeder, it also folds into the printer while it’s not in operation, but opens automatically when it’s processing a document. The front loading tray for the printer can hold up to 150 sheets of paper.

The fascia of the Pixma MX7600 hosts the control panel of the printer. In conjunction with the conventional buttons like alphanumeric keypad, directional keys, power, start, and functions, the Pixma MX7600 also has eight additional buttons for speed dialing groups or individuals. There also are out-and-out buttons for two-sided printing, search, image enlarging/reducing and fax quality. Right in the middle of all this is the 1.8 inch color LCD which can be adjusted according to viewing angle and is used for photo selection, general functionality and onsite editing.

System Configuration

Starting price: $182.46 – $399.99
Manufacturer: Canon USA
Part Number: 2437B002
Printer Type: Ink-jet, Color Photo printer
Operating System Supported: Microsoft Windows XP, Microsoft Windows Vista and Microsoft Windows 2000, Apple Mac OS X 10.3.9 – 10.5.x

Dimensions (W x D x H): 19.7 x  21 x 10.1 inches
Weight: 36.6 lbs
Media Type: Labels, Cards, Plain paper and Envelopes
Software Included: Presto! PageManager, Drivers & utilities, Canon MP Navigator EX, ScanSoft OmniPage SE and Canon Easy-PhotoPrint EX
PC Connection: Hi-Speed USB, USB host and Ethernet 10 Base-T/100 Base-TX

Features: Remote reception, Group dialing, One-touch speed dialing, automatic redialing and Answering machine interface
Supported Flash Memory: miniSD , RS-MMC , CompactFlash , MicroSD , IBM Microdrive , Memory Stick , SD Memory Card , MultiMediaCard , Memory Stick Duo , xD-Picture Card , SDHC Memory Card , Memory Stick Pro and Memory Stick PRO Duo
Copying Features: 2 on 1, Sort, BorderFree, 4 on 1, Preset Reduction/Enlargement Ratios and Fit to page
Bundled Services: Canon InstantExchange
Direct Printing Specifications: PictBridge

Performance

IN terms of print speed the Canon Pixma MX7600 was slightly faster than the MX700 in most of our tests, it even surpassed Kodak EasyShare 5500 in almost all the subject tests except for the photo test. The print speed of Pixma MX7600 was neither too bad nor exceptionally good, but was decent enough to help you execute all your printing tasks at decent pace. But one thing we definitely can say that with MX7600 has made great leap forward in terms of speed and has came a long way ahead.

Just as the speed of the printer, the quality as well has improved, and the quality improvement here could be attributed to its all new Pigment Reaction inkjet technology. The print quality for all the media types was pretty satisfactory with minimum distortion.

Support

Canon Pixma MX7600 is backed by a one-year limited warranty from Canon. The Canon offers the toll-free phone support and for online support there is a 24*7 e-mail support, in case you ran into any problems. Some extra features including online manuals, FAQs, forms for ordering ink cartridge and drivers can be obtained from Canon’s Web site, usa.canon.com.

Word from the Experts

The Canon Pixma MX7600 multifunction printer is a huge leap from Canon in terms of speed and other added features like an auto duplexer, an advanced control cockpit and improved faxing options. We clearly don’t have any problems recommending it.