Canon Pixma MX860 Review – Worth Buying Printer

Pros

Canon Pixma MX860 delivers fast print outputs and to complement its fast speed it has got features like huge 2.5 inch LCD, modish design, integrated memory card reader and vigorous software suite.

Cons

There still is room for improvement in the print outputs of Canon Pixma MX860.

Introduction

The moderately priced Canon Pixma MX860 is an adequately equipped color inkjet multifunction printer which will accomplish all the tasks of a small office or a home very well. Though, its less expensive precursor Canon Pixma MX700 is a bit faster, but has fewer features.

The silver colored box-shaped Canon Pixma MX860 ports a concourse of features. It has got two 150 sheet input trays, one at the bottom cassette completely for plain paper and another one the universal vertical tray at the rear end of the printer. There also is a flip-out, front output tray that can hold up to 50 sheets and a 35 sheet automatic document feeder. It also offers Automatic duplexing for letter-size media alone via ADF, both for copying and printing.

The simple description for Canon Pixma MX860 will be a blend of Canon Pixma MX330 and Canon Pixma MX7600, with the minimalist design of first, functionality of latter and built-in Wi-Fi for wireless connectivity. This enticing combination forms the Canon Pixma MX860, which is the only printer of this series which offers wireless connectivity along with all the other features that you need to print, copy or scan. Despite petite slip-ups in the output print quality, the Canon Pixma MX860 priced at $199 is a worth buying printer for the shoppers in need of a multifunctional printer at really reasonable price.

Design

The shape of Canon Pixma MX860 is identical to MX330, and measures 18.1 by 16.2 by 7.8 inches (W x D x H). The grooved handles at the base of the printer makes it easier to move the printer. Its integrated control panel and curved edges gives it a streamlined look which not only will make it look prissier in an office, but also in a home. The tidily arranged control panel contains the huge 2.5 inch LCD screen. Located at the left side of the printer is the power button in addition to the shortcuts for fax, scanning and copy, and on right there are the standard buttons for menu, numerical keys, navigation buttons and settings. Some extra buttons are also been carved by Canon to justify the price difference of $90 in MX860 and MX330. There also is a consecrated Memory Card button to copy and print the images directly from the card reader at the base and few other smaller keys for involuntarily dialing your fixed fax numbers.

The inclusion of covered and dedicated media card reader is another pleasing sight in MX860, particularly as we battered the MX330 for its deletion. The card reader is situated at the bottom of the printer at the right side of paper output tray and has slots compatible to SD/MS, Compact Flash cards and MS Duo. You can print the pictures from card in two ways: first being to print numerous pictures at a time by creating a batch print and secondly to print individual pictures by viewing and editing then individually on LCD. There also is a PictBridge USB port which allows you to connect a companionable digital camera straight to the printer.

System Configuration

Manufacturer: Canon
Weight: 26.5 lbs
Dimensions (W x D x H): 19.4 x 17.1 x 8.9 in
Printer Type: Ink-jet – Color – Photo printer
Inkjet Technology: Canon FINE (Full-lithography inkjet Nozzle Engineering)

Direct Printing Specifications: Canon Direct Print, PictBridge
Software Included: Canon MP Navigator EX, Canon Easy-PhotoPrint EX, Drivers & utilities
Operating System Support: Microsoft Windows Vista, Microsoft Windows 2000, Microsoft Windows XP, Apple Mac OS X 10.4, Apple Mac OS X 10.3.9, Apple Mac OS X 10.5.x
PC Connection: Hi-Speed USB, Ethernet 10 Base-T/100 Base-TX, IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11g
Supported Flash Memory: Memory Stick , miniSD , xD-Picture Card , Memory Stick Pro , MicroSDHC , miniSDHC , Memory Stick Duo , CompactFlash , RS-MMC , Memory Stick PRO Duo , MicroSD , Memory Stick Micro (M2) , MultiMediaCard , SDHC Memory Card , IBM Microdrive , MultiMediaCardplus , SD Memory Card
Copying Features: 4 on 1, 2 on 1, Gutter Shadow Correction, BorderFree, Fit to page
Supported Media Type: Plain paper, Cards, Labels, Photo paper, Envelopes

Performance

Canon Pixma MX860 clearly excels in the print speed department and holds the upper hand on the rivals by showing great print speeds in single-photo speed, color graphics speed; black text copy speed and grayscale scan tests. MX860 even excelled Pixma MX330 in all the print speed tests except for text printing, in which it printed test only at 4.47 pages per minute in comparison to MX330′s 5.54ppm. The best performance was obtained in the text copying and scanning test with an imposing 3.48 pages per minute for copying a 10 page bunch of text and scanning 4.1 pages per minute of black-and-white graphics.

The graphic quality for MX860 is as competent as its print speed is and the print quality in our test for text came out robust black with amply imprinted characters and deep lines, and the quality remained the same for the color prints as well. Though, there weren’t any problems in the 4-inch-by-6-inch photo print quality and they were smooth in their color transitions and were equally impregnated, the graphics printed on plain paper did not had the same satisfactory quality. The print quality will be satisfactory for the general users, but can cause some problems for the offices that print presentations and documents requiring fine detailing. The overall performance of Canon Pixma MX860 is imposingly fine and it withstood all our expectations.

Support

Canon Pixma MX860 gets an industry-standard one-year warranty from Canon. You can get telephonic support from 8 am to midnight PT on weekdays and from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturdays; you also can get e-mail support 24*7 using a Web-based form. The standard online support from Canon includes downloadable drivers and software, FAQs and manuals.

Word from the Experts

Canon Pixma MX860 with its large LCD screen, rapid print speeds and auto-document feeder definitely is worthwhile and priced at $199; this printer definitely will increase the productivity or your office. We recommend this printer to our users.