Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)This printer is suitable for a small home office. It has a simple setup, fast text printing, and good network support with some nifty scanning options, but will take up a lot of space on the desktop and may have some issues with Windows XP machines. The printer comes with two standard size ink cartridges (XL versions are available for re-order), a USB cable, a phone cord, and a sample box of small photo paper. Because I already have a fax printer, I did not look at the fax features.
Pro:
It has good specifications for this price point. It prints around 8.5 on the new printer scale in black, and about 4 when printing black. It doesn't take a long time to print like some HP inkjets I have owned - the print starts and completes very rapidly. The document feeder will hold about 15 pages or so.
The paper path is straight through, meaning that it is fairly simple to print on photo paper and Avery labels due to the a smooth paper path. The printer is designed such that the input and output trays are at very steep angles, so they don't take up as much room.
The printer has a nice feature where one can press a single button and scan to a selected PC connected to the home network. The file then goes into a directory on the computer for later use. This feature works with the document feeder or the flatbed scanner, so one could easily scan in several pages. It is a great time saver because you don't have to "scan in" the document; it is "pushed" to the computer you select while you stay at the printer. Note here that for maximum scanning resolutions, the manual recommends using the flatbed rather than the feeder.
The wireless setup was as described in the manual, and although it wasn't particularly detailed, the steps did work. But there wasn't a lot of explanation for the less experienced person, and the printer does not support the newer easy network setup options. I found it a lot easier to install on the Windows 7 machine, where one can simply add a printer via the built it menus; on XP one has to install the CD, which also downloads software at some points in the process. The network setup requires a USB connection to a computer; there are no setup menus to manually enter the network keys. But at least they include a cable.
The device has the capability to scan to a thumb drive (or an external hard drive, I suppose), and the same USB port is used for PictBridge printing directly from a camera. The printer can connect to Bluetooth devices - but needs an optional Bluetooth module, so I could not test it.
The printer does not use a power "brick", so the power cabling around the printer is clean.
Con:
There is no backlight for the LCD display, and I found it hard to read without shining some additional light. I did not expect the same display quality as an LED screen, for example, but the device needs some kind of backlight. Plan to keep a small flashlight handy, or be sure the area near the printer is well lit.
There is only one color cartridge, rather than separate cartridges for each color. That means if one runs out of (for example) cyan, the entire cartridge has to be replaced. This kind of system is more expensive to keep in ink. I'm a bit surprised, because my last Canon MX offered support for individual cartridges. Therefore if you print a lot of color, this device may be more expensive than a machine that supports individual cartridges.
This printer is very large compared to other printers I have owned, including another Canon MX series multifunction device. It is designed so that it is not too tall (maybe a foot or so high), but is about 30% deeper and a bit wider than other multifunction printers. Basically, it is designed wide, deep and flat, whereas many printers today are more vertical. Additionally, the only path for the paper is via the input tray - on the back of the machine, taking up another several inches of depth. Maybe this form factor is needed for some people; but in any case be aware and check the dimensions to be sure it suits your purposes.
The scanner is a little bit slow, but acceptable for light use.
There is only one input tray, and it holds only 30 pages. That isn't a lot of paper, and I would not recommend this printer for other than light home use unless one likes feeding paper to the machine.
On my XP machine, I was unable to scan directly into Word 2000; the scan would preview but not actually scan. On my Windows 7 machine with the exact same version of software, I was able to scan directly.
There is no SD or other card slot; one has to have a USB drive to print directly without a computer connection. Most printers have some kind of support for a memory card.
Not really a true drawback, but several places in the owner's manual there are procedures for cleaning up the area around the print heads and interior. This is the first time I've seen such instructions, and it leads me to believe that the printer design may put some ink residue around the output area that may need to be cleaned up periodically.
Summary: This is a decent printer at a decent price. For relatively light home office use it is acceptable; it prints fine and can scan directly to a remote computer from the printer itself, which will save time if a lot of stuff has to be scanned. If one prints a lot of black it will not be too expensive to keep in ink. Recommend for the smaller office or personal use.
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Canon Pixma MX410 Wireless Office All-In-One Printer (4788B018)Product Description
PIXMA MX410 - MULTIFUNCTION - COLOR - INK-JET - 42 SECONDS - UP TO 4800 X 1200 D Wireless All-In-One Home Office Printer with Fully Integrated ADF
Product Details
- Brand: Canon
- Model: MX410
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 7.80" h x 16.40" w x 18.10" l, 18.90 pounds
Features
- Fully-Integrated 30-sheet auto document feeder for rapid document copying, scanning and faxing
- Super G3 high-speed fax with 20 coded speed dials storing up to 50 incoming pages when receiving ITU-T No. 1 chart
- The new Full HD Movie Print turns HD movie clips captured with your compatible Canon EOS Digital SLR or PowerShot cameras
- "Easy-WebPrint EX" lets you clip, arrange and print web page contents
- Additionally, Super G3 High-speed Fax2 ensures efficient communication and thanks to Dual Color Gamut Processing Technology
- Energy Star
- Multifunction Devices: Printer, Scanner, Copier, Fax, Answering Machine
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