Colour me beautiful
Canon’s office inkjet printers differ from
their rivals by focusing on photo printing. With that in mind, the PIXMA MX895
features both pigmented and dye-based black inks, one primarily for documents
and the other for producing high-quality photos. Its design screams consumer,
but this printer is also aimed at business users, with fax, Ethernet, 802.11n
wifi and two-sided copying on its list of do-it-all strengths.
The
Pixma MX895 combines pigmented and dye-based inks, enabling it to produce
stunning prints
The 3in screen doesn’t respond to touch,
but a grid of dynamic buttons beside it lights up with various navigation options.
It isn’t a patch on the precise control of Lexmark’s touchscreen printers, but
it isn’t too hard to get the hang of it. There’s a hidden door that opens to
reveal the memory card slots, while another flap reveals the five ink tanks.
The three colour inks and both pigmented
and dye-based blacks are the same as in the MX885, so photo quality is
outstanding. Colours were rich, blacks beautifully dark and the level of detail
exquisite. Text was also, bold and perfectly defined, so the MX895 is very hard
to top for pure print quality.
The scan and copy functions were less
stellar, but still pretty good. Our test text was reproduced well and fine
details were captured, but whites tended to be a bit dirty and colours in
general rather washed out. They’re perfectly usable, but scans will need a bit
of a software touch-up to match HP’s high capture standards.
If you’re wondering what’s actually changed
from the previous model, Canon has added an auto-duplex mode to save paper, and
also produced PIXMA Cloud Link, which it launched in April. This lets you print
images directly from Picasa or Canon’s own cloud services, and incorporates
remote printing via Apple’s AirPrint so you can print directly from your iOS
device.
Other than that, speeds were similar to
before: it managed a reasonable 11.5ppm and 6.1ppm in mono and colour, and a 6
x 4in photo took 48 seconds. Running costs have risen slightly, though. Canon
offers no high-yield cartridges to reduce costs beyond the rather steep 3.3p
mono and 9p colour pages, and that alone will be enough to kill its appeal
outside the home.
For cheap, high-quality document printing,
HP’s Officejet range remains a much faster and more suitable home office
choice, but if photos are a priority, you won’t find a better all-rounder than
the MX895.
Information
Price $232
inc VAT
From
printerbase.co.uk
Info
canon.co.uk
Needs OS X
10.5.8 or later
Pro Superb
document and photo quality * Decent speeds
Con
Running costs a bit steep
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