Canon Pixma MP230
Price: $49.9
Canon’s Pixma MP230 is aimed at people who
don’t need a top-of-the-range printer and don’t want to spend much money. It’s
a compact, no-nonsense device that focuses on basic prints, scans and copier,
but you can’t install it on a network or use it to print photos direct from a
memory card. It doesn’t even have a tray to catch printed sheets. However, it
costs less than $53, which makes it an absolute bargain.
Canon
Pixma MP230
It’s tiny compared with the other printers
here and feels very light. At the back, there’s a flip-up paper input tray
that, when not in use, folds forward to stop dust getting in. the scanner lid
is thin and flexible, but its hinges are strong, and extends by up to 5mm, so
it can close even if the original document is quite thick. A set of simple
controls and LED indicators provide information on what the device is doing.
Photos have to be printed with white borders, which is unusual in a modern
photo printer, but it partly accounts for the printer’s cheap price.
Canon’s software makes it easy to perform
prints and scans using standard settings, and advanced options are easy to
find. However, the scanner is relatively low resolution at 600 x 1,200dpi, and
its photo printing wasn’t as good as on the more expensive Pixma printers. But
on plain paper, black text was dark and crisp, and colors were solid and didn’t
suffer from banding, which is a common problem on cheap printers.
The MP230’s running costs are surprisingly
reasonable. At 3.5p it was the second most expensive printer for black text
printing, but 8.9p for a color photo print was the third cheapest.
The
MP230’s running costs are surprisingly reasonable
·
Verdict: 4/5
·
Features: 3/5
·
Performance: 3/5
·
Ease of use: 5/5
·
Value for money: 5/5
The cheapest printers can be poor value for
money because running costs tend to be high. This is because manufacturers
recoup their generous printer prices with costly cartridges. This isn’t the
case with the Canon Pixma MP230, at least as far as color printing is
concerned.
You don’t get all the trimmings at this
price, and the resolution of the scanner is low, but print quality is good,
which makes it a worthwhile purchase if you’re on a tight budget.
Canon Pixma MG5450
Price: $129
Website: www.lambda-tek.com
Verdict: 4/5
The Pixma MG5450 looks identical to the
Gold Award-winning MG6350, but there are a few subtle differences. This printer
is limited to Wi-Fi and doesn’t have the Ethernet port. It has five cartridges,
compared with the MG6350’s six, because it doesn’t include grey.
Canon
Pixma MG5450
Rather than a touchscreen, the MG5450’s
color screen has buttons and a four-way controller, which makes it less easy to
use than the MG6350.
This model produced good-quality prints and
printed quickly at normal speed, coming second with 6.3ppm. Printing costs are
higher than the MG3250, but still reasonable.
HP photosmart 7520 e-All-in-One
Price: $229
Verdict: 3/5
The multifunction printer that came closest
to breaking Canon’s dominance in this Group Test was the HP Photosmart 7520
e-All-in-One, which sits at the top of HP’s Photosmart range. It’s packed with
advanced features including a sheet-feeder for the scanner, a fax option and a
touchscreen. The 7520 produced good results on plain paper, with crisp black
text at impressive speed. Color prints were slower but still good on plain
paper Glossy photo paper prints let it down though, as did the software you use
to control it, which locks away too many useful features in its advanced
settings.
HP
photosmart 7520 e-All-in-One
Epson Expression Premium XP-800
Price: $255
Verdict: 3/5
Epson’s Expression Premium XP-800 is a
high-specification device with a price to match. If you need a high-resolution
scanner (4,800 x 4,800dpi) or the option to send faxes, it’s worth considering.
It printed quickly, producing great-quality results, particularly with photos.
The biggest problem is the running costs.
Black text costs 6p per page and mixed color and black costs 11.4p per page,
making it the most expensive to run of all the printers. Color printing is more
cost-effective but still only comes sixth, making it poor value for money
overall.
Epson
Expression Premium XP-800
Epson Expression Home XP-405
Price: $82
Verdict: 2/5
Epson Expression Home XP-405 and XP-102
look almost identical, but Epson has added a few extras to the 405 to justify
its higher price. It has wireless networking, a better scanner (1,200 x
2,400dpi resolution) and is faster at printing. It also has a color touchscreen
and memory-card slots for direct printing.
The print quality was underwhelming,
though. In our tests, the draft print mode was too faint, and we could see
outlines around letters when printing in normal mode. Photo prints has a slight
but visible graininess.
If you want the cheapest printer with
direct printing from memory cards, it’s a fair option. But we’d recommend a
different model if you want better prints.
Epson
Expression Home XP-405
