Best Multifunction Printer
Check out some reviews on the best multifunction printers on the market today. Multifunction printers have their pros and cons and you will want to carefully check out each model that you are contemplating buying. This will save you headache and money down the line.
For a mere $399, about the same price as workstation laser printers printing just as fast as this multi-function wonder (15 ppm), you also get fax, copier, and scanner!
The MFC-8500 can interface with your PC via a parallel port or USB. Unfortunately, there is no RJ-45 port for an ethernet connection. However, if you can dedicate a print server, the MFC-8500 can pull as a heavy duty high volume laser printer! It advertises Windows and Mac compatibility (thanks to USB).
Just as well, the MFC-8500 can do volume copies, since it uses the same print engine. This machine was used mostly as a copier machine than anything else in this office! Unfortunately, 99 copies is the max it can do at a time. Also a big no-no is the lowly 250 sheets capacity.
We do double-sided copying, but the MFC-8500 does not do this automatically. Fortunately, using the illustrations engraved into the compartments, it shows where and how documents are to be placed (which side up). I was able to copy on both sides perfectly the first time, without messing up!
The paper definately curls a bit, so that's a big negative. It is very noticebale, and cannot be straightened. This makes it very unprofessional, and makes my double-sided printing harder. It will jam up sometimes.
Photo quality is awesome, but it does come out a bit dark. It can be fixed a bit using the contrast setting, but still comes out a bit darker than we would like. We hoped to save toner this way, but probably not much since everything still came out a bit darker than we'd like.
Because of it's dark-output nature, it was a natural for text and simple line art. I did not notice any pixelization or dot-matrix patterns at all. It was nice and smooth - even diagonal lines! Small print down to 4 and 3 were still legible.
Faxing cababilities are beyond what I needed, and I didn't even use all the features. It comes with 14.4 kbps fax modem (which is the fastest fax standard there is), and an auto-dialer that does 116 stations/numbers. It can feed 30 pages automatically, and has 8MB of memory to store up to 500 pages. This memory is shared with the lazer printer engine, however. The fax/copier/scanner scans very quickly - up to 2 seconds per page! And when paired up to your PC, you can broadcast up to 166 locations. It also comes with Call Waiting/Caller ID and Distinctive Ring.
Yikes! And that's just for faxing! I have yet to use faxing to it's fullest capacity, as no one is going to fax me, and I have no one to fax to. :)
My main use with this machine is for copying, and copy it does! Up to 15 cpm copy speed with 600 x 600 dpi copy output. Multi-copying up to a measly 99 pages, however, means that it is not suited for high volume copies. It also reduce or enlarge from 50%-200% on the machine itself (no need to use the PC).
The buttons on the machine are grouped by their functions, such as Scaner, Fax, Copier, and Printer. The scanner have "Scan To" buttons on the machine so you can scan to a file or to another application with ease. Not really used, here, though.
The big draw is the toner - the included Standard Toner is a TN430 that prints 3,000 pages. However, in actual use, I was only able to coax 1,200 pages before the low-toner indicator lit up. However, the TN460 promisses to print 6,000 pages. The TN430 goes for around $60, while the TN460 goes for around $80.
Although this is my first laser printing product (I've only used ink jet until now), I am impressed by the speed and quanity of pages it spit out for a mere $60 toner cartridge. And the fact that dedicated lazer printers that print this fast (15 ppm) cost just as much (and I get more functions!)
On a side note, printing 1200 pages with intervention (paper jams, filling every 250 pages, etc), it only took 1.5 hours. Not bad, eh?
I have owned a Canon MultiPASS MP730 since mid-May, and can offer the following review.
I have used a number of multifunction machines, both inkjet and laser, and I think this is one of the best available on the market right now. I had been planning to purchase one for home use for over a year, but kept waiting to see if Canon was going to introduce an MFP based on the i850 printer engine (which the MP730 is). As soon as I saw this model on Canon's website in early May, I began checking online reseller sites daily. I purchased it from the first (reputable) vendor that showed available inventory.
I won't go into all the features of the unit, but here's what I really like about the MP730:
- Separate ink cartridges for each color - no wasted ink
- Extremely fast print speeds in all modes (draft, normal, best)
- Very reliable paper handling - no jams so far (I've printed about 500 pages to date)
- Very reliable document feeder paper handling - only one jam so far, and that was because the original was too slick and too small
- Extraordinary photo printing quality, particularly for a non-dedicated photo printer. Photos printed on the MP730 rival those output on our Canon S9000 (considered by many to be one of the best inkjet photo printers) and Canon S800 printers.
- It is a true multi-function unit. I have used other MFPs that don't multi-task at all (like the HP LaserJet 3200, which can't print or scan while it's receiving a fax). Our MP730 has had not had any trouble printing and faxing or printing and scanning at the same time.
What I don't like:
- Automatic document feeder (ADF) speed is not a fast as I'd like. It takes about 6-8 seconds to scan in a page of text at 200 dpi. That's not too bad, actually, but I've used a Brother MFP (MFC-8600) that took only 2-3 seconds to scan at that resolution. Unless you are going to routinely batch-scan hundreds of documents, this shouldn't be a problem.
- The size of the photos on the contact sheet are too small. This function is used to print out some or all of the photos on a memory card (CF, SmartMedia, Memory Stick, MMC , SD - it reads them all with the built-in card reader on the front). The thumbnail prints are about 5/8" x 3/4" (1.5cm x 2cm) and are fine for general identification, but not for critical comparisons. For some, this won't be a problem, especially if you like getting 70 contact prints on a letter-sized sheet of paper.
- No automatic duplexing accessory option. This is understandable, given the location of the paper tray, but it would still be a nice feature, and it is offered on the OJ7xxx series (the MP730's only real competition when comparing their feature sets). The print driver does allow for manual duplexing, however.
- The footprint is a little larger than I'd like, as its depth is almost 23", mainly due to the paper tray on the rear. But I consider that a small trade-off for the increased paper feed reliability.
Another reason for finally purchasing an MFP was because our old HP DeskJet 722C (five years old) has decided to stop printing yellow. We used it for all our general-purpose printing and use the Canon S9000 and S800 strictly for photo output (my wife has a small home studio photography business). An added bonus from the MP730 is its phenomenal photo quality (for a 4-color printer, most dedicated photo printers are 6-color). Although a trained eye could possibly tell the difference in the prints, I doubt any of my wife's clients could. That allows us to use the MP730 as a back-up photo printer in the event she has a large order or if we run out of ink (not likely, but the S800/S9000 and MP730 take different ink tanks). Of course, photo output is superior on Canon's own photo papers, but we have had great performance from all of our printers on Ilford Galerie Classic and Smooth (gloss and pearl finishes), as well as Red River Ultra/Polar satin and gloss.
VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED http://www.epinions.com/content_104418807428
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