Earlier this year I reviewed the Canon Pixma MP530. This printer was very capable and produced great prints and fast scans, but it only worked with one computer at a time. This time around we are looking at the MX700 which has the ability to connect to a network.

Features

• 2 picoliter sized ink droplets
• PictBridge capable
• 2400 x 4800 dpi, with 48-bit color depth
• 30 page automatic document feeder
• USB 2.0 interface
• Plug into a Network: connect to a home or office network
• High resolution: up to 4800 x 1200 color dpi.
• 2 Way Paper feed: Built-in dual paper trays
• High-end faxing: Fax at up to 33.6 Kbps2 in color/B&W

When I reviewed the MP530 my biggest complaint was that I could only use it with one computer at a time. The MX700 adds the ability to connect to a network and use all the features with any computer that is also connected to the network. I would consider this the most significant upgrade.

The scanner is the other upgrade, it is fairly standard and provides scan resolutions of 2400 x 4800 dpi optical and 19,200 x 19,200 dpi interpolated. The MP530 provided scan resolutions of 1200 x 2400. The output for each scan is 48-bit internal/24-bit external. The maximum document size that can be scanned is 8.5″ x 11.7″. The automatic document feeder (ADF) can be used to make scanning easier by letting you load 30 pages to scan and then walk away and come back when it is finished.

Unfortunately, not everything got an upgrade. In fact, some things were downgraded. Specifically, the MX700 uses only four ink cartridges, where the MP530 used five ink cartridges. This is what I would consider the most significant downgrade. The colors that the MX700 uses are: cyan, magenta, yellow,
and a pigment-based black, the color that it is missing is dye-based black. The dye-based black was used for mixing with the other colors so the printer can make new colors. Without this color the printer will have a much harder time printing photos. In addition, the MX700 has 2 picoliter sized ink droplets, and the MP530 has 1 picoliter sized ink droplets. This means the MX700 drops are twice the size as the MP530. One more reason that pictures on the MX700 will not look as good as they did on the MP530.

The cost of photos remains about the same. The pigment-based black cartridge costs $16.25 and the color cartridges are $14.95. One good thing is that the MX700 comes with full ink cartridges, which means you won’t have to buy new cartridges anytime soon. A light mounted on the front of each cartridge slot tells you when your cartridge is empty. Because the MX700 uses the same cartridges as the MP530 and they cost the same, I assume they have the same yield. Because of this the price per print of a 4″ x 6″ photo quality picture is about 15 cents and for a full sized page of mixed text and color is about 9 cents.

The fax uses a built-in 33.6 Kbps (Super G3 color fax) modem, this is the same as the MP530. Even though it is a slower modem you will probably not max it out because most public telephone lines limit you to 28.8 Kbps or lower, depending on telephone line conditions. With this modem you can transmit in Color and Black and White. It takes about 3 seconds per page to send a Black and White page and about 1 minute 20 seconds per page for color documents. Make sure the other end also has a color fax, Otherwise you are wasting your time. With the included internal memory the fax can also store 40 speed-dial codes, and receive 100 incoming pages.

The copier offers a lot of useful features. It is able to copy in color and in black and white. Color is copied at about 3.2 seconds per page and Black and White is copied about 2.1 seconds per page. There are also many other features that you can use when you copy like: Auto Magnification, AE (Auto Exposure), Borderless, Auto Duplex, Fit-to-Page, 4 on 1, 2 on 1, Image Repeat, Sort Copy, Continuous Copy: 1-99 Pages, Dual Color Gamut Processing Technology. The copier also allows you to reduce and enlarge from 25% to 400%.

Design

The design of the MX700 is very similar to the MP830. It is small with dimensions of 18.2″ (W) x 18.9″ (D) x 9.4″ (H). With a weight of 22.3 lbs it is also quite a bit lighter.

The front of the MX700 is where you will find the controls, paper output, and a PictBridge connection. The controls consist of about 30 buttons which control every aspect of the printer and a small color display. Fourteen of those buttons are set aside for the Fax functionality. You have 12 for dialing numbers just like on a phone, a redial/pause, and coded dial button. The buttons to the left of the fax buttons are for accessing the menus. The buttons to the right of the fax buttons are for manually starting the copier or fax, there is a button for color and another for black and white copies and faxes. On the far right there are several buttons that determine what mode the printer is in. This mode determines what it does when you press buttons and access menus. For example, if you are in fax mode, then when you press the start button the MX700 starts sending a fax. Also, if you want a fax to be printed immediately when it is received you need to be in fax mode, otherwise it will be stored in memory. You can print and scan from your computer no matter what mode it is in. The last button which is on the top left is the power button. There is nothing fancy here, it just turns the printer on and off.

Below the control panel is the paper output tray, PictBridge connection, memory card slots and the main paper input. There was a change on the paper output tray. The MP530 paper output tray would open up automatically when you started a print job, but on the MX700 it does not. If you don’t open it manually the printing will pause until you do. The memory card slots are to the right of the paper output tray. The memory card slots consist of a CF and SD slot. With these two slots you can use up to 13 different card types. The PictBridge connection is to the right of the memory card area. It is standard, just plug in your camera and choose print. Instead of a paper input cartridge you use the paper output tray as the paper input tray. This slot only accepts A4, Letter or B5-sized plain paper. You can load your plain paper in here and leave the rear paper tray in the back for your custom paper. Use the feed switch button on the control panel to choose where you want the paper to come from. You can also use the printer settings on your computer to override the feed switch. Both the paper cassette and the rear paper tray can hold about 150 sheets of paper.

On the top is the Automatic Document Feeder. This will hold up to 30 pages at a time and can be used for the Fax, Scanner and Copier. Behind that is the manual paper loading tray. It is covered up with a nice cover that when opened up will act like the paper guide. Also on the back is the rear cover. This is a section that opens so you can clear jammed paper. On the right side of the back is the USB, Ethernet, and the phone line connection, and on the left is the power plug.

Performance

When you first open the box you will notice that you will need to install some things. The main things to install are the print cartridges, and the cartridge holder. There are clear instructions on how to do this, but it is not in the manual, instead Canon put it on a separate piece of paper. I highly recommend that you pay attention to this paper and follow it closely. Once you have the ink installed you are ready to go. You don’t even need a computer to begin using the fax and copier functionality. If you want to scan and print you will first need to install the software and plug it into a computer.

You have two options for connecting the printer to your computers. The easiest way to connect the printer is to use the USB connection. However, this limits you to only one computer using the printer, but if you only have one computer then this is not a problem. If you have more than one computer then you will want to connect the MX700 to a network. To setup the network you first have to connect the printer to a computer with the USB. When you run the installer it will update the printer with the network connection information. When it is done you can disconnect the USB and use an ethernet cable.

Printing to the printer is as easy as just pushing the print button from your favorite program, but buried in many menus are a lot of configurations that will allow you to set the print quality, paper type and even do double sided printing. On a printer like this, double sided printing is a very nice feature. It is not a clearly marked feature, but you can find it if you look under the printer properties on the page setup tab — it is called Duplex Printing. If you don’t know what duplex means, then this will really confuse you because that same section talks about stapling. This printer does not include a stapler, but instead will leave a margin so that you can staple the pages later. For some reason, I don’t know why, Canon thought it would make sense to put duplex printing and stapling together. I would have preferred a simple check box that said Double Sided printing. Once you have it set up, double-sided printing works great.

Scanning is something you can do from the computer or from the printer. Either way it will need to be connected to a computer or else it won’t have anywhere to send the scan. You will also need to be running a program that can accept a scanned document or image. Luckily, the Canon MX700 ships with one such program, the Presto! PageManager. The quality of the scan is excellent as you can see from the following images.

Faxing is one of the tasks that you will do without the aid of your computer; because of this, it is important for it to be easy. Faxing a document is only as difficult as dialing a phone number and making sure your paper is in the ADF with the text facing up. Because there is not a duplexer on the ADF, you can only send single sided documents. If you have a double-sided document you will have to copy one of the sides onto another page and then fax it as two single-sided documents. I really had no problems setting it up. I was even able to set up the fax to only pick up on a double ring, a double ring is a distinctive ring my phone company setup to indicate a fax was coming.

Copying, like faxing, is also something you can do without the need of a computer. Like faxing, you can only copy single-sided documents, but you can copy two single sided documents onto one double sided page. There are also many other options like reducing or enlarging your copy.

Overall the printing, scanning, and copying was good quality and fast. I printed off several pictures that I had and I could definitely tell that they were less quality than a store picture. Printing speeds were fairly fast. The MX700 was able to print about 6 pages a minute in Black and White. Printing photos was a lot slower at about 1 photo every 3 minutes. Scanning was fast with both color and black and white, both had a speed of about 5 pages per minute. Copying was a little slower than scanning, but that is because it has to print what is scanned. The MX700 was able to copy about 4 pages per minute in black and white. Quality was excellent in all the tests, except the text. The text was quite a bit less than perfect, As you can see the HP5L laser printer was the best, followed by the MP530 and then the MX700, this is probably because of the large ink drop size.

Warranty and Support

Canon provides a one-year limited warranty for the Pixma MX700, as well as a year of free, toll-free phone support Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. ET. You can also get tech support via e-mail, and Canon says it will respond within 24 hours. Canon’s site has FAQs, a troubleshooting tool, downloadable drivers and software, and PDFs of product and software manuals.

Conclusion

If you have more than one computer and you are looking for a new All-In-One printer, then I think this one would be great. I was disappointed that the print quality was not as good as the MP530, but these are not photo printers so you have to cut them some slack. I can only hope that in the future Canon will include both quality photo prints and networking in the same printer. As always
compare prices before purchasing.