Canon PIXMA MX860 All-In-One Photo Printer

by Seth
(Pomona, CA)

I've had this Canon PIXMA MX 860 for some time now and I'm a bit surprised that only a few people seem to post better reviews about it. Since I haven't had the issues they've thrown against Canon PIXMA MX860 I think it's just right that I give my own feedback.

I've had no issues about excessive ink usage. There are five separate tanks and I find that more economical than the single tank that has to be replaced even if still had a lot of ink in it. I wonder, if others are comparing it to laser jet printers because that definitely works differently. This multiple cartridge system make print jobs easier since I can easily switch from printing black and white text prints to printing high resolution photo images. This printer is that simple to use. The fifth cartridge that holds the dye-based ink takes charge of the transition from text to photographs.

While others would prefer the glossiness of laser prints, I prefer the matte look as long as the solid blocks of color won't look washed-out. With Canon PIXMA MX860, graphics are great as colors and details are still the perfect match.

Now the thing that impresses me most about Canon PIXMA MX860 is the speed by which it prints. I've had other low cost printers before because I'm a sucker for anything that's economical and practical. None of them will compare to Canon PIXMA MX860 when it comes to speed.

In fairness, if there's one setback I can say about Canon PIXMA MX860 is that the ink dries out easily although it's not something that's hard to manage. But if not for the quick dry ink, auto duplexing will not work well either. I just got used to the habit of waiting for the ink to dry like before that I forgot the Canon PIXMA MX860 AIO has an auto duplex feature.

A few cleaning and flushing of the printer head can easily solve the problem. This can be a bit of a hassle if you have a lot of printing to do since you have the tendency to end up with smudges on your documents. Nevertheless, I can still manage to print about a hundred flyers though without getting the finished work all messed up. I like the kickstand feature as I get onto the business of cleaning the print head plus auto docu-feeder which keeps me from smudging my work.

Canon PIXMA MX860 is a durable All-in-one printer and quite reliable which is not something you can get for a cheap price. It's quite easy to use since the control buttons is just under the scanner lid. Now that I've mentioned it, the goodness of the scanner is also quite noteworthy. I get high quality images whether they're black or colored. I guess the ScanSoft OmniPage SE OCR software helps a lot for scanning to be this good in an affordable multifunction printer.

I haven't had much use for the fax machine but the few occasions that I used them proved to be satisfactory. For one that has 33.6kps fax modem, it definitely makes this Canon PIXMA MX860 underrated because of the negative reviews. For only $140, you can get the convenience of a good printer, a superb photo printer, an excellent scanner and a reliable fax machine. What more can you ask for?

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