Reviews4,313 Reviews

All Reviews > Hardware > Multifunction devices

October 10, 2007

Canon Pixma MP210 multifunction printer

The low-price Canon Pixma MP210 multifunction printer will be a bargain only if you can tolerate a confusing control panel and sparse copy capabilities.

Canon's Pixma MP210 multifunction printer costs £59 inc VAT (rrp) - that is as little as an entry-level, single-function printer. Because its copy functions are so limited, however, serious multitaskers should look elsewhere; and novice users may pause at the Canon Pixma MP210 multifunction printer's inscrutable control panel.

Installing the Canon Pixma MP210 multifunction printer via the included CD is nearly automatic. The documentation is mostly good: a detailed poster guides you through the set up process, and a quick-start guide describes the machine and its major functions. The HTML-based on-screen manual is thorough, but because it covers two similar models it can be confusing.

Nicely featured photo editing and scanning applications come with the Canon Pixma MP210. In addition, Canon's Solution Menu dialog box leads you quickly toward documentation, utilities, and help files. A My Printer icon, installed in your Windows system tray, lets you view the print queue, change settings, or troubleshoot.

The Canon Pixma MP210 performed competently in our tests. It printed plain-text documents at 8.6ppm (pages per minute). Letterforms looked nicely dark, but a little fuzzy at the edges - a detriment to intricate or closely spaced fonts. Its speed in printing various graphics ranged from 1.5 to 4.1ppm - about average overall for the category. The images sometimes looked faded and vague on plain paper, but using Canon's own papers made everything crisper and brighter (albeit at a much higher cost). Scans proceeded quickly and looked good overall. The cost per page (at 5 percent coverage per colour) is reasonable.

The Canon Pixma MP210's breadbox-like profile looks neat, but some aspects could be improved. To use the machine, you pull the input slot's two-part, hinged guide up from the back, and flip the output tray from the front. The trays are flimsy and tend to rattle. The ink-cartridge bays seem carelessly designed, as their shallow slots provide minimal guidance for seating the tanks correctly.

The control panel suffers from a shortage of visual cues. Even though the Canon Pixma MP210's 'Scan' button is labelled, it's hard to find because it's the same size and colour as less-important buttons. The buttons labeled 'Black' and 'Color' are for copying, but the vaguer word 'Start' sits above them instead. An LED cluster with an adjacent '+' button is not otherwise labelled, even though it has multiple roles (such as showing the number of copies, or displaying single-letter status codes), none of them obvious. You press an unlabelled button to toggle among three different media types; a small light next to each shows which is chosen, but nothing indicates that this is a copying option.

Unhelpful controls aside, the Canon Pixma MP210's copying options themselves are limited. You cannot reduce or enlarge, only fit to page automatically using a button. You can choose high-speed copying (on letter or A4 paper only) by pressing longer on the 'Black' or 'Color' button. You cannot alter the brightness of a copy, and the maximum number of copies is 20. At least copies come out reasonably fast and look pretty good.

VERDICT >
1 | 2 | NEXT >

null null

Keep up to date by adding PC Advisor Reviews to your iGoogle home page or Google Reader

What is this?

Subscribe to PC Advisor now and claim your FREE gift

Question of the day!

Does your smartphone replace your need for a laptop when on the move?

Question of the day!

Does your smartphone replace your need for a laptop when on the move?

% of PC Advisor readers agree with you

Yes
TBC
No
TBC

What tasks can your smartphone do that would have traditionally been done on a laptop?

119 characters remaining

Follow the conversation at @SmartphoneFocus

web browsing, search facilities, voip, email, word processing everything RT @Graham_D_C

Mainly email but getting better at spreadsheets etc, RT @IDGdan

Total reviews: 4,313

See product specs

expert rating

Build quality

3/5

Features

3/5

Value for money

4/5

Overall

3.5/5

expert rating

Canon Pixma MP210 multifunction printer

READER REVIEWS


Google


Recent reviews

Reviews index


Latest reader reviews

Latest reader reviews


Top news

News index


Latest blog entries

Blogs index


Sponsored Content

  • Take the internet to new places with the Nokia N800
    Communicate how you want to, where you want to with instant messaging, email and internet calling. View movies, browse the internet wirelessly and watch TV on the high-resolution screen and listen through high-quality stereo speakers with headphone jack.
    Buy now