Gadgetslab
Canon E460
Multi-function printer
Ren Alcantara
Printers are a necessity, even in today’s mostly digital workplace. While it is a great idea to keep hard copies down to a minimum, there are times you just need a signature, or a quick glance at some numbers, and for that, a printer just can’t be beat. We’ve come a long way from noisy dot matrix printers and ribbons, and now, we have printers that fill that role and more. One such device is Canon’s E460, a multi-function inkjet printer that prints, scans, and copies—three of the things for which a great printer is absolutely necessary.
Design:4/5
Though the device itself takes the place of three separate office devices, it’s has a remarkably small footprint. At 426mm wide, 306mm deep, and 145mm high, it should fit in smaller spaces, or sit happily on your desk without hogging too much of your workspace. It’s rather plain, which works for us. Apart from a few buttons and indicator lights on the left side of the unit, controls and buttons are quite sparse. Build quality is solid, and typical of Canon’s other Pixma printers. The all feel sturdy, and seem like they could very easily handle an office accident every now and again. The power brick is reasonably-sized, and has a cord long enough to allow you to store the main power unit off to one side, or under a desk.
Hardware: 4/5
The Pixma E460 is no one trick pony. While it does have the footprint of a single-function device, it brings a lot more to the party. Need a digital copy of some hard documents lying around? This guy has you covered with a flatbed scanner that can scan papers up to A4 in size, both in color and monochrome, with a selectable resolution of 19,200dpi. Need a document printed? Sure. You can print up to A4-sized documents with no sweat. If you just need duplicates, the E460 is glad to oblige. Just pop the document onto the scanner, hit copy, and give is a minute.
As for connectivity, apart from the usual USB 2.0 connection, it also supports Wireless printing as either an access point of its own, or networked wirelessly. It also gives you Google Cloud Print support, as well as PictBridge, and Pixma Cloud Link, though some configuration is required.
As for the business end of the printer, 1,280 nozzles, each capable of 2pL drops of ink give you a maximum print resolution of 4,800 x 600 dpi, which is easily more than enough for practically anything your average office needs.
User Experience: 3.5/5
As a magazine, we go through a lot of paper on a regular basis. Photos have to be checked, articles printed and proofed, and lots of scanning. The Canon E460 was a perfect fit here. Setup couldn’t be easier. All you really have to do is plug the power cable in, do the same for the USB cable, install the cartridges, and you’re set. Drivers were easily found online, and within ten minutes of tearing into the box.
Printing was dead easy, as expected. We loaded up the paper tray with about fifty sheets of paper, and got to testing. The results we got were about at par with the advertised numbers. On the default printer settings, colored prints come out at about 4 pages per minute, while black and white pages come at a rate of about 8ppm. On regular 70 GSM paper, the prints turned out great. There was no feathering, bleeding or showing through the back, even with pages that were covered with ink. Print accuracy was spot-on as well. There were no gaps in the images or letters, so even fine text was visible with no trouble at all. Speed, color reproduction and print accuracy were all there with copies and scans. In more than one instance, I mistook a copied document for the original, so that speaks a lot about the device’s clarity.
One problem we did have with the printer was wireless connectivity. The test unit was delivered in a plain box, with none of the literature, so we didn’t really have a lot to work with on the ground. Add to this the fact that the device has no screen on which to view settings, and there were moments we were left staring at blinking indicator lights, wondering just what was going on. This is compounded by the fact that the device does have two wireless modes: as an access point, and connected to a wireless network. Including those features are great, but this isn’t the friendliest printer on which to try and make them work.
Value: 3.5/5
The Canon E460 is a great tool, with a whole suite of functions that many offices and businesses need. While it doesn’t necessarily have the horsepower to handle excessively large volumes of prints, cartridges are not all that expensive. Though we did have a few problems with the higher functions involving wireless networking, instructions included in the package should make the whole process easier. On the whole though, and particularly if you are a small enough group whose operations needn’t hinge on wireless connectivity for your printers, this should fit the bill perfectly.
What’s hot:
Small footprint
Has all the functions you could need from a printer
Great print performance
What’s not:
Wireless functions were difficult to get to work
Bottomline:
Are you a small business that needs great quality prints, and a scanner/copier all together? Here’s your next purchase.
Specs:
Dimensions: 426 x 306 x 145mm
Weight: 3kg
Maximum Printing Resolution: 4800 (horizontal)*1 x 600 (vertical) dpi
Printable Width Bordered: Up to 203.2mm (8-inch)
Paper Size: A4, A5, B5, Letter, Legal, 4 x 6″, 5 x 7″, Envelopes (DL, COM10), Custom Size (width 101.6 – 215.9mm, length 152.4 – 676mm)
Scanner Type Flatbed
Scanning Method CIS (Contact Image Sensor)
Optical Resolution 600 x 2400dpi