SPECIFICATIONS:
Maximum Printing Resolution: 4800 (horizontal)*1 x 1200 (vertical)dpi
Print Head /lnkType: FINE Cartridge
Total Number of Nozzles1 ,792 nozzles
Ink Droplet Size (minimum): 2pl
Ink Tank: PG-740, CL-741 (PG-740XL, CL-741XL optional)
Color: 5.5ipm.
Black and White. 9.7ipm.
Photo (4 x 6″)*2: Approx. 46secs.
Printable Width Up to 203.2mm (Binch)
Borderless: Up to 216mm (B.Sinch)
Supported Paper Size: A4, LTR, 4 x 6~5×7~8×10″
Bordered Printing: Top margin: 3mm,
Bottom margin: Smm,
Scanner Type: Flatbed &ADF
Scanning Method CIS (Contact Image Sensor)
Scanning Speed: Approx. 1 Ssecs.
WHAT’S HOT:
• Precise printing
•Quick
• Excellent copying capabilities
WHAT’S NOT:
• Drinks ink like water
BOTTOMLINE:
If you don’t mind the ink consumption, the print quality on the MX457 is laser-sharp.
Printers. I have always had bad relations with them. Since the first inkjet printers hit the market years ago, when I was in school, they have always proven to be the most temperamental of all the devices I have had to deal with on a regular basis. On my watch, they have jammed, made streaky prints, spewed ink, and generally disagreed with me. Now, with my time in a tech magazine, I have had to deal with them a lot more than I am comfortable with. When I saw the Canon MX457 would be arriving at the office for review, I knew, however, that the task would fall on me to review it, albeit with a little feedback from the art department.
For those who have no idea how magazines work, after all the articles are written and laid out, the art department goes and prints each page, just so we can see how they look. This is a necessary step that will remain for as long as magazines are released on paper. As such, we rely on our printer a lot. Hundreds of pages come out of them for every issue of Gadgets that we put out, so as you can imagine, we look for a lot in our printers. We need the prints to be fast, plentiful, and as close to the on-screen image as possible.
Out ofthe box, the MX457 is quite a large machine. We had to give it a place on the floor near the usual printer we ran, because we didn’t have much space to spare due to the other items we had for other tasks. It was just about wide enough to sit squarely in an office chair, but since that had a tendency to move around a lot, we found it a more permanent spot and kept it there.
Being a multi-function affair, the MX457 still comes out on top, since it does the job of four devices (printer, scanner, copier and fax), with the footprint of just one. Copying was one of the first tasks we gave it. There are usually photos, press releases and other documents to scan around the office, and since the demise of the office photocopier, we have had to rely on other multifunction printers in the office to accomplish the task. Scanning happens sufficiently fast, and if you’re just doing one page, there is just enough time to get the document loaded and the job done to share a quick joke with a coworker. It takes roughly a minute to prepare, scan and print, which is more than fast enough for our purposes. The prints come out sharp, with more than one document looking much like it was just a re-printed original. Scanning can also output to a wireless device, after a quick setup, or save a file onto a connected USB drive, which is a very nice touch.
As for regular printing tasks, it does print at about the advertized 5.5 pages per minute, though it tends to take a fair bit longer when the “best quality” setting is ticked. The difference was long enough to be noticeable, but was still well within acceptable limits, even with the volume of prints we deal with in the publication.
The printouts came out impressively sharp, with hardly any noticeable blurring around the edges, and between colors, though the art department did say that the colors came out a little more saturated than they liked. The yellows in particular were a little too vivid when compared to the image on their calibrated monitors, noted our graphic artist, Cia. Still, this can be remedied by compensating within post, and would likely have been dealt with had the screens been calibrated to the printer output.
A little problem we had, however, was the longevity ofthe print cartridges. One set of ink cartridges was not enough to handle one run through the magazine. Our magazine is somewhere along the lines of a hundred or so pages, and the art department said they had to swap out empties after only about 30 or so pages. Granted, we were printing full-color magazine prints that are ink-heavy, but that number seemed a little small. Regular office or household use, however, should see it last a little longer.
The Canon MX457 is a great little device. It takes up less space than four separate machines, does excellent prints, plus scans and copies images faithfully. You might have to spend a little more on ink than you originally anticipated, but the quality of the printouts are impressive. Should you or your office have a need for an MFC, this would not be a bad bet.
First published in Gadgets Magazine, July 2013
Words by Ren Alcantara