Canon PIXMA MX860 Wireless All-In-One office Printer

The Canon PIXMA MX860 is the iPhone of All-In-One Printers - it is feature packed, easy to use, and exceeds expectations at every turn. SUMMARY Excellent quality, clear menus/instructions/software, Wireless setup, printing, and scanning on OS X is flawless. ADF and Duplexer in a high quality wireless printer from Canon is a steal at $199. PROS Build quality, setup instructions, feature set is huge, price tag isn't CONS Weight, could be quieter, internal paper tray doesn't handle photo media, no wireless faxing FIRST IMPRESSIONS The build quality is striking. It is very well packed and instructions are the best I have seen of any consumer electronics product including previous Canon products. There is a "kickstand" for keeping the printer open while inserting the 5 ink tanks and closing it reveals that it has a gentle piston like a luxury car's hood. Other details include a mechanism on the output try that automatically opens when printing to keep papers from spewing onto the floor. There is definitely some weight to this device and it is much larger than a printer you might get free with a PC purchase. Still I said to myself as I unpacked "was this really just $199?" as I had been looking at more expensive models and was concerned the quality would suffer to provide the MX860's price point. PHYSICAL SETUP Okay, I was flat out scared to insert the print head and break the caps off the five delicate ink tanks to insert them, but I think the instructions were just trying to make a point. In any case, do prepare your setup with lots of light as the print head insertion process is both dark and covered in warning stickers. I had no problems however because the on-screen instructions were clear (both visually and intellectually) and after printing a three step printhead alignment, output quality was definitely promising. I went with the wireless setup so I left the included USB cable (thanks Canon!) and phone lines (don't intend to fax) in the bag. The built in paper tray (letter size only) hides away neatly under the printer and there is a second input on the back of the unit for other media, plain paper, envelopes, or photo paper (hey a free 4x6 sample pack is included, cool!) NETWORK SETUP I installed the OS X drivers on a MacBook and it was very easy. Note that there are different instructions for 10.4 and 10.5 which are the only two versions supported as of Feb 2009 (Vista, XP, and 2000 are also supported, though it is unclear if 64-bit drivers are provided for those OSes). Software is as straight forward as the printed instructions. I did not install Canon's included photo software as I am expecting iPhoto to handle those tasks.I put the printer in Wireless LAN setup mode. A couple items to note though: Canon does proide for totally wireless setup though Wi-Fi Protected Setup though I went with the more straight forward USB connection to get the printer setup on the wireless network (turns out that included USB cable was helpful). The second item to note is that the software required a reboot which I am not accustom to with OS X software but none the less went along with. It was very cool to see the results of a two minute Wi-Fi quality test that shows the signal strength from base station to printer. (I was in the green zone from about 50 - 60 feet from the base station through two walls.) PRINTING Printing is so subjective I'm not going to try to quantify it. I'll say that it looks very crisp to me - not laser printer crisp, but every bit as sharp as I expected. Have not printed photos yet. The printing is about moderate in speed and as loud as my $300 HP All-in-One from 2004 but lower in tone so not as annoying. SCANNING Wireless scanning was what I was very interested in and the MX860 did not disappoint. Can scan from the glass, or the Auto-Document Feeder (ADF) and even do front and back duplex scans from the ADF. The awesome on-screen menu system is intuitive and allows you to choose your target wireless device to scan to. Scanning was faster and quieter than I expected and the resolution is truly excellent for an All-in-One. This is not a dedicated scanner and it won't scan a legal document, but when you want to quickly front and back scan those rebate forms before you send them in, this will be a good friend to have. I also look forward to batch scanning old printed photos for import into iPhoto. OTHER FEATURES I haven't had time to test printing from a memory card, duplex or ADF copy/print/scanning, faxing or receiving a fax, or Bluetooth (didn't purchase the optional module for $30). But what I was keenly impressed with is the crisp, intuitive menus. Very easy to navigate and follow. Things are where you think they will be. I wanted to turn down the volume of the keypad confirmation beeps and pleasantly had a whole menu of selection to do so for various volumes including off, as well as different settings for key press or alarms. The attention to detail and user experience really shows. I hope this review was helpful and you enjoy your new Canon PIXMA MX860.

Updated Review after 11 months of use: I've owned this printer for 11 months now and it is completely unreliable. I experience the following problems: - Printer jams 90% of the time when printing duplex (which was one of the best features, but now I don't bother with it); - Printer jams 50% of the time during normal non-duplex use (I receive an error message "5100 Printer error has occured. Turn off power then back on again..."); - After 95% of the print jobs the printer errors and requires to be turned off with the same 5100 error message as above. - I cannot use the "fast print" setting because the pages print so distorted they are illegible. Moreover, the printer usually jams. Even on higher print quality settings the pages are extremely distorted at least 50% of the time. - Software is not provided for wireless use with Windows 7. I found the update on Canon's website and it does not work, so I need to plug the computer into the USB to print. (Certainly defeats the purpose of buying a wireless printer.) My original review written after a few weeks of use remains below. I note that my positive review of the wireless setup was for Windows XP, which I ran on my old computer. I now have Windows 7 on my new computer and tried to use the software CD that came with the product, which did not have the drivers for Windows 7. I obviously think this printer is a waste of money. Rather than make Canon rich from buying its ink, I'm going to buy a new printer. I guess it is back to HP for me. I am now convinced that PPM should be broadly defined to include printer loading time after buying this printer. I have owned this Cannon for a few months now and it probably goes on the list of the "worst printers I have ever owned". There are two significant issues. First, it takes an unusually long time for the printer to start printing. This is not a wireless issue, because the delay is the same if plugged-in with USB. It also doesn't matter if I am printing 1 page or 50 pages. Even if you insert a copy job, the printer appears to have a long conversation with itself before starting the job. I haven't timed it but I would guess the wait time for any job to start is 15-30 seconds. (If you don't think that is a long time, any other printer would be 10 pages into the job.) Once printing, the printer speed is decent, but waiting for 1 minute for any action to start is frustrating and a waste of time. Second big issue is with scanning multiple pages. I still cannot figure out how to make it work consistently. I get a repeated message to reload docs and push the go button. Sometimes I can get it to work, but usually I just give up. I am also disappointed with the life span for the ink. It seems to run out much quicker than my other prior printers. The ink cartridges are small and the result is quickly running out of ink. There are a few positives. First, it was relatively easily to connect to my wireless network. The paper door also opens automatically when it starts to print, so it saves me trips up the stairs. Also, the option to print double sided saves a lot of paper and money. I would not recommend this printer to anyone.