Canon Pixma MX870

The MX870 is Canon's latest top-of-the-range printer/scanner for the home or small office.

The specifications are very impressive: the usual printing, scanning and copying functions are available, but there is lots more too. It can connect directly to wireless networks and it has USB and wired network sockets.

There is a document feeder with 35-sheet capacity and it can even fax. The print head uses five separate ink tanks to provide photo quality output and there are two paper trays, not to mention the automatic two-sided printing capability.

The features do not stop there, however, as the MX870 also has a memory card reader and supports the Pictbridge standard so you can plug in a compatible camera and print directly without a computer.

However impressive a list of specifications is, though, performance is just as important. Happily the device produced an excellent set of test results. It's not as speedy as some all-in-one devices we have seen, but it was by no means sluggish. A page of draft text that was perfectly useable came out in just eight seconds and the same page in best-quality mode took 99 seconds. As we have come to expect from Canon printers the best-quality text was impeccable, crisp, well-defined and solidly black.

Photo quality was much the same, but with slightly longer times for output and impressive image quality. A borderless A4 image was produced in a shade under four minutes at the highest quality setting. Pictures were impressive with good levels of detail and natural colours. Skin tones were particularly natural and very impressive.

We also printed a ten page mixed-colour graphics and text document to test the business credentials of the MX870 and once again it performed impeccably. Scans were speedy and accurate too, though our colour photocopy was a bit of a disappointment - mono copies were much better.

For about £160 the Canon MX870 gives a whole lot of printer and scanner for the money. Print quality was exceptionally good and its features are very impressive.

It's also very quiet in operation and very well built. If you are looking for an all-in-one for your office or for heavy home use then the Canon Pixma MX870 should be just about perfect.