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(More customer reviews)Several years ago while my wife was in college and suffering through painfully long print times when printing PDFs, I looked around and found the printer with the fastest PDF print speed: a mid range Cannon inkjet. I reluctantly jumped to Canon after owning HPs for years and I've never looked back. I've switched my family over to Canons and everyone agrees: these are just easier printers to use. Except for the high-end professional photo printers, Canons are known for "average" photo quality. Good, but not the best (HP generally wins there). If you are looking for the best picture quality at this price, you probably want to look at an HP. If you are looking for good picture quality but mostly want a reliable, easy to use printer that never jams, read on.
The Canon PIXMA MX350 currently (as of 10/14/2010) sits at the top of the 300 series of printers Canon multi-function printers. The 350 shares the same print engine at the 340 but includes a better scanner and faster fax. The 320 has an older and slower version of the print engine found in the 350 and 340. The 320 lacks wireless lan connectivity found in the 350 and 340 (note none of these have Ethernet). The best overall value is the 340, but for the $30 extra dollars the faster fax and better scanner are worth it to me. All of these printers use the Cl-211 black and multi-color cartridges (unlike many Canons these models do not use individual color cartridges).
I personally find the print quality for text, graphics, and photos to be very good, but not "the best". The print speed is above average for text and photos.
Here are some independently measured print times (Canon's advertised print times are close to this)
Text 7.7 pages per minute
Cost = 6.5 cents
4x6 photo 1.8 minute
Cost = $0.55
8x10 3.2 minutes
Cost = $1.80
The print cost is low, but not the lowest (if you care, Lexmark tends to have the lowest text print cost and Kodak tends to win on color).
As mentioned before, the entire MX300 series use two ink cartridges: one black and one combined color. The cartridges are designed so you can't put them in the wrong slot. The black is a very good water resistant, pigment-based ink. The color inks are less expensive dye-based inks.
The button lay out is good and it's easy to get started using all the features. The wireless lan setup was pretty easy and the range is very good (better than my laptop). The 350 has the best LCD (backlit) of the 300 series. It also has flash card slots and a 30 sheet document feeder. I've printed hundreds of documents on mine and have never managed to jam it or end up with a double paper feed. This is an easy to use home-office workhorse that I think would satisfy most users. I also happen to have a higher-end MP970 Canon all-in-one and I've done quite a few comparisons. Aside from better photo quality (and inks) and a little more speed I can't find much difference between them. If I was just going to buy one I'd probably go for the MX350 and save some money but if photo quality is very important to you I'd look at a higher end Canon MP series or HP Photosmart. Both rate excellent for photo quality and the higher end models use better inks.
Click Here to see more reviews about: Canon PIXMA MX350 Wireless Office All-in-One Printer (4205B002)
Wireless All-in-One Home Office Printer with 2.5-Inch LCD and ADF.
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