A sleek and compact disappointment overall !!!. Review on Canon Pixma MP 160

The Canon Pixma MP160 Multi-Function(Inkjet) Printer: -

It can scan, photocopy

as well as print in B&W(Black and White) or colour.

It looks sleek and

stylish.

It is not that space-consuming(443(Width) *381(Depth) 183 mm) as well

as light-weight(6.5 Kg) thus making it ideal for home usage and not necessarily

office or commercial purposes.

It can copy at a speed of 22 cpm(copies per

minute) for B&W and 17 cpm for colour material and can print at a rate of 22

ppm(prints per minutes) for B&W and 17ppm for colour, which suffices our

household as well as a small business concern needs and its supposed to consume

about 15W(Watts) in standby mode and 66W under maximum usage conditions.

The

major drawback I have observed has got to do with the availability of the

cartridges/toners. Its like searching for a needle in a haystack, inspite of

this being a "running" model of Cannon, more so for the colour ones. Also, the

pricing of the cartridges is a bit steep - Rs.1100/- for B&W(PG-40/PG-50)

and Rs.1400/- for Colour(CL-41/CL-51).

Another interesting point to note, is

that the machine draws ink from the colour cartridge while cleaning the

cartridge as a part of a necessary maintenance to ensure the machines

capabilities, thus increasing its consumption and lowering the economy.

Even the

new cartridges tend to dry up if not utilized sufficiently over a period of 3-4

months only.

Another drawback I came across is the fact that if your colour

cartridge were to finish and you are running on only B&W, then while taking

printouts only the black text gets printed leaving the colour areas as a total

blank! I have gone through the user manual and there is no option to select

only black while taking prints even though for photocopying this option does

exist.

Thus, if I were to take a printout under such circumstances(lack of ink in the colour cartridge), then I have

to first open and copy the matter into another file, then adjust all the

coloured text or pictures to B&W then give the print command - quite a

tedious, boring and annoying task.

Apart from this, the scanning resolution is

not great even though it is supposed to give an optical resolution of 600 * 1200

dpi(dots per inch).

The Pixma MP Navigator software is good and easy to operate and is compatible with all the

latest versions of Windows(right from the 1998 version) and Macintosh.

The

photo prints from a DSC(Digital Still Camera), while attaching it to the

computer, do not turn all that well in terms of clarity or colour, and unlike

the Cannon Pixma MP180 model this model cannot read from a memory stick or

multimedia card.

On the whole, it is a tad bit disappointing compounded due the

time taken for actual printouts and I personally feel that HP are far superior

in terms of product as well as pricing and after-sales service, but at the same

time never ever make the mistake of purchasing a Samsung printer or scanner -

now thats another story which needs addressing in a different review!

I would

recommend this Cannon Pixma MP160 model for households who do not have frequent

or regular requirements for printing or photocopying.