Canon Pixma MP640 review

Canon's feature-packed Pixma MP640 has both wired and wireless networking, memory card slots, a CD-printing tray, two 150-sheet paper trays and an automatic duplexer.

The 3in colour screen makes it easy to use features such as copying, direct printing and disc label copying. It has a pigment-based black ink for text prints, along with a set of four dye-based inks for colour documents and photo printing.

Standard-quality text prints looked great and print speeds of 7ppm are reasonable. Draft text appeared at almost 10ppm and was dark, sharp and easy to read. Colour prints on plain paper looked good, despite slightly pale tones. Prints on photo paper had no such problems, though, with rich colours and smooth mid-tones. The MP640 takes 50 seconds for a 6x4in print. Photos cost around 39p if you use Canon's most expensive paper, though.

Scan and photocopy quality was equally impressive, with accurate colour reproduction and plenty of detail. Canon's superb ScanGear software has a Thumbnails View mode that recognises multiple documents, rotates them to remove wonky edges and presents each one as a separate object for scanning. Advanced settings let you tweak colour and sharpness before the image is captured.

Occasionally, the MP640 took a half-minute pause for maintenance. Otherwise, it performed respectably in our tests, even though it's not the fastest around. Print costs are lower than average for an inkjet at 6.8p per colour page and 2.3p for a page of mono text.

With reasonable print costs and outstanding quality on everything from photos to business documents, this reliable all-rounder is up to almost any task. It's neither the fastest nor the cheapest MFP, but it provides a great balance between quality, speed and price.

Author: Kat Orphanides