Written on September 16, 2009 – 4:29 am | by CoolGadgetConcept |
These days all the manufacturers try to offer a big variety of products. Even so only a few of them are actually going to have great sales and good profit. Canon knows this lesson, therefore for the printer series, Canon offers all sort of devices (entry level, middle level, high level and all in one). From all the levels, Canon invests the most in the all in one line.

The Canon PIXMA MP6xx is one line that has evolved in a spectacular way from 2006 when the first MP6xx device was created. Canon PIXMA MP610 and MP600 were released at one a year distance. Even so there were not enough improved features between both devices. Therefore Canon released in 2008 the PIXMA MP620 Wireless All in One Printer, Scanner and Copier. In direct comparison with both of the previous models, the MP620 does offer improvements. It adds both Ethernet and Wi-Fi and comes with a smaller asking price (the price is dropped by $50 then the price of the MP610). Unfortunately the smaller price means in Canon language slower processing and the lack of automatic duplexer for printing on both sides of the page (the MP610 was better from this perspective).

The automatic duplexer is a luxury feature and it makes no sense why Canon did not included it in the MP620. However if you don't need this feature or if you manually duplex a page, this may be for you a pretty good printer. If you already know the product and you are planning to buy it, and then hear or a couple of things you should know: the Canon PIXMA MP620 comes with an overwhelming amount of padding, bags, and tape that will keep the printer safe. It will take a while to unpack it. When you finish the unpacking, you will begin to worry. The printer comes with a few uninstalled pieces, therefore you will have to become an engineer and figure how to install in the best way possible all of these pieces.

Does the MP620 worth all the trouble? Well the first thing you are going to see is the 2.5 TFT display that will let you preview photos before printing them. The MP620 will also let you print easily from memory cards (SD memory card, SDHC multimedia card v4.1, multimedia card plus v4.1, mini SD card, xD picture card - basic, type M or type H, memory stick micro, memory stick pro duo, memory stick, memory stick pro memory stick duo, micro drive, compact flash card, micro SD, micro SDHC, RS MMC), digital cameras or even camera phone and camcorders.  The MP620 offers the performance of a 300 sheet input capacity divided in two trays.

You can use in a print of this scale two kinds of paper at once. Besides printing, the MP620 can scan over a network and work as stand-alone copier (excellent in offices). Canon officially released a statement that the PIXMA MP620 is compatible to both Microsoft operating systems: Vista and XP and Apple operating system: MAC OS X v10.3.9 to 10.5.x. Because the printer is delivered with the full set of software drivers the setup is doable. However it is by far an easy one. By all means use the steps indicated by Canon. After you unpack your printer, plug it in, turn it on, load paper and insert the cartridges. Remember that unlike other printers you will need to align the MP620 every time you change a cartridge. This was the easy part; now to the impossible part, the actual network setup of the printer.

Therefore, the usual installation process when you connect your printer to a network cable and let the installation software do its job doesn't work here. Grab a cup of coffee; it will take you another 10 minutes. Step 1: connect your PIXMA MP620 to your PC or Mac using the USB cable. Step 2: choose from the software installation program the "use a network connection" feature. Step 3: remove the USB cable. Now your printer is setup to accept a network connection with cable.

The connectivity in this device is ensured by Wireless LAN with 802.11 b / g support, Ethernet, card slots, PictBridge (connects digital cameras, the cable is not included in the package) and Bluetooth v2.0. Of course another drawback in this excellent connectivity pack is that you cannot use the wireless connection (between a laptop and printer) if the MP620 is already using a wired connection. The printer's dimensions are not a negligible factor in your purchase decision. It has a height of 17.53 cm (6.9 inches), wide of 36.83 cm (14.5 inches), deep of 44.96 cm (17.7 inches) the printer weights 8.48 kg (18.7 lb). The printing speed is adequate, faster than an all in one HP. The MP620 prints a 4 x 6 inch borderless photo in 41 seconds; the black print speed is 26 pages per minute while the color print speed is 17 pages per minute.

The black print resolution goes up to 600 x 600 dpi while the color print resolution goes up to 9600 x 2400 dpi. Pictures from the printer look great and the good quality will make them last. The photos are water resistant and scratch resistant with a lifetime of 300 years if you keep them in an album (30 years under glass and 10 years if their exposed to air). Printing text takes very little of your time and the printed quality of the texts is excellent. The Canon PIXMA MP620 is not just a printer, but also a copier. The black copy speed is 24 VPN while the color copy speed is 16 cpm. You also have features like reduction and enlargement: 25% to 400%. The MP620 has a Contact Image Sensor as a scanner element. Scan resolution goes up to 2400 x 4800 dpi in optical mode and 19.200 x 19.200 dpi in interpolated mode. The color depth is 48 bit internal and 24 bit external. The MP620 design is excellent; it looks and feels solid with quality build of the case and nice touch materials.

The MP620 is quite smart: it can detect the type of original you are scanning (either is a photo, personal notebook or form) then automatically scans and also saves the image with a specific settings, self operating paper output tray, smart copying and also wireless printing from a Wi-Fi enabled computer. Beside the actual all in one device, Canon delivers in the shipping box a power cord, five cartridges, print head, sample media, documentation kit - includes user guide CD and USB cable. The software that you will need to install is about 400 MB. However it seems to run fast. Unfortunately if your computer is not up to date the software might freeze it. Canon realized this and allows you to delete this software after you install the necessary drivers.

If you are interested enough to buy this printer, be prepared to spend some time with the process installation and money for setting it up for wireless functionality.