Canon PIXMA MP630 Printer Review

The case design of the Canon PIXMA MP630 is still mostly comprised of frosted silver and piano black, but in completely different areas. Just like the MP610, it is a sizeable machine, with a black edge to the lid, echoing the black base. A paper tray pulls up from the rear then there is another feed coming from a tray beneath at the front, each of which may support 150 sheets of paper. The front tray is intended for plain paper but the rear one, having a straighter paper course, can take both plain or photo paper.

The flatbed scanner can take individual sheets of plain paper or photo prints, but unlike the Pixma MP980, there is no transparency adapter set at the bottom of the lid..

Set in to the top side is a fold-up, 62mm LCD display and furthermore below this is the now normal Canon control panel, including two softkeys as well as the corporation's easy-to-use, click-dial control intended for menu navigation. This is by far the most effective way of negotiating setup options yet included in a printer.

On the very curved, right front edge of the unit is a flip-open cover, which in turn reveals three memory card slots, so that you can plug in essentially any of the current platforms. There's a simple PictBridge socket, too, although this is beneath the cover door and it is continually accessible. The sole Computer data link is a USB 2. socket at the rear, although a bluetooth adapter is obtainable as an alternative.

Canon promises rates of speed of 13ppm as well as 11ppm regarding black and colour print with normal print mode, but under examination we got under half these rates of speed. The five-page, black text print needed 54 seconds, equivalent to a pace of 5.6ppm plus, highly abnormally, the extended, 20-page print produced a slower rate of 5.3ppm. In complete terms, these rates are not poor for a colour inkjet machine, therefore it is a pity Canon seems to exaggerate it.

Using colour, the print rate of the MP630 falls to 3.3ppm and printing duplex black text pages slows the equipment even more, to 2.4ppm. As with previous Canon products, the poor duplex time is basically due to the temporary stop betwixt printing each page side, to permit the ink to dry.

The scan level of quality from this device's flatbed scanner, having a high optical resolution of 4,800 x 9,600ppi, is extremely good and there is a reduced amount of apparent colour cast than from a number of its competitors.

The caliber of prints is, as truly, excellent. Black print is well-defined and without the ink feathering several of its challengers are afflicted by.

Colour is usually well reproduced, though there exists some mottling in substantial areas of solid colour. Black text registration over colour is robust without evidence of haloing, and the colour photocopy reproduced black and colour effectively, although there seemed to be a bit of lightening of colour shades as always.

Canon performs exceptionally well in terms of photo prints, with our test samples appearing true and very detailed, specially in elements of shadow. Colour transitions tend to be dealt with efficiently without having obvious dot patterns and delivering a 15 x 10cm print in 46 seconds is outstanding.

Canon PIXMA MP630 printer ink cartridges total five; two black cartridges and three colour. The PGI-520BK black cartridge is employed for text print whereas the CLI-521 cartridges are for graphics and photos.

This device continues to be an excellent compromise of price versus feature set. Having twin paper trays, CD/DVD printing as well as duplex as standard, it provides much of what many family customers need from an all-in-one.

Canon PIXMA MP630 printer ink cartridges are available here.