With the release of the PIXMA MP600, Canon demonstrates there’s still innovation to be seen in the design of all-in-one devices. New ideas, particularly in the design of the machine’s operating system and the positioning of its control panel, make it an interesting test subject.

The guys at trustedreviews made a review of this printer and here are some of their impressions. After initial alignment of the print head and cartridges, which takes about six minutes, the printer is set up to print. Black text print uses the pigmented PGI-5BK cartridge and produces crisp, clean text with very little sign of spatter or feathering into the paper nap. Colour graphics are also generally good, though occasional white speckles in areas of solid colour show that some paper fibres are not getting fully covered. Colours in a copy, using the machine’s scanner, come out noticeably lighter than in the original.

Photo prints, as we’ve come to expect from Canon inkjets, are of very high quality. There’s plenty of detail in darker areas of the test image and variation in colour, as in skies, is well handled, though with some slight stippling. Foreground detail is sometimes a little less sharp than with some other machines, though this varies between images.

Print speeds are closer to Canon’s claims than with most machines of this type, because Canon quotes speeds in normal mode, as well as draft. The company is to be applauded for its honesty and where it claims 14.8ppm for black print, we saw 9.1ppm. Our colour test speed of 4.7ppm, against Canon’s claim of the 11.6ppm, wasn’t quite so good, though.

The conclusion is that while the speed results may not be close to Canon’s claim for this machine, in most other respects it does very well. Print quality is good, page costs are commendably low and the flexibility of the Canon PIXMA MP600 – with its dual paper sources, duplexing and innovative control method – make it good value at just over £100.