[Review] Canon MX700

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So how does the MP610 and MP970 compare to the MX700 and MP830?

Unfortunately I haven't had a chance to try an MP600 much less any of those other two so I'm not much help there :|

I know the MP610 doesn't have fax or networking and the MP970 doesn't have fax. Are the MP610 and MP970 refillable as no one seems to have posted anything about them in the other thread about firmware or something disallowing carts to be refillable.

To be completely honest the results we've had back seem to indicate that the issue is not widespread so you should be ok. No guarantee's but a single negative report is all we've got against a lot of positive experiences

Pricewise, I can get MX700 - $150, MP610 - $140, MP830 - $210 and the MP970 for $240. From looking at specs, photo printing wise, it should go from MP970, MP610/MP830 and then last the MX700? Thanks for your review of MX700.

That sounds about right... The MP970 is going to be fairly top range as an MFD.. In all honest I think what you need to look at is what the baseline print capabilities are first and then look at what extras you get.. With the MX700 it's a printserver, with the MP830 it's the same function set as the MX700 but with a little more User interface for standalone function.... and so and so on.

 

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Thank you for your help

 

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No Worries...

Just to add to my original review...

I realised that something was a bit different in the photocopying between the MP830 and MX700 so I did a quick face off.. The results were interesting:

If you're doing a single copy the MX700 gets the job done faster (at normal rate) however if you're looking for multiple copies I found a rather telling limitation of the MX700 system. It doesnt' have or use any memory to save the scan for additional prints... In other words while the MP830 will take an instruction to print multiple photocopies and only do one scan (for 1 single-sided sheet) and then just print the additional copies. The MX700 will rescan the original for every copy.

That lack of a cacheing mechanism is a real pain in the butt for anyone who was hoping to do multiple copies and the MP830 would leave it sitting in the dust as a result.

Thought that might be a useful nugget and certainly one worth testing on other MFD units too...

 

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Further to my original review I was starting to wonder if perhaps I'd been a tad harsh but having seen the new specification for the coming MX850 (the next gen up from MP830) it seems my instincts were right.

The new MX850 is indeed complete with wired print server and will doubtless show up the MX700 as a low spec version...


Having revisited the MX700 recently though I have to say that I'm not all down on the machine. It's key problems are the speed it takes to warm up, the lack of a decent memory cache for copying and an incredibly slow "high" quality print speed.

On the plus side though this is going to be perfect for a low budget office where printing is occasional, there's no need for high quality photos, and it can be shared on the network. You could do worse but with the MX830 less than a month away, I'd personally recommend saving up the extra 100 and getting one of those instead.