Canon PIXMA MX7600

Canon is well-known for releasing easy-to-use inkjet multifunctions that are capable of printing great photos. With the MX7600, Canon has taken a slightly different tack. This unit isn't as intuitive to use as some other multifunctions, but its connectivity options and other features somewhat make up for it.

Those put off by the bulk of the MX7600's older counterpart, the Pixma MP830, may not be pleased: this multifunction is bigger, as a rear paper tray has been added. The MX7600 also adds an Ethernet port, which is handy for office environments.

The MX7600 has standard features for an office-focussed multifunction, including a fax, an automatic document feeder and an auto-duplexing unit. A multi-card reader on the front supports MemoryStick, SD, MMC and CompactFlash, and there is a PictBridge port for direct printing.

The two units also share the same overly confusing control panel. Gone is the Easy Scroll Wheel found in Canon's PIXMA MP610. It is replaced by a multitude of buttons designed to provide quick access to the MX7600's functions. The majority of these are fax-related — there's a numeric keypad for dialling, as well as four different buttons for fax preferences, and eight speed-dial buttons. We would have preferred an Easy Scroll Wheel over the vast number of buttons.

The MX7600 allows users to initiate scanning from the unit, saving the results as an image, document or email attachment. This feature is increasingly common, but it is well implemented here.

The MX7600's 1.8in LCD screen is significantly smaller than the 2.5in screen found on the MP830. This small screen is still functional enough for choosing which photos to print and navigating menus.

Printing speeds aren't fantastic, but are adequate for most offices. Our text documents printed at an average 17.1 pages per minute in draft quality, with normal quality documents printing at 9.5ppm. Colour text documents with graphical elements are somewhat slower, averaging 10.9ppm using draft quality and 7.1ppm using normal quality. Photo printing speeds are acceptable: standard 4x6in photos take roughly 37sec each, while A4 photos print take 1min 26sec to print.

Print quality is excellent for the most part. Text is clear and readable at all quality levels, and the MX7600 is able to produce rich, consistent colour.

This multifunction is the second product in Canon's printer range to use its new pigment-based, 9 series ink, which includes a clear ink for protecting photos. The result is photo quality almost on par with Canon's PIXMA MP610. Colours are vibrant and rich, and have decent accuracy. Black shades are the only real issue; they are slightly undefined when printing dark-to-light gradients. There is some evidence of vertical banding in 4x6in photos, but this is absent in A4 pictures.

The MX7600 is capable of an average 16.49c per page during normal printing. This is only a marginal improvement over those models which use the 8-series inks and is quite mid-range in terms of consumable pricing.

Scanning quality is quite good. Images have balanced colour, although they are slightly lighter than their originals. This can lead to a loss of some detail when scanning lighter images. Text is reproduced well, with no skewing.