New York, NY -- Just released, the MP280 AIO by Canon is among the latest installments in their successful Pixma line of devices aimed at home users or students. It features print speeds of up to 8.4ipm for monochrome jobs and 4.8ipm for color prints as well as up to 4800 x 1200 dpi print resolution.
The Pixma MP280 is among the newly redesigned Pixma models which have moved away from matte gray exterior towards a nicer looking black exterior. The unit measures 6.0” x 17.8” x 13.2” (HxWxD) and weighs about 12lbs. It is compatible with both Macintosh and Windows operating systems.
Among it’s features, two stand out above any others. The first one is not new, but still useful. Auto Photo Fix II helps by automatically examining an image and then corrects any perceived image errors to improve the quality of the photo you are printing. The other feature worth noting is Canon’s new HD movie print. It allows users to print still images from movies which were taken from a variety of Canon’s digital cameras.
The input and output capacity is somewhat small for anyone with more than moderate printing needs; 100 pages is good but it may not cut it all the time. The Pixma MP280 connects to your computer via USB 2.0 which is a minor inconvenience. However, based on its size and weight it is very moveable. Another factor that probably limits its use to people other than casual home users or students is the lack of duplex printing or an automatic document feeder.
Unfortunately as with basically all printers in this price range the Pixma MP280 uses a two-cartridge ink system. The two standard cartridges are the PG-210 (Black) and the CL-211 (Color). To replace those will cost $15.99 and $20.99 respectively. One good thing with the printer’s ink is that both the cartridges come with high-yield options which do not cost significantly more. The high-yield black, the PG-210XL costs $21.99 and the CLI-211XL costs $26.99. No information about page yields could be located on Canon’s website. If you know you will be printing a decent number of photos, you can buy a combo pack of the two high-yield ink cartridges and 50 sheets of 4x6” photo paper.
Overall, if you need a simple, easy AIO device, this should definitely fit the bill. The extra features mentioned above as well as the history of the Pixma line make it pretty easy to endorse.
