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Agentless Backup is Not a Myth

iOS 4 and Android printing

Plug in your camera and you can use the LCD window to choose movie stills to print out. If you’ve been shooting in HD, the results are pretty good. Note, however, that this feature is only available using Canon cameras. Boo!

Canon Pixma MG-5250

Despite the rates as 2400 ppi, the scanning software seems unable to go beyond 600 ppi

Plain paper printouts from Office applications and web pages take around 15 seconds, or 25 seconds from sleep mode. This printer also lets you print double-sided (duplex) as standard, if you don’t mind waiting a minute for each complete sheet. A single-sided photocopy, using the scanner underneath the thin black lid on top of the unit, takes 25 seconds.

Copying aside, the flatbed scanner is nothing to get excited about. The official spec rates it for 2400ppi optical scanning, but the bundled software (Canon MP Navigator EX) insists on a maximum of 600 ppi. This is fine for same-size whole-photo scanning but unhelpful when trying to scan and enlarge small regions.

Canon Pixma MG-5250

Not the smallest but packs away neatly enough

Sensibly, Canon has built Wi-Fi into the unit as standard. Better still for gadget fans, the company has developed a free iPhone and iPad app called Canon Easy-PhotoPrint that lets you print over Wi-Fi. Just be aware that you can only print photos, not documents from Pages and the like. Canon also produces an Android version of Canon Easy-PhotoPrint for phones and tablets.

Canon Pixma MG-5250

Customer Success Testimonial: Recovery is Everything

Next page: Archive art

Psst ... Want a Fax/Copier/Printer - no Fax/Copy function. Going cheap!

I have this combo unit in my junk cupboard. Everything was great until the scanner went bad - now it's only a printer.

Never again!

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Buy a laser instead

I can't comment about the pros and cons of this particular printer as opposed to any other inkjet but my general advice is... don't buy an inkjet, buy a colour laser instead! Unless you do a lot of printing, a laser printer is much, MUCH cheaper!!

I probably print no more than about 20 pages a month at home at most. I used to have inkjet printers of various brands but was forever buying new cartridges because they'd dry out, produce stripey printouts, clog up, spurt out tons of ink in pointless "cleaning" cycles, etc.

The typical lifecycle of an inkjet printer was: buy printer (£150), buy new set of cartridges every six months (£50 for a full set), after 2 years throw printer away because it was crap and still produced crap printouts despite brand new full set of cartridges. Repeat. Total cost: £300 every 2 years, and lots of frustration.

Then, 2 years ago I bought a colour laser printer (£250). Still using the original toner cartridges and barely made a dent in the supply levels. I fully expect to still be using that printer in 2 or 3 years time.

Unless you print a lot of full page glossy colour photos or can guarantee to use it regularly enough that you never dry out the ink jets, a laser printer is better in every respect: cheaper, faster, better quality, and the ink doesn't smudge if it gets wet.

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How many multi-function machines have you encountered where a function has failed?

My experience is that, like Jack of all trades, multi-functions are as never as accomplished as dedicated, single function, machines. There are always compromises in some function.

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