Canon Pixma MX860 All-In-One InkJet Printer
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- Black Print Speed: 8.4 inch/min
- Color Print Speed: 5.6 inch/min
- Output Type: Color Printer
- Technology (Detailed): Inkjet
- Printer Type: All-In-One Printer
- All-in-One Functions: Copier Fax Machine Scanner
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978
Inexpensive and decent Printer with some weird issues
Pros
Inexpensive all-in-one, durability is good, paper jams few, good value, USB functionality, easy to use.
Cons
Quite slow, print quality low-end, bulky, missing functionality, installation over encrypted wireless network faulty.
Recommended it?
Yes
The Bottom Line:
This printer has a few issues with speed, print quality, scanning photos to USB, etc. However, it is still a good printer for the price, excepting the encrypted wireless issue.
I bought this printer back in November of 2009 for $184 plus a $100 mail in rebate so I paid $84.00 in the end. That is not that much considering it is an all in one printer. I installed it and made it part of the wireless network that I have in my house. I also have an HP Photosmart C6180 printer as part of that network. The HP Photosmart C6180 printer is a more expensive printer ($399) but it is much faster and produces higher quality prints. On the other hand, the HP Photosmart C6180 printer is also an expensive ink guzzler and the kids print a lot of unnecessary color documents and photographs. My thinking was that the kids could use the Pixma MX860 and me and my wife could use the HP Photosmart C6180.
I should say that I set it up so that the kids could print using both printers but I set the Pixma MX860 as the default on their computers. It is also nice to have a back up printer in the event one of them would break. The cheaper Pixma MX860 is fairly good for what I wanted it for.
My bizarre wireless installation adventure and the pretend keypad menu buttons
According to the instructions you should be able to set up and install the printer using your wireless network. This turned out to be wrong. This printer will throw a pretty good curve ball at those who are foolish enough to try (like me).
In my house I have an encrypted wireless network to which all my computers and printers are connected. I installed my HP Photosmart C6180 all-in-one printer over my encrypted wireless network. It was not without problems but it was possible. According to the instructions and the salesman I was going to be able to do the same with the Pixma MX860.
I began installing this printer on my sons desktop following the instructions for wireless install. The instructions were a little confusing with Windows setup and Macintosh setup instructions intermingled and the Ethernet, USB, and wireless setup instructions were also intermingled. You had to jump and skip pages quite a bit. I guess it saves paper when you multi thread the instructions.
However, I did not encounter any difficulty until I got to step 9 where you could either use the push button method or enter the encryption pin manually. The push button method means that the printer automatically picks up the encryption key when you press a button on your wireless router. Since I did not have such a button on my wireless router I had to enter the key manually on the key pad and now something quite strange happened. No matter what numbers I pressed it was the same numbers showing up in the LCD display and it was the wrong numbers. I typed 8 and it showed a 2. I typed 7 and it showed a 3. The only encryption key I could type was something like "111122223333". Wow! That is bizarre so I contacted customer support.
After explaining the situation to the customer support representative he told me to setup the printer using a USB cable instead. Wow! I would never have thought of that! So I said no. The USB cable is not long enough and I don't want to move this heavy printer around now. So he put me through to a network specialist and this is roughly how the conversation went.
- Thomas: When I type in the encryption pin for my wireless network the display pad displays digits that I did not type.
- Network Specialist: Sir, you should install using a USB cable instead.
- Thomas: Why? This is supposed to work according to the installation instructions I have in my hand and I don't want to.
After a period of silence and some whispering in the background I received the following response.
- Network Specialist: Yeah supposedly, however, I am afraid we did not finish certain functionality. You can't install your printer this way because the software for it is missing. I am afraid you have no choice.
So I installed the printer using the included USB cable. I should say that the printer worked well over the wireless network after that and I could install and connect other computers to the printer via the wireless network after the first install.
My point with this "rant" is to make sure that you understand that this printer is actually an incomplete product. It may not affect you but corners were obviously cut and they are not upfront about it. This bothers me a bit.
Customer Support
The printer did not come with a user's manual in paper format and the installation instructions were messy and unfortunately it contained incorrect/false installation instructions for encrypted wireless networks.
How to contact customer support was non obvious and the email support I tried first was essentially useless and the Pixma MX860 was not listed among the products they offered support for. They offer phone support from 10AM to 10PM CST which is pretty good but not as good as HP support which offers 24-hour chat support. On the other hand the Canon customer support is not as bad as Microsoft customer support which don't even offer free customer support (if you register you can one or few times of free support, but how do you register if you can't install?) My customer support experience was OK but again not as good as the customer support experience I have had with HP.
In summary, customer support is not as good as HP customer support but better than Microsoft customer support. I would say about average.
Features and functionality
As mentioned the Pixma MX860 is an all-in-one InkJet printer and you can connect to it via a wireless network. You can use it to print, scan, copy, and fax. This printer has two paper trays one in the front and one in the back. The one in the front can load more paper (allegedly 250) but the tray feels flimsy. It works though. The one in the back is a little weird. You stick the paper in from above and it does not go very far in. Therefore the paper will hang over and you may have to hold it a little bit for it not to fall back out. However, the tray in the back can be adjusted to any size including photo size and I guess the main purpose for the rear tray is to print photos.
There is a USB port located in the front. If you connect your digital camera to this USB port you can print photos from the camera (you use the menu on the camera to print). The photo will come out as 4X6 in the rear tray. You can also stick a memory stick in the USB port and scan to the memory stick.
Unfortunately, even if you choose to scan a photo you will get a pdf file when you scan to a flash drive, which I consider a bug. However, if you scan to a computer instead and you select photo (on the printer) you will get a jpg file and a pdf file if you choose document (you can scan to multiple types of applications). The minor issue I just mentioned is nothing compared to the scan issue I have with my HP Photosmart C6180. The scan functionality on the HP Photosmart C6180 does not work if it is initiated from the printer. You have to use the IP address of the printer and launch the scan from a browser. This is due to a software bug. So overall I think scanning works relatively well. I should add that the printer also has media slots for compact Flash and SD card but I have not used them.
Issues and Durability
One issue I had when installing the Pixma MX860 printer was that when I setup the FAX the other phone lines (connected to the same phone number) would stop working. I know that the solution to this is a phone jack adapter (we have that for the HP Photosmart C6180 all-in-one printer). However, there was no adapter included with the box and the installation instructions did not say anything about it. We did not need this all-in-one printer to be a FAX so I moved on. However, I still consider it an issue.
One thing that annoys me with the Pixma MX860 is that is a little bit heavy, big, bulky and the tray for photo printing is both weird and in the back. That means that I have to turn the printer around every time I want to print a photo or use the back tray for another reason. This is not a very good solution.
However, I am quite impressed with the durability of the printer. We have now had it for more than five months and we have not had any failures and I can't even remember any paper jams. Our HP Photosmart C6180 all-in-one printer on the other hand have a paper jam about once a day and during its first year we have had to replace it three times (luckily the warranty covered it). The Pixma MX860 gets two thumbs up for durability from me.
Print Quality and Printing cost
Most decent printers seem to have great print quality as long as you only look at what the printer produces without comparing it with other printers. That is why I printed large very high resolution full page photographs on identical generic paper using both the Pixma MX860 printer and the HP Photosmart C6180 all-in-one printer.
The Pixma MX860 printer boasts 9600 x 2400 maximum color dpi while the HP Photosmart C6180 all-in-one printer only has 4800 x 1200 maximum color dpi. However, when I compare the prints I did with both printers I have to say that the prints from the HP Photosmart C6180 all-in-one printer looks better. If you look very closely you can see that the Pixma MX860 printer is slightly better on very fine detail on some objects. However, overall I don't think the 9600 x 2400 maximum color dpi and the 4800 x 1200 maximum color dpi makes any noticeable difference. However, what makes a difference is the way the colors come out on the paper. The Pixma MX860 printer colors look slightly washed out in comparison to the HP Photosmart C6180 and the color contrast is greater on the pictures from the HP Photosmart C6180. Therefore, in my judgment, despite the higher print resolution of the Pixma MX860 it still has an inferior print quality.
I have not kept track of the cost versus the number of prints for the printers. However, it is obvious that the Pixma MX860 printer is cheaper than the HP Photosmart C6180 printer with respect to cartridges. The Pixma MX860 printer will save you money both in purchase price and ink.
Speed
The Pixma MX860 all-in-one is considerably slower than the HP Photosmart C6180 all-in-one printer. If I print 4 pages with 4 big photographs the HP Photosmart C6180 all-in-one printer is done when the Pixma MX860 is still working on the beginning of the second page even if I gave the Pixma MX860 a head start by starting its print first. Scanning seems to be roughly the same speed but the HP Photosmart C6180 produces better scans.
Final Recommendation
The Pixma MX860 is a good printer for its price. It is slow, the picture quality not the best, and I found a few issues (see review). However, it also seems to be durable and it is fairly easy to use. For the price that is not bad and I would have given it four stars if it was not for the fact that I found Canon's little dirty Pixma MX860 secret. They are selling this printer with missing functionality and they are deceptive about it, so three stars it is.
I should say that I set it up so that the kids could print using both printers but I set the Pixma MX860 as the default on their computers. It is also nice to have a back up printer in the event one of them would break. The cheaper Pixma MX860 is fairly good for what I wanted it for.
My bizarre wireless installation adventure and the pretend keypad menu buttons
According to the instructions you should be able to set up and install the printer using your wireless network. This turned out to be wrong. This printer will throw a pretty good curve ball at those who are foolish enough to try (like me).
In my house I have an encrypted wireless network to which all my computers and printers are connected. I installed my HP Photosmart C6180 all-in-one printer over my encrypted wireless network. It was not without problems but it was possible. According to the instructions and the salesman I was going to be able to do the same with the Pixma MX860.
I began installing this printer on my sons desktop following the instructions for wireless install. The instructions were a little confusing with Windows setup and Macintosh setup instructions intermingled and the Ethernet, USB, and wireless setup instructions were also intermingled. You had to jump and skip pages quite a bit. I guess it saves paper when you multi thread the instructions.
However, I did not encounter any difficulty until I got to step 9 where you could either use the push button method or enter the encryption pin manually. The push button method means that the printer automatically picks up the encryption key when you press a button on your wireless router. Since I did not have such a button on my wireless router I had to enter the key manually on the key pad and now something quite strange happened. No matter what numbers I pressed it was the same numbers showing up in the LCD display and it was the wrong numbers. I typed 8 and it showed a 2. I typed 7 and it showed a 3. The only encryption key I could type was something like "111122223333". Wow! That is bizarre so I contacted customer support.
After explaining the situation to the customer support representative he told me to setup the printer using a USB cable instead. Wow! I would never have thought of that! So I said no. The USB cable is not long enough and I don't want to move this heavy printer around now. So he put me through to a network specialist and this is roughly how the conversation went.
- Thomas: When I type in the encryption pin for my wireless network the display pad displays digits that I did not type.
- Network Specialist: Sir, you should install using a USB cable instead.
- Thomas: Why? This is supposed to work according to the installation instructions I have in my hand and I don't want to.
After a period of silence and some whispering in the background I received the following response.
- Network Specialist: Yeah supposedly, however, I am afraid we did not finish certain functionality. You can't install your printer this way because the software for it is missing. I am afraid you have no choice.
So I installed the printer using the included USB cable. I should say that the printer worked well over the wireless network after that and I could install and connect other computers to the printer via the wireless network after the first install.
My point with this "rant" is to make sure that you understand that this printer is actually an incomplete product. It may not affect you but corners were obviously cut and they are not upfront about it. This bothers me a bit.
Customer Support
The printer did not come with a user's manual in paper format and the installation instructions were messy and unfortunately it contained incorrect/false installation instructions for encrypted wireless networks.
How to contact customer support was non obvious and the email support I tried first was essentially useless and the Pixma MX860 was not listed among the products they offered support for. They offer phone support from 10AM to 10PM CST which is pretty good but not as good as HP support which offers 24-hour chat support. On the other hand the Canon customer support is not as bad as Microsoft customer support which don't even offer free customer support (if you register you can one or few times of free support, but how do you register if you can't install?) My customer support experience was OK but again not as good as the customer support experience I have had with HP.
In summary, customer support is not as good as HP customer support but better than Microsoft customer support. I would say about average.
Features and functionality
As mentioned the Pixma MX860 is an all-in-one InkJet printer and you can connect to it via a wireless network. You can use it to print, scan, copy, and fax. This printer has two paper trays one in the front and one in the back. The one in the front can load more paper (allegedly 250) but the tray feels flimsy. It works though. The one in the back is a little weird. You stick the paper in from above and it does not go very far in. Therefore the paper will hang over and you may have to hold it a little bit for it not to fall back out. However, the tray in the back can be adjusted to any size including photo size and I guess the main purpose for the rear tray is to print photos.
There is a USB port located in the front. If you connect your digital camera to this USB port you can print photos from the camera (you use the menu on the camera to print). The photo will come out as 4X6 in the rear tray. You can also stick a memory stick in the USB port and scan to the memory stick.
Unfortunately, even if you choose to scan a photo you will get a pdf file when you scan to a flash drive, which I consider a bug. However, if you scan to a computer instead and you select photo (on the printer) you will get a jpg file and a pdf file if you choose document (you can scan to multiple types of applications). The minor issue I just mentioned is nothing compared to the scan issue I have with my HP Photosmart C6180. The scan functionality on the HP Photosmart C6180 does not work if it is initiated from the printer. You have to use the IP address of the printer and launch the scan from a browser. This is due to a software bug. So overall I think scanning works relatively well. I should add that the printer also has media slots for compact Flash and SD card but I have not used them.
Issues and Durability
One issue I had when installing the Pixma MX860 printer was that when I setup the FAX the other phone lines (connected to the same phone number) would stop working. I know that the solution to this is a phone jack adapter (we have that for the HP Photosmart C6180 all-in-one printer). However, there was no adapter included with the box and the installation instructions did not say anything about it. We did not need this all-in-one printer to be a FAX so I moved on. However, I still consider it an issue.
One thing that annoys me with the Pixma MX860 is that is a little bit heavy, big, bulky and the tray for photo printing is both weird and in the back. That means that I have to turn the printer around every time I want to print a photo or use the back tray for another reason. This is not a very good solution.
However, I am quite impressed with the durability of the printer. We have now had it for more than five months and we have not had any failures and I can't even remember any paper jams. Our HP Photosmart C6180 all-in-one printer on the other hand have a paper jam about once a day and during its first year we have had to replace it three times (luckily the warranty covered it). The Pixma MX860 gets two thumbs up for durability from me.
Print Quality and Printing cost
Most decent printers seem to have great print quality as long as you only look at what the printer produces without comparing it with other printers. That is why I printed large very high resolution full page photographs on identical generic paper using both the Pixma MX860 printer and the HP Photosmart C6180 all-in-one printer.
The Pixma MX860 printer boasts 9600 x 2400 maximum color dpi while the HP Photosmart C6180 all-in-one printer only has 4800 x 1200 maximum color dpi. However, when I compare the prints I did with both printers I have to say that the prints from the HP Photosmart C6180 all-in-one printer looks better. If you look very closely you can see that the Pixma MX860 printer is slightly better on very fine detail on some objects. However, overall I don't think the 9600 x 2400 maximum color dpi and the 4800 x 1200 maximum color dpi makes any noticeable difference. However, what makes a difference is the way the colors come out on the paper. The Pixma MX860 printer colors look slightly washed out in comparison to the HP Photosmart C6180 and the color contrast is greater on the pictures from the HP Photosmart C6180. Therefore, in my judgment, despite the higher print resolution of the Pixma MX860 it still has an inferior print quality.
I have not kept track of the cost versus the number of prints for the printers. However, it is obvious that the Pixma MX860 printer is cheaper than the HP Photosmart C6180 printer with respect to cartridges. The Pixma MX860 printer will save you money both in purchase price and ink.
Speed
The Pixma MX860 all-in-one is considerably slower than the HP Photosmart C6180 all-in-one printer. If I print 4 pages with 4 big photographs the HP Photosmart C6180 all-in-one printer is done when the Pixma MX860 is still working on the beginning of the second page even if I gave the Pixma MX860 a head start by starting its print first. Scanning seems to be roughly the same speed but the HP Photosmart C6180 produces better scans.
Final Recommendation
The Pixma MX860 is a good printer for its price. It is slow, the picture quality not the best, and I found a few issues (see review). However, it also seems to be durable and it is fairly easy to use. For the price that is not bad and I would have given it four stars if it was not for the fact that I found Canon's little dirty Pixma MX860 secret. They are selling this printer with missing functionality and they are deceptive about it, so three stars it is.
