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We've seen a fair few multi-function devices in recent months and invariably the people peddling these dextrous devices tell us that the single piece of machinery can do the job of a scanner, printer and often a fax machine as well.
That's all very well, but invariably something has to give in the struggle to make such flexible hardware. If the printing is good, the scanning capabilities are often quite bad. If, on the other hand, the scanner produces acceptable results, the hard copies spat out of the paper tray will often look poor. Presently, there is nothing better than a good-quality separate printer and scanner, particularly if your reproductive requirements are high.
Canon's C70 multi-pass multi-function device is actually one of our favourites, but Canon knows that not everyone is prepared to compromise quality for the sake of an extra square foot of desk space or a couple of pounds in the pocket. With that in mind, it has introduced a bundle consisting of a scanner and a printer.
A package of this sort would be aimed at the low end of the market, where the buyer may not have a scanner at all, or perhaps has both devices but both are getting old. The two models included aren't at the bottom of the Canon range, though. The S300 inkjet printer is a mid-range model that would cost about £100 if it was sold separately. The D646U flatbed scanner would cost about the same. The £179 price of the bundle looks like a fair price for the two devices.
As you slide both machines from the box, it's obvious that both share stylish looks, finished as they are in dark blue and silver.
Both the scanner and printer are USB devices, which means plugging them into the PC and setting them up should be hassle free. It is, although most PCs come with only two USB ports and this pair requires both of them.
If you already have a USB peripheral or two, you will be short of plugs. A USB hub or PCI expansion card may be required to avoid constant plug-swapping.
The BubbleJet S300 proved itself to be a very solid performer in our tests. The 2400 x 1200 resolution is pretty high and the result is razor-sharp text on photocopier paper. Even small text can be read, which is pretty good for a reasonably cheap inkjet printer.
Traditionally, Canon printers lack an edge when asked to print photo-quality images, often requiring a special print cartridge. The S300 doesn't.
It produces some excellent photos, and slightly milky colours are the only possible point worth complaining about. Other than that, they are beautifully crisp and suffer none of the banding or dottiness that bedevil many budget printers.
Claims made by manufacturers about the speed of their printers are optimistic to say the least. Canon claims the S300 can propel 11 mono-text pages onto the desk every minute. Using the default settings, we found around half that was realistic but that's still not bad, particularly considering how good the result looked. When a few simple graphics were added, the score dropped to less than two pages a minute.
It's a very impressive performer, the only downside being the two-cartridge system it uses. All three colours are included in a single cartridge so when one colour is exhausted, the whole cartridge must be binned.
The CanoScan D646U is a 600 x 1200 resolution scanner. Great claims are made of the 42-bit colour depth. Higher colour depth should result in smoother graduations between colour shades and as a consequence, a better quality result.
The solid tops of most scanners make scanning books and such like something of a struggle, but the Z-lid - essentially a hinge - removes such difficulties with the D646U. As you'd expect, the photo-editing and OCR software is included for PC and Macintosh as both devices will work happily with either system.
Contact
Canon: 0800 252223 www.canon.co.uk
ALSO CONSIDER
HP OfficeJet V40
A great value all-in-one device.
£199 - Excellent.
Computeractive, Issue 90.
See also:
All Inkjet Printers
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