Canon PIXMA MP160 Driver Download– All-in-one machines are getting cheaper, but the new PIXMA MP160, launched in early September, sets a record for Canon at under £45. You get a serviceable device based on a four-color printing press at this low price.
This is a great machine for entry-level multifunction. It’s also well-designed, from the pull-out paper stand at the back to the fold-out paper output tray at the front. There is no need for telescopic parts to this tray, as the print mechanism has been rearranged nicely into the all-in-one.
The small and well-organized control panel has only a few functions, but it is well chosen. On the right are black and white and color copy buttons, one to cancel the job, while the simple Scan and Fit to Page buttons complete it on the left. Three indicators indicate a paper jam and low ink in the black and color cartridges. In the center of the panel are a single-digit bright orange LCD and a column of three indicators for paper size and type.
The one-character display is cleverly used to show the number of copies selected – between one and nine – and the busy state, head alignment, and connected cameras. While it may not be as clear as the 16-character LCD screen, it’s one of the few concessions at the machine’s low price.
There’s no memory card slot, but this shouldn’t be surprising since there’s no LCD screen. There’s a PictBridge socket, so you can still print from a digital camera. The single USB socket on the back is the only connection to a PC.
Lift the very small part of the machine’s scanner, and it rises on the blue ‘hood support’ stand to provide access to the print cartridge. The machine uses one black and three-color cartridge, and you can buy it in standard or high-yield versions. You slide it back onto the printhead and push it up to click it into position.
One of the very attractive features of this machine is its print quality. Not only are the pages of the black text reproduced fairly well – albeit with a bit of fluff – but the color graphics are clean, well depicted, and not riddled with unsightly patterns. Although the colors on our test copy are slightly lighter than the original, the quality is still very reasonable.
When you get photographic prints, the colors are good, albeit in places that are a bit overemphasized and quite subtle in stratified areas, such as the sky. Red and blue look very natural, although green tends to be yellow.
Printing from a PC in best quality mode took one minute 50 seconds, and in standard mode from the camera, via PictBridge, it still took one minute and three seconds. This, on its own, isn’t bad timing and is much quicker than Lexmark’s latest budget all-in-one. When printing from the camera, pressing Fit to page gives you a borderless print.
Printing on plain paper is also fairly fast, with long print swaths of blackheads covering the page quickly. We completed a five-page test print in 55 seconds, delivering real-world print speeds of over 5ppm. However, printing mixed text and graphics took more than double the time, coming out in two and four seconds. In the end, a page of color copies took 54 seconds, less than the 53 seconds claimed by Canon.
You can expect to pay more for your consumables on a low-cost printer than on a high-cost one – this is the equation manufacturers use to balance their overall income.
This is the highest range for an ink-jet all-in-one, though not the highest we’ve ever recorded. Color numbers also depend heavily on Canon’s glossy photo paper, although it’s still half the price of ink.
Overall, you’d have to say that Canon has an entry-level all-in-one market that’s well covered with this machine and its brethren.
