Product Reviews

This multifunction peripheral is one of 14 new inkjet devices that Canon has just released in a major update of its PIXMA range. We've reviewed three of the new printers in this month's Labs, which starts on page 193.

The PIXMA MP450 sits roughly in the middle of Canon's multifunction inkjet range. Canon describes it as a 'photolab multifunctional' as it has some useful photo printing features, including a 4.7cm colour display and a PictBridge USB port. It also has memory slots for five different card formats, but these are in an awkward position and can't read xD cards without an optional adaptor. More unusual is the MP450's infrared port, which supports direct printing from compatible mobile devices.

This device is fairly easy to set up, although it took us ages to find and remove all its orange transit

The MP450 performed competently in our plain paper print tests, delivering high-quality text at 6.8 pages per minute (ppm) and draft text at 8.6ppm. It was impressive when printing in colour, and our 24-page test document appeared at a steady 1.9ppm.

Photo printing was particularly fast: the MP450 took just under nine minutes to print six borderless 6x4" prints at its highest quality. Photos looked decent, but on Canon's Photo Paper Pro they suffered from a lack of detail and contrast in dark areas.

The scanner is often a multifunction peripheral's weak point, but the MP450's was fast and produced particularly good results in our tests. Colours remained accurate, and detail was preserved in the darkest and lightest regions of each image. A4 copies made at the default setting took 15.5 seconds in black only and 55 seconds in colour. The quality of each was very high.

The MP450 is a capable performer, but it's not especially good value compared with the Lexmark P6350 reviewed on page 26. We were also disappointed by its running costs, which are too high for this class of product and greatly reduce its appeal.