Computing: Canon Pixma MP550 – Review – 79

Canon’s stylish new MP550 is the least featured of the three printers on test. For starters, there’s no wireless connectivity (for that you’ll need the dearer MP560), and it also lacks the fax function of the HP. Not that many people have use for a fax these days, but I guess some of us still cling on to the technology.

What the MP550 does have is excellent photographic print quality – in fact remarkable quality, considering it is basically just a CMYK machine.

Part of the secret behind the print quality can be found in Canon’s Chromalife100+ ink set, which uses a dye-based extended gamut CMYK set and dedicated black pigment ink for laser-quality text printing. The other part of the equation is the FINE bubble-jet print head, which is capable of droplets as small as two picolitres for grain-free, continuous-tone photographic prints.

I also have a lot of time for Canon’s print drivers and bundled ICC profiles, and the MP550 happily made exceptional prints using other manufacturers’ premium media, with results unmatched by the other two machines on test.

A decent scanner is included, while the hidden main paper tray has a generous 300-sheet capacity (probably 60gsm plain bond).

Once I’d inserted the print head and loaded inks, I was good to go with loading the Canon software, which includes Easy-PhotoPrint EX and a nifty little Solution menu taskbar allowing easy access to all the MP550′s functions. The software setup took around 15 minutes in total, and using the supplied USB cable I was printing in no time at all.

Armed with a pack of A4 300gsm Canon Photo Paper Platinum, the MP550 offered excellent print quality; skin tones on my family photographs were realistic (keep out of the sun, Jeff!), while micro-details were easily discernable. As with the other two printers here, there was no visible dot structure, and even close checking with a magnifying glass failed to reveal much in the way of dot patterns. Black reproduction was just shaded by the HP but not by much.

The MP550 also didn’t hang around in terms of print speed; my borderless A4 prints took a whisker over three minutes at the highest quality setting. Great stuff indeed. In fact the only nitpick I could aim at the MP550 is its build quality, which is lightweight in terms of construction compared to the other two.

Even considering this, it was a super result, and bearing in mind the all-rounder abilities of the MP550 – it is a home office device, after all – the printer certainly made an impression (no pun intended).

More: www.canon.co.nz