Canon PIXMA MP130 All-in-One Photo Printer:
Written: May 09 '06 (Updated May 09 '06)
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Pros: decent printer, copying, and scanning for a reasonable price
Cons: has some difficulties with converting to grayscale; photos mediocre
The Bottom Line: The Bottom Line is darn happy for anything free, but especially when it's a pretty good deal at its retail price.
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| pippadaisy's Full Review: Canon PIXMA MP130 All-in-One Photo Printer |
We recently made the decision to get my five-year-old daughter Beanie her own laptop for some of the homeschooling that we are doing. It's far easier for her to have her own access than rely on Mommy's sketchy desktop, or ask Daddy to turn over his laptop when he's home from work, and we found a great deal at CompUSA. At the time, they were running a special where you could get some items free with the purchase of any laptop $499 and over, and one of the free-with-rebate items we got with her laptop was the Canon PIXMA MP130 All-in-One Photo Printer.
::: Set-Up :::
Once I got the Canon PIXMA MP130 All-in-One Photo Printer out of the box, set-up was fairly easy. Well, except for the evil plot that causes manufacturers to omit the USB cable that the printer actually needs to interface with your PC. I needed to use it immediately, so I borrowed the cable from my Hewlett Packard Photosmart 8450 Printer and got started.
Canon has included a handy quick set up guide as well as a quick start guide to get you started quickly. Set-up was as simple as removing all the tape and a plastic tray from the print head area, installing the print head and ink cartridges, plugging the Canon PIXMA MP130 All-in-One Photo Printer in, inserting the CD-ROM (one each is included for PC AND Mac users so Mac users aren't left out), and running the auto-start.
The CD-ROM installs not only the drivers and utilities needed for the Canon PIXMA MP130 All-in-One Photo Printer, but also a copy of the full manual on your PC, along with helper applications ArcSoft PhotoStudio 5.5 for photo editing and printing, and ScanSoft OmniPage SE 2.0 for scanning.
::: Copying :::
The Canon PIXMA MP130 All-in-One Photo Printer has a flatbed scanner which also functions as a copier. To use, simply place your document on the glass, press the copy button, set the number of copies, select either black and white or color copying with the touch of another button, and here come copies. The manufacturer estimates that copying can be completed in as little as 3.8 seconds per page, and I think they might be right, as I was impressed with the speed of the photocopying. It takes a few seconds for the Canon PIXMA MP130 All-in-One Photo Printer to scan the image before copying, but black and white copies are especially quick, and much faster than I would have expected from an all-in-one device.
::: Scanning :::
Canon PIXMA MP130 All-in-One Photo Printer offers three ways to scan: directly from the printer's control panels, through the included Canon scan utility, or using any software that looks for a TWAIN source, such as Adobe Photoshop or ScanSoft Omni Page, which comes with the printer. After struggling with OmniPage once too often trying to get it to NOT attempt to OCR every single document I was scanning, I finally gave up and started using the Microsoft Scanner and Camera Wizard embedded in Windows XP. The Canon PIXMA MP130 All-in-One Photo Printer does a great job of scanning black and white images and color images, but lacks a little something trying to convert any color items to grayscale. A lot of my scanning and copying needs are for Flexible Spending Account reimbursements, and it has a hard time dealing with making an NCR receipt copy clear and readable, especially for faxing.
::: Photo Printing :::
The Canon PIXMA MP130 All-in-One Photo Printer does a decent job with photo printing, however, image quality and printing speed aren't a match for my Hewlett Packard photo printer,so I stopped using it as a photo printer and have relegated it to black and white printing, scanning, and copying. Canon uses only two print cartridges for color printing (one black and white cartridge, and one color) vs. the three-cartridge system with specialty photo cartridge that the HP uses, which seems to lead to lesser print quality and some color integrity issues.
::: Print Cartridges :::
Unlike my Hewlett Packard printer, the Canon PIXMA MP130 All-in-One Photo Printer didn't come with a plastic cover to help keep print cartridges fresh when not in use. Since I do tend to use this machine mostly for scanning and copying, the print cartridges don't get used as much, and I found that they dry out very quickly. Luckily, replacement cartridges are fairly inexpensive, although their small size also means they run out faster.
::: For a Free Printer... :::
Overall, I can't find much fault with the Canon PIXMA MP130 All-in-One Photo Printer, especially since it was free after rebate. Still, I think it would be worth the $99 retail price, and has paid for itself in saving Kinko's prices for copying, as well as taking up less space than a separate printer and scanner. The Canon PIXMA MP130 All-in-One Photo Printer needs a USB cable in order to work, so keep in mind that you'll need to pick one up along with the printer or you won't be using it right away.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): free
Operating System: Windows
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pippadaisy
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About Me:
Divorce seriously cuts into the amount of time for reviewing.
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