Canon Pixma MP280

The Canon Pixma MP280 is a 3-in-1 multifunction inkjet entry level machine designed for individuals looking for a fallback solution. It picks up from the Pixma MP270. Its spec and look are identical, with just the colour changing (Canon has decided to abandon white for black). Designed to print both photos and office documents, it offers particularly good value for money.

Hardware

This is an entry-level machine, so of course it only has the strict minimum. You get the basic 3-in-1 (print, copy, scan) and that's about it. There's no black & white, no card reader, no networking or wi-fi and a paper loader with a capacity of just 100 pages.

Unlike high-end models, the MP280 doesn't have separate colour cartridges. It has one black and another colour, combining cyan, magenta and yellow.

The screen only displays numbers and the buttons around it are pretty intuitive and easy to use.

Speeds

Canon is announcing 8 pages per minute (ppm) for black & white and 5 ppm for colour prints. Our graph shows the exact opposite. What's going on? There are both graphics and photos in our test documents. Canon's default setting gives the ink time to dry, which slows down print speeds. If you think that the drying time is too long and want to prioritise speeds, you can shorten it.


When it comes to photo prints, the MP280 takes its time. 1 minute 8 seconds for a 10 x 15 cm print and 2 minutes 43 for an A4. This is long, though of course, you never expect to break the land speed record on an entry level model such as this.

Quality

If you're simply looking to print text, this printer will do you fine, but for more precise printing involving, say, graphs, the droplets are too visible and compromise legibility and quality.


The photo prints will satisfy the less demanding user. The results are okay, but if you have a practiced eye and/or are particularly attached to colour accuracy, you'll find the colours overly bright. There's a dominance of reds and greens in colour prints and a tendency towards blue in black & whites.

Scanner and copier

Ten seconds to scan a 300 dpi document is fast. In contrast to the prints, scanned documents lack a bit of punch. As is often the case, the details lose some precision but the general impression is okay. The colour difference is quite low: 6.5% is pretty good (accurate) for a 1200 dpi scanner.

Energy consumption & noise levels

This machine is among those consuming least power in standby: 0.6 Watts! This is a real achievement. When printing, it draws 20 Watts, which doesn't put it in the lowest bracket but is still very acceptable.

It's also one of the quieter machines at just 48 dB (A).

Cost per page: high!

The rating given here is worked out on the cost per page with large format cartridges: 14.3 pence. Depending on the sort of deals you can find for standards, you might be able to bring this down by 1 pence. Whatever way you look at it, it's a costly machine to run.
The cartridges that come with it on purchase are standard format.

ISO lifespan

Cartridge	Price (20/07/2011)	ISO lifespan	Cost per page
PG-510 (standard black)	£14.17	220	6.4 pence
CL-511 (standard colour)	£17.17	244	7 pence
PG-512 (high capacity black)	£18.61	401	4.6 pence
CL-513 (high capacity colour)	£33.98	349	9.7 pence