Your New Office Assistant ! & MX870 vs Epson Artisan 810 Review

If you are looking at these reviews for the MX870 you are probably wondering what I was wondering... "What is the difference between the MX870 and MX860 and possibly also how does it compare to the Epson Artisan 810?" They are all top rated by Amazon customers for inkjet all-in-one printers.



They are all awesome! The Epson has more color cartriges but I am not sure if that matters. I give the nod to the Epson on photo quality but it might just be a subliminal issue of 'more is better'. My last Epson printer was the Epson 785EPX and it printed amazing photos and graphics and it also used 6 colors.



Both the Canon and Epson have beautiful quick drying inks. The Canon has a special black ink that is a pigment instead of a dye which you might like since pigments don't run when wet so theirs is good for flyers and such. And by the way if you've discovered that you really benefit from pigment ink look into the Epson Workforce 610. It is fast and all its different colored inks are pigments. Graphics and text are outstanding but photos a little lacking.



The Canon is a little slower to start printing but once it gets going it is pretty fast. Both Epson and Canon models have an optional duplexer mode (prints on both sides to save paper - this feature significantly slows down print time if that is important to you) and an automatic paper feed. The paper feed on the Canon is fully integrated and two-sided so it can copy/scan both sides of a document automatically as well. There are a few hiccups with the 860 on this that the 870 solves.



It's a small pain to reload the reglar A4 8 1/2 by 11 paper in both machines in their lower tray. The Epson has an additional slot on its lower tray for photo paper that some may like. The Canon has an extra paper feed at the back of the unit that is great for printing envelopes prints or other types of paper so you don't have to change your main tray. The rear feeder should accommodate heavier papers and have a less likelihood of jamming because the paper comes straight through the machine with little bending. The projecting tray on the Epson looks and feels flimsy and most people seem worried about that but remarkably I have never heard of anyone breaking it. The Canon has a cool feature... when you send it a wireless command to print it automatically lowers its front door for the paper to be collected on so you can keep the unit all closed up when not in use.



If you use OCR and I love OCR (optical character recognition that allows you to turn your document scans into text files) you will prefer the Epson because it is integrated into their software package. Canons used to have OCR software but have stopped in the recent year. Note: If you have Microsoft Office Student and Home version its program 'OneNote' has OCR for you to use. Most people are totally unaware of it being there. By the way OneNote is the best program on Microsoft Office. It is what keeps me from just using the free open source office software that is so amazing.



Price-wise the Epson is about 100 more than the Canon. Amazon has some of the best prices. The newer Canon MX870 isn't even available in most stores yet and probably will run about 50 dollars more than the MX860 for the next six months. Apple users will like the smoother integrated software application of the MX870 that was a small problem on the MX860.



Space-wise the Canon is bigger. Look-wise the Epson is sharper with its shiny black finish like a piece of fancy stereo equipment. The Canon has a neutral light beige look. Very officey with clean lines.



They both fax if you ever need that every now and then instead of having to run to your local print shop.



The user interface of the Canon and Epson are both easy to use in different ways. I sort of wish the Canon buttons weren't so flush with the unit but its not really a big deal. You will need to use the interface to copy and scan but most print jobs you will want to do from your computer.



The Epson has some fun graphics software extra on it. Again mostly 'fun' stuff. It also prints on printable CDs and DVDs. This could be important to you. It is the best of any printer at this. I don't need it because I print on CDs using LightScribe on my HP. I like that look better if I am going to customize the CD face.



The Canon has some very useful proprietary software that you will love if you surf the Web and want to copy and print out multiple bits and pieces of articles with ease... even on the same sheet of paper. You can do this anyway with Windows but Canon's program is easier and faster.



Both Canon and Epson have ink cartridges that are separate from the print head so it is easier to find third-party ink and save money. Third party ink is better than what it used to be but the OEM (original equipment manufacture) cartridges are truer and faster drying for important projects and to bring out the full glory of these machines.



I chose the Canon MX870 but all the printers I mentioned here are rated tops at their price-point. I hope I covered a few of the more notable differences to help you narrow in on your search.More detail ...

Nice printer nice scanner great for novice users

This printer was purchased as a birthday present for my mother who has been hampered by a Windows Vista computer and a malfunctioning HP Printer (it worked great with XP...). We purchased the Canon PIXMA MP560 printer for $85 (free shipping) on Amazon and comparing the price to other retailers online (and the retail price) it was no contest.



This printer has some features that you may already know of via the product description page but I'd like to elaborate on some of these features.

Thoughts out of the box:

-The MP560 has a folding LCD screen that covers the function buttons. The screen is not too large but it does seem to have large enough text (and a simple GUI) to work well for novice printer users. There are not too many buttons and they're large well-marked and simple enough for anyone to recognize.

-The printer has a lower paper tray (for regular inkjet/copier paper) and an upper vertical tray (for thicker photo paper and other things). The vertical tray has an automatic two-sided width adjustment/alignment so any size paper is aligned to the proper position every time (and the thickness is adjustable from maximum printing width of the printer down to only an inch or so).

-The basic instruction manual is printed on paper and easily guided me through the process of installation of the print head/ink paper software and wireless network capability. This guide has simple words and illustrations though it does not include every detail of the printer's operations (the more complex instruction/user manual is electronic and is installed with the printer software). There is a Network Troubleshooting guide as well that seems to be rather detailed (though unnecessary in my case). The printer comes with a sample pack of 4"x6" photo paper which we immediately tested (and it passed the test with flying colors). There's other throw-away junk included but nothing that surprising.

-The printer is clearly labeled so as to make it simple to place cartridges in the right location once the print head is installed.

-The fact that the MP560 has multiple single-color ink cartridges may seem expensive at first but with tri-color cartridge printers we would always seem to run out of a single color much faster than other colors... so we were wasting a good amount of ink each and every time we replaced a cartridge. This printer seems to have ink cartridges that would be easier to refill than some other cartridges as well.



After powering it on:

-It was EFFORTLESS to set up the MP560 on our wireless network. It quickly detected the network (our router is on another floor in the house on the other side of the house) and it still had a good quality signal and it only took a few minutes (and only a couple pushes of a button... plus entering our internet security key) before the printer was connected. There is a rotating pad (similar to an IPod) on the printer that lets you select any security codes you may have (and navigate through the GUI)... so it may take awhile if one has an alphanumeric password but it was rather quick for a numeric 8-key code. Heck my mom is not too familiar with computers and I have no doubts that she could have set up this printer with the network.

-The printer comes with easy to use software (again in Vista) though it does take a few minutes for the software to install itself on a PC. The basic instruction manual makes it rather easy to install everything whether using Windows or Mac. Once installed the printer is rather effortlessly found (remember to have attached the printer to the wireless network) and before you know it you're ready to print.

-The printer has a laser ink level meter for every cartridge and it can be displayed on the computer and on the 2" LCD screen on the printer (actually pressing one button on the "Home" screen will allow you to see each ink level). So far it does not appear as if this printer over-uses ink... in fact printing on glossy photo paper seems to suggest there's less "gunk" on the paper than some other printers perhaps due to the finer ink jets this printer allegedly uses.



Using the printer for the first time:

-The printer and software actually WORK WELL with Windows Vista!

-The printer does take a few seconds to warm up but after the first print job it seems to be much faster.

-The MP560 didn't have a single problem feeding thicker photo paper.

-The quality of printed pictures is very good showing very tight pixels even on plain paper. Photo paper shows an excellent picture quality and the software included with the printer makes it effortless to print photos with certain photo papers... no need to change printer settings manually.

-The scanner/copier seems to produce quality pictures although this isn't the fastest nor the quietest copier I've seen in a multi-use printer.

-The Duplex printing feature is a great thing to have in a lower-cost home printer as few documents are of an official legal nature hence there's no need for one-sided printing. It gets to be inconvenient to flip the pages by hand each and every time one wants to print on both sides of a piece of paper so it is great to find a lower-cost printer that has this feature. This printer does not print internally it prints on one side and extracts the page then gathers the page back inside the printer and prints on the other side so I don't know how well Duplex printing would work on thicker media such as fabrics.





All in all this is a great printer so far. It beats anything I've ever owned in terms of print quality and functionality and I'd say it's a pretty good value to boot. Mom is certainly happy about this printer and she's going to test it with some of her crafts... let's see how it stands up to the test of time when she puts it to use.More detail ...