Home > Consumer Reviews > Canon Pixma MX700 Printer, All-in-One (4-in-1), with 4.5cm Colour LCD Display and Ethernet Connectivity

In April 2008 I purchased from Amazon my MX700, after reading many reviews on various websites, I was reluctant to purchase another brand having always bought HP printers. The reason behind purchasing another brand, was due to conflicts between two HP printers on my wired netwotk, which HP support could not overcome.
I certainly do not regret the choice, I have found my MX700 excellent. The initial installation needs to be done carefully following the instructions given by canon.
My MX700 is installed on my wired network, and is easily accessible from my PC and laptop.
This machine has several features not common in other printers in this price range. In particular the Automatic Document Feeder (ADF) works brilliantly, I've never had a paper jam, either when printing or scanning.
The two paper trays are ideal, you can load differnt paper in each, and selct your desired tray from the button on the front panel.
I have read comments on the cost of manufacturers inks being expensive, and I dont feel than Canon original inks are more expensive than other original inks. Should I need to buy another printer I would certainly look at the Canon printers first, as this model has worked well for me.
If you are thinking of buying this model, my recommendation would be dont hesitate.

I bought this to replace an ageing printer, fax, and scanner and to free up some desk space. I've had it about a month now and have used all the functions and so far it has performed faultlessly. I am particularly impressed with the quality of the photo printing on glossy paper, it's quite fast, resonably quiet and I think the quality is outstanding. A great all round easy to use machine at a sensible price. (I've no idea what the Canon after sales service is like as I havent had any reason to contact them)

I have no reason to doubt that this is a fine printer for Windows users, the hardware's pretty good with a decent build quality, but the multi-function features do not work on any of my 3 Macs.

The scanner software just crashes on launch, it confuses the hell out of VueScan. Image capture can grab a basic scan but the document feeder doesn't work at all. None of the buttons on the machine do what they say. If I go through the tiresome scanning options on the machine itself it just resets itself without dumping any images on my Mac.

I chose this because HP's Mac software is pretty good but their printers (from my experience) fall apart after a month or two. I knew Canon's Mac software has traditionally been useless (the scangear software for my 2006 model Pixma looked and felt like it was designed on one of Babbage's engines), but this takes the mick. Don't get me wrong, the new MX software actually looks quite pretty but if none of the features work that hardly matters.

Just returned mine, and now have to settle for HP again. Looks like I'll be buying another one in a month or 2...

Ten, perhaps fifteen years ago, a machine that did all that the MX700 does would have been the preserve of larger companies, it would have cost a fortune and taken up the same amount of space as a large fridge. How anyone can build something that does all that it does for just over £100 (delivered) and still make a profit on it is beyond me.

I bought it because I was setting up my home network and wanted a stand alone printer that all my PCs, wireless-connected laptops included, could use without having to have a particular PC powered up all the time. I also wanted a fax machine and a decent A4 scanner that could also be used as a photcopier. This list of requirements narrowed the field down quite a bit. From what I can remember (I've had this over a year now) it came down to one of these or an HP offering.

Set-up is dead easy - little more than plug-and-play. Irrespective of whether you've got it network connected or not, it will work as a stand alone photocopier (with dedicated one touch buttons for black and white or colour copying), fax machine and photo printer (using the built in card reader slots and the passable colour screen). Doing all of these things, it feels like a small photocopier would have done a few years ago. No PC savvyness required at all.

The only complication comes if you want to set it up as a network printer - then you have to lug it around to all the PCs (laptops included) and connect it directly by USB cable so that it's possible to install the network software that's bundled with the printer. A bit of a pain, but it's a once-only task and everything went without a hitch.

In use, it's very impressive. Print quality is good (though not capable of high quality printing on photo paper), speed is excellent compared to my old Epson 1290 and it is lovely and quiet. The depth of quality and thought that has gone into its design is fantastic. It feels very solid, it can be pushed right back against a wall because it front loads (and even if you want to use the rear feed, it's designed in such a way that it can still be left against the wall), the document feeder works well, etc etc. Changing cartridges is almost sci-fi - when you lift up the top half of the unit (all spring assisted), the cartridge trolley glides into view with an eery backlit red glow for each of the cartridges. Best of all, for the cartridge(s) that need changing, the lights flash on and off!

My main annoyance/gripe is with the snooping that the MX700 does to allow the auto fax detection to work. On a few occasions, it has picked up something in a telephone conversation that it has decided sounds like a fax machine and automatically switched to fax receive, leaving the person on the other end of the line listening a fax tone. This is well documented on various websites and I don't think there's a fix.

Definitely a godsend for a SOHO user on a budget though. I'd buy one again without hesitation.

Just received MX700 from Canon, first impressions are very good all-round printer, print quality for both text and phots is very good as is build quality for price.

Pro's
Excellent print quality
Easy to setup for use over LAN and works flawlessly (Print, Scan & Access memory cards)
Easy to use menu's on printer
Good size fount A4 paper tray which does not stick out from front of printer
Software and drivers supplied easy to use and work well

Con's
Screen could be a bit larger for previewing photos prior to printing from memory cards
ink cartridges could be larger although this is a problem with a lot of ink jet printers.
Quite large (but then it is a multifunction device)