This is the second Pixma in this group, and rather than being a single-use printer as before, this time we have an all-singing, all-dancing multifunction device that's crammed full of features.
The Canon Pixma MX525 is the direct competitor to the HP 4630, in that you can copy, scan, fax and print, with support for smartphones and tablets, along with Apple AirPrint and internet printing from any device and location. It also goes one step further and adds support for cloud technologies, allowing you to scan directly to your Dropbox account and the Pixma cloud.
As before, there's a 30-page automatic document feeder sitting on top of the printer, but this time it's in a nicely designed and compact manner that doesn't feel like it's simply bolted on as an afterthought. In fact, the entire design is compact and would fit comfortably on a desk without getting in the way. However, the plastic did feel a little cheaper when compared to the HP model we just looked at. It wasn't anything too bad; it's just the chassis of the printer wasn't particularly great.
Connectivity is certainly taken care of here. There's USB, fax phone sockets (RJ11), wi-fi and Ethernet, and there's also a 62mm colour LCD screen to navigate through the menus with. The control panel itself is spread across the front of the printer, with various buttons to directly enable or disable certain functions or to switch the printer to scan mode, for example.
Naturally the software can handle all of this without you needing to interfere with the buttons and, as before, you can also administer this printer remotely should the need ever arise.
The MX525, like its iP2850 relation, uses a pair of cartridges: a single colour and single back. As we mentioned before, this can be both a blessing and a curse, in that the overall cost is somewhat lower per cartridge, but depending on the volume you print, you may need to buy more colour.
Print speeds were roughly the same as the previous printers we've already looked at, with text being about 8ppm and the colour glossy being 3.5ppm. In terms of yield, both the standard black and colour carts will cope with 180 pages, whereas the XL versions will yield 600 and 400 pages respectively. The cost per page of the standard black, with a £10.72 cart from Amazon, is 6p; the standard colour cost per page, at £15.12 from Amazon, is 8p.
The print quality is good, probably about the same as the HP Officejet 4630, but with the colour being a touch better, deeper and richer. It was, though, not as good as the first Pixma we reviewed.
Overall, the Canon Pixma MX525 is a great multifunction printer. There's a touch more technology involved than the Officejet 4630, and the print quality is slightly better too. Plus we found this model being sold for just £39.99, which is pretty amazing considering what you get. The only real negative, which is minor, was the cheapish feeling of the plastic body. That said, as long as you don't stand there fondling the printer, you'll never notice.