A printer for all purposes
Imagine you could pick any item from your desk, get in a time machine and take it to the studio of Leonardo da Vinci. Which gadget would most impress the Renaissance’s greatest inventor?
Your smartphone would intrigue him, but with no reception, you’d struggle to demonstrate the device’s full potential. And when he asked how it worked, you’d be left babbling about a little black slab that could do billions of sums every second, (though he’d have to take your word for it).
No, if there’s one piece of everyday technology that would earn the respect of our engineering ancestors, it would be the inkjet printer. Open the lid and you can see the intricate gearing that moves the print head In hundredths of an inch; the grippers and rollers that feed the paper just as precisely; the needle-fine nozzles that squirt tiny drops of ink in exactly the right pattern, like the young Leonardo and his fellow painters completing a canvas for their master.
Like artists, though, Inkjet printers can be temperamental. Take any two models with almost identical specifications. Plug them in, and you find one’s delivered 10 perfect photos while you’re still wrestling with the paper tray on the other. So when we rate the latest printers, we’re not just counting features: we’re looking for something we’d actually want to use, time after time.
Canon’s Pixma MG5750, which is compatible with Windows 10, is a fine example. Like many rivals, it comes with a scanning glass under the top lid, so you can make copies on paper or send image files to your PC. It connects with a USB cable or over Wi-Fi, and works with Apple or Android phones and tablets. You can also print from the internet using Google Cloud Print or Canon’s own Pixma Cloud link service, which also lets you store scans online. The only Important feature it lacks was an SD card slot to print from or scan to a memoty card. But if your camera supports the WLAN PictBridge system, you can print photos from it wirelessly.
The MG5750’s small colour screen doesn’t respond to touch, and picking options is more fiddly using buttons. It’s still pretty straightforward, though. The control panel lifts up to let you install ink cartridges, with a lamp indicating each colour that needs replacing. The slots are clearly marked, but there’s nothing to physically prevent you Inserting a cartridge in the wrong slot.
Canon’s five-cartridge system gives you four dye-based inks for photo printing, plus a pigment-based black ink for text. It’s a great way to get the best of both worlds, and the quality from the MG5750 was as good as anything we’ve seen in this price bracket. Photos looked sharp and even, while text and graphics were bold and crisp. Photocopies matched originals, and scans showed good colour accuracy.
Text pages printed at a rate of 11.5 pages per minute (ppm), not bad for an Inkjet; complex colour graphics still reached an acceptable 3.6ppt. An A4 page scanned in just 19 seconds at a typical 300 dots per inch (dpi), although Increasing the resolution to 1200dpi meant even a postcard-sized scan took 103 seconds. This is common with multi-function devices. Using XI, cartridges, which are better value, the cost of printing a standard colour page works out at a reasonable 6.3p.
The MG5750’s very compact format relies on a pull-out paper tray with a pivoting output stop, which worked fine for us. Although there are no extras like automatic paper feed or CD labelling, it can print both sides of the paper (duplex). In short, this is a no-frills machine that handles all the essentials very well indeed.
VERDICT
The Pixma MC5750 isn't exceptional in any way, but for getting everything important right at a fair price, it’s highly recommended.
SPECIFICATIONS
4800x1200dpi maximum print resolution • 1200x2400dpi maximum scan resolution • 100-sheet paper tray • USB 2.0 • 802.11n Wi-Fi • 148x455x369mm (HxWxD) • 6.3kg • One-year warranty