Canon PIXMA MP640 Ink

If you are looking for a printer/scanner/copier then Canon's £150 PIXMA MP640 should definitely be on your list. There are two paper trays, it can print on both sides of a page, will work in a wireless network and it has a colour LCD display.

The scanner lid houses the control panel which is covered by a cover which also has the LCD screen built-in to it. The control panel is well laid out with large buttons for the main functions, two programmable buttons, and a click-wheel for selecting menu options.

The flatbed scanner is located beneath the lid and this raises to let you get to the printer cartridges. There are two black ink cartridges PGI-520BK and CLI521BK), one for text and the other for photos, as well as the three colour ones (CLI-521C, CLI-521M and CLI-521Y). The Canon PIXMA MP640 has facilities for CompactFlash, SD, MemoryStick, xD and USB in a covered housing at the front right of the machine.

Various printing options are covered by the two paper trays, one at front bottom and the other at the rear, which will hold up to 150 sheets of paper as well as a variety of other media. There is also a convenient direct CD/DVD print facility which lets you print directly onto appropriate discs.

The Canon PIXMA MP640 comes with a good selection of support software including a CD/DVD label design applet and drivers are provided for both Windows And OS X and are easy to install.

Connection the printer to a wireless network was simple and quick. You first log onto the network using either WPA or WPS and then the software installation picks up the printer.

The quality of copies of both documents and photos made by the Canon PIXMA MP640 was of a very high standard. Reproduction, both in mono and colour, was well defined and the colouring was faithful. The results with photographs were just as impressive. Pictures were sharp and colours clear and faithful.

Prints from the Canon PIXMA MP640 were just as good. Black and white text was well defined and colour graphics stood out from the page beautifully. Prints were produced very quickly taking only about 13 seconds. If you use the duplex unit the speed is reduced to roughly 3.5 pages a minute.

Scans from the MP640 were also of excellent quality. It is worth noting that you can't scan film with this machine.

The Canon PIXMA MP640 is an excellent PSC machine with no real weak points. Whatever you use it for you will not be disappointed.


You can get ink cartridges for the Canon PIXMA MP640 here.