Canon PIXMA MX495 review

Canon’s PIXMA MX495 is a small inkjet multifunction peripheral (MFP) aimed at home offices: accordingly, it can print, scan or copy, and send or receive faxes. It’s a smart, compact device with a 20-page automatic document feeder (ADF) built into the scanner lid, so you can leave it alone to copy longer documents, or send a multi-page fax. There’s support for USB connections and wireless networking, but no front-panel USB or wired Ethernet port – we wouldn’t necessarily expect either at this price.

^ You can print or scan with a tablet or smartphone: here we’re using Android

Despite the cheap price and compact design, the MX495 is reasonably satisfying. When not in use, the ADF’s input tray can fold shut to keep dust out. In the base there’s a 100-sheet paper tray that slides out, but can’t be removed, and printed pages are spat into a decent, if flexible, output tray above it. While this MFP can’t automatically print on both sides of a sheet of paper, the driver will help you do it manually.

^ There are no nasty surprises in the print driver. It offers help for manual duplex (double-sided) printing

To the left of the ADF is a neat control panel with a mono display, but this proved a little fussy in use – we often found it involved one more step or confirmation than expected. It’s also a mission to join the device to Canon’s PIXMA Cloud Link service: you need to print a code directly from the printer which is valid only for an hour, visit a URL that’s hard to type, register, answer an email and create a user name before you can get started – other manufacturers’ equivalents are less involved.

 ^ There’s an element of Mission Impossible about setting up PIXMA Cloud Link

Even when connected via USB, this was the slowest printer we’ve tested for a while. It delivered a first page of text in just 14 seconds, but could manage only 8.4 pages per minute (ppm) over 25 pages. Colour pages crept out at a glacial 1.6ppm, in part due to regular pauses between sheets. We’ve seen facial hair appear more quickly than this printer’s 6×4″ photo prints, each of which needed almost six minutes to complete. Photocopies were slow, particularly in colour where we saw more pauses: 10 A4 pages took seven and a half minutes. Happily, scan speeds were much more competitive, with even a 1,200dpi scan of a 6×4″ photo completing in less than a minute.

^ Canon’s TWAIN scan interface is great – the results were good, too

Fortunately there was little to criticise about any of our results. Scans were much better than average for a budget device, with sharp focus and great detail. Photocopies were also great, and text and graphics were both fine on plain paper. Those with sharp eyes might spot a touch of grain in this printer’s photos, but they certainly weren’t bad.

Ink cartridges for the MX495 come in a choice of two sizes. Using the larger of these, costs work out at a very reasonable 6.9p per A4 page of text and graphics, although the black component of this is a steep 2.9p. Given its low price, capable features and good results, this is a great budget office MFP, but with slow print speeds and high black page costs, we’d only recommend it for light to moderate use.

For other printer options see our reguarly-updated Best printers and buying guide.